The Ida B. Wells Education Project BlOG
“And who will join this standing up
and the ones who stood without sweet company
will sing and sing
back into the mountains and
if necessary
even under the sea:
we are the ones we have been waiting for.”
― June Jordan
IBWEP Statement
on Recent attacks Against
Critical Race Theory in schools
EDUCATORS WILL NOT BE SILENCED, WE WILL #TEACHTRUTH ABOUT RACISM AND RESISTANCE!
The Ida B. Wells Education Project is a grassroots educator’s collective that was born out of the summer of 2020 worldwide uprisings against racism. We named ourselves after the courageous journalist, educator and freedom fighter Ida B. Wells and in the long tradition of Black women organizers and educators who understood and, in their work, exemplified the inexorable link between truth, education and freedom for our people.
As we begin the 2021-2022 school year it is clear that all over the United States, the very concept of teaching the truth about American history is under attack. In at least 26 states lawmakers are advancing laws that would prohibit K-12 educators from teaching honestly about topics like race, gender, and systemic racism.
This far-right movement has been organized under the guise of opposition to “Critical Race Theory” but it is clear that their most vociferous proponents, from right-wing politicians and newscasters, to the loudest voices in school board meetings and parent groups, all seem to have little to no understanding of what “Critical Race Theory” actually is. The truth is, for them, this was never about “Critical Race Theory.”
THIS IS A RIGHT-WING ATTEMPT TO TURN BACK THE CLOCK.
Education has always been a battlefield, when it comes to issues of race and equality. From the violent KKK attacks against Black schools during Reconstruction, through the riots that accompanied Brown v. Board, we know that historically, the forces of white supremacy have never ceded ground in our schools without a fight.
The summer of 2020 gave rise to some of the biggest demonstrations that the world has ever seen. In cities and towns all over the world, millions of people, led by very young people, took to the streets to demand an end to systemic racism and justice for a Black male victim of police violence. This was the worst nightmare of the right wing. They watched as people from all races, ages, and walks of life joined together in a beautiful, powerful movement against white supremacy. And out of this transformative movement grew nationwide calls to continue this work for justice and equality in our schools, workplaces, and communities.
This wave of anti-education, anti-history, and anti-truth hysteria is nothing more than the inevitable right-wing backlash against a worldwide movement against white supremacy. It is an attempt by the most cowardly and fascistic forces of white supremacy to intimidate teachers and school boards and effectively turn back the clock on our consciousness and understanding of historical racism and injustice. They are seeking to silence any discussion of race, oppression, and movement building in our schools.
THEY ARE AFRAID OF YOUNG PEOPLE ORGANIZING.
The right wing is fighting hard because they have seen how powerful these ideas can be, particularly in the lives of young people, who are often quick to recognize historical injustice and the ways it has shaped our world. Every day more and more young people are learning their true history, whether that’s in school, on social media, in books, music, clubs or from their friends—and they are choosing to use that knowledge to organize, fight back and build a better tomorrow.
This terrifies the right wing. The truth is that they are afraid of the power of young people who know their history. They know that united, organized young people have won against white supremacy in the past, and they fear what is inevitable—that it will happen again.
OUR ANCESTORS HAVE SHOWN US THE WAY.
There is a long history to this particular tactic: attempting to ban knowledge to maintain white supremacy. During the days of slavery, teaching African Americans to read was illegal, but crucially, this did not stop Black people from learning. We organized secret schools at night, in hidden places, and brought education to our people, bravely facing the penalty of death if discovered. During the Civil Rights movement, white terror organizations like the KKK, routinely threatened organizers against “teaching race hatred” and spreading “dangerous” ideas in Black communities. And if those organizers had capitulated to this fear then, we would not have won the civil rights that we enjoy today. For generations, we have taught crucial information despite racist opposition—today is no different. Our ancestors have shown us what to do in this time. We must refuse to give in to this fear-mongering and hate and we must organize to support one another.
That is why we are joining organizations like the Zinn Education Project, Black Lives Matter at School and the African American Policy Forum in standing in solidarity with teachers across the US who are facing this heinous legislation in their schools and communities. Events will be taking place in 115 cities, where educators and community members from all over the US will come together in support of teaching the truth in our schools.
Join the Ida B. Wells Education Project at 1pm on Saturday, August 28th in Los Angeles for a speak out at Biddy Mason Memorial Park! Consider joining us on that day if you are an educator, student, parent or ally who believes that we MUST teach our true history in schools. Let’s join together, support each other and celebrate teaching and learning for truth, justice, equality and liberation!
We need Ethnic Studies Now!
By Laura Roberts, April 2, 2021.
California recently made history as the first U.S. state to pass a high school Ethnic Studies curriculum. Laura Roberts is a US History & Ethnic Studies teacher, Equity Team Coordinator & Ida B. Wells Education Project Board Member, who has been leading that fight for Ethnic Studies on the ground in her politically conservative California school district. In this piece, Laura shares her reflections from that struggle, offering teachers insight and practical guidance on why and how we must all fight to bring Ethnic Studies to our schools and school districts.
“Thank you for letting me revel in the fact that I am important, that I am not to be discarded simply because I don’t fit into society’s ideals. Thank you for pushing to be more vocal in matters that DO concern me, because I AM a person of color.”
As a biracial, mixed race Korean-American, growing up in a politically conservative and mainly homogenous suburban town, I learned through my years of elementary and middle school that I had to assimilate as much as possible to those around me. I would try to hide my culture in fear of non-acceptance and rejection - something I’ve been ashamed of as an adult. I deliberately reached out to others who looked like me, assuming they “knew what it was like” to not fit into the valued culture of our community - a shared sense of otherness. I longed for light hair and light eyes as a child because my raven hair, easily tanned skin, and dark eyes were considered undesirable - signs of my internalized oppression.
Unfortunately, my story is not unique and it wasn’t until I reached college that I took an Ethnic Studies class. (My journey on getting to college is a story in itself). The course changed the trajectory of my life because I learned that not only were the racial identity issues I had growing up fairly common, but the class made me feel like I belonged. This brought profound change and helped lead me on the path that I’m on today.
Wanting to bring this beautiful and powerful experience to my students, I started the process of creating the course in my district over a year ago - Fall 2019. A draft of the curriculum had been out and only a handful of districts ventured out to adopt it. I researched, planned, gathered data, joined collaborative groups, and presented the paperwork to my school administrator. He was supportive, but knew that this would be an uphill battle in our conservative, predominantly white community. Our school is mere miles away from a military base and correctional facility that has historically influenced the town and it’s politics. Our district is home to many first responders, correctional officers and retired veterans. He presented my materials to the district and naturally, there were a lot of questions. School shutdowns and quarantine abruptly took priority, but in the Fall of 2020 after the summer of uprisings in response to George Floyd’s murder, I was able to present to the school board about the need for Ethnic Studies classes in our district.
The school board meetings brought a lot of heated discussion, and I expected pushback - but not from fellow teachers within my district. As happened on a statewide level, accusations of anti-Semitism in the curriculum quickly took center stage in these debates. It was disheartening when a colleague, a fellow teacher, very forcefully condemned the course because of the lack of a Jewish presence in the curriculum and rallied Jewish community members to oppose this course. This campaigning gave the board the pretext they had been seeking to delay the course until revision. It effectively served as a red flag to opponents, reinforcing the controversial nature of this class, creating the narrative that Board members would need to carefully scan the curriculum with a political lens, before approval.
After the updated course materials were presented, members of the board found something else to target - the textbook. An account written by a young African-American girl expressing her sadness of losing Stephon Clark within her community at the hands of Sacramento PD became the new source of rejection. Racism and fear fueled the next few public statements from board members. These Board members made arguments like: “If I were Black, this would make me hate cops not knowing their side of the story,” and “If people would just comply with law enforcement, we wouldn’t have police shootings.” Their arguments betrayed their myopia, and willful ignorance of Black history and the Black experience.
In the face of this opposition, disappointment swept over everyone. But I was determined to not let my students down. I organized and reached out to community members and the next board meeting was filled with the NAACP, an Asian-American caucus, expert scholars from nearby universities, and many other community members and organizations in support of the class. The public condemned the comments made by the school board and emphatically implored them to approve this course. It took several months and many Board meetings, but in the end this public pressure was enough to get the passage of the course and the textbook as well. We organized and showed up for each other in real solidarity in those meetings - and we won.
Statewide, Ethnic Studies recently passed for all K-12 schools in California, a historic and groundbreaking move. The curriculum that has been accepted is controversial but overall, it is hugely significant that all students are able to take Ethnic Studies at the high school level. Is it needed? The answer is unequivocally yes.
Throughout education, educators attempt to create safe learning environments, prevent bullying, and help all students feel a sense of belonging in our classrooms and on our campuses. This is ingrained in teachers when we go through our teacher education programs. We attend conferences, scour the web, and tirelessly develop lessons that can help our students. Safe learning environments are not safe because we teachers say it is; it must be culturally and racially safe - with the inclusion of diverse perspectives.
As a teacher of US History, I knew covering the perspectives of African-Americans, Native Americans, Asian-Americans, and Latin-Americans were important, but there isn’t enough time in a school year to adequately do these narratives justice. African-American history is US History. Native American history is US History. So how does one help balance the scales for all of our students? Ethnic Studies - it brings us one step closer toward an unbiased narrative and can create a sense of belonging for all of our students. Ethnic Studies is the histories, experiences, and contributions of people of color. It’s a beautiful tapestry of our America.
Many districts and schools claim to create a sense of belonging to all students, but local data shows otherwise with chronic absenteeism, increasing discipline numbers, and lower standardized testing scores among students of color. We must show students they belong. Teachers know that students like relating to what is taught in our lessons. They love seeing themselves in the classroom whether it’s their work stapled on a wall, their name used in a reading or text, or identifying with a historical or fictional figure. This sense of validation and belonging is imperative for young minds. Curricula may touch on the perspectives of BIPOC, but consider how it is taught - does it showcase resilience, survival, and success or is it focused only on enslavement, internment, exclusion, and/or denied justice? Imagine if students of color saw themselves positively through curriculum rather than merely in horrible images of slavery, the Trail of Tears, or imperialism. Now imagine if white students were also taught positive histories of people of color beyond the tokenism of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. or designated history month.
Ethnic Studies is not a class that is for people of color. Ethnic Studies is a class for ALL students - white, Black, brown, indigenous, other peoples of color. By dismissing, or rejecting, Ethnic Studies, school systems are signaling to kids that “the experiences of people of color and their histories don’t matter to our community” - meaning “your perspectives weren’t important then and still not important now”. A person’s perspective is validated when their group’s experiences and histories are taught to everyone - true evidence of being valued. Black, indigenous, and all peoples of color are a huge part of our America.
When schools and districts ubiquitously grapple to answer the question “how do we eliminate the achievement gap?” or “how do we instill social emotional learning?”, they rarely look at the curriculum itself. Discipline numbers, attendance, and socio-economic status are all analyzed, but one solution is right under their noses - coursework. Numerous studies have affirmed the efficacy of Ethnic Studies courses in addressing these issues. Rather than focusing on how to fix them, the underserved students, by offering tutoring and interventions among a myriad of other options, we need to focus on bringing in safe and culturally relevant coursework. Offering Ethnic Studies is just one step closer to healing the past devaluation of people of color and can create a sense of belonging all students can feel.
I’ve now been teaching this class since Fall 2020 to 11th and 12th graders, and it’s powerful, beautiful, and restorative. I will end this with the words of a student of mine - a young female, quiet and shy, in a letter she wrote me.
When you spoke of your family experience as a person of color - it is there where I sobbed. I thought I was alone in this feeling, when I was much younger I never talked about my family. As I grew I became remorseful of my actions, of hiding my family- still I did not speak up and there were few who I let come over to see for themselves. Now, mostly because of your class, I realize that I wouldn't trade anything for my background- for where and who I come from. Now, I shout it from the rooftops, or I'm doing my best to.
For the longest time I believed that I was exempt from racial prejudices, I thought if I acted white enough, if I didn't participate in my culture- distanced myself as far as I could from it somehow, someway.. It would cease to exist, that when people would look at me, they wouldn't see my race and make assumptions. It is odd how I knew this in fourth grade, how I knew that society would simply not let me just... be.
So, thank you. Thank you for opening my eyes. Thank you for letting me revel in the fact that I am important, that I am not to be discarded simply because I don't fit into society's ideals. Thank you for pushing to be more vocal in matters that DO concern me, because I AM a person of color.
- A proud student
By Laura Roberts, US History & Ethnic Studies teacher, History Dept Chair, Equity Team Coordinator & Ida B. Wells Education Project Board Member.
*New* resource Page for Educators:
Empowering Education on Resistance to white supremacist terror
*Registration Required* Click Here to Register
On January 6th 2021 many watched in horror as symbols of white supremacist terror swept into our nation’s capitol, born by a violent white mob. This incident caused many of us to reflect on this nation’s history of white supremacist violence and how we explore this crucial history with our students. The Ida B. Wells Education Project educators are experienced in teaching difficult and dark elements of African American history in ways that empower and inspire students to organize for change. We are offering our Meeting for Educators on 2/6 to help others tackle this dark history in their own classrooms.
Community, Creation and Liberation Meeting Series:
Our goal is to bring together educators for a series of meetings this spring where we will collaborate to build classroom lessons and resources that center anti-racist organizing and movements for liberation. We will culminate these meetings in a Lesson Showcase for educators who attend, where educators can present their lessons to each other and members of the community. We are currently assembling a panel of community judges for this showcase, who will review submitted lessons. Best lessons & showcase presentations will receive a cash award (we believe in compensating teachers for their creativity and hard work).
A Working Meeting - Not a Lecture
This meeting will be dedicated to helping educators create resources, so please come ready to create and participate! We want to hear from you and help you develop the resources that will work best for your classes and community.
Please view our resource page prior to the meeting:
We’ve worked really hard to assemble a wide variety of primary and secondary sources that could help you build empowering lessons on this topic for your own classroom. Please check this page out before the meeting and start thinking about ways you might want to use some of the resources provided! We will give a framework and overview of the resources at our meeting and we will demonstrate teaching strategies and activities for a few key pieces.
Ida b. Wells education project
Statement on the 2021 Presidential inauguration
As the nation prepares for the Inauguration of Joe Biden and Kamala Harris amid unprecedented heightened security that has transformed the nation’s Capitol into a militarized war zone on the heels of the January 6th Capitol insurrection, we are once again reminded that we must look to history to contextualize the significance of our country’s latest, remarkable displays of white supremacy.
Traditionally in American history, the time between the election and inauguration is one of inaction, in the last few months we have seen much worse than simple inaction. We have seen wide-spread unsubstantiated claims of election fraud embolden fascist white supremacists online. A White House administration that refused to concede the election. An economy that is in worse shape than the Great Recession. A violent insurrection on the United States Capitol encouraged (and possibly facilitated) by Congressional officials. A historic second impeachment of a U.S. president. Nationwide threats of domestic terroristic violence. An increasingly dangerous and deadly global pandemic. It’s all stunning and overwhelming to experience. By many accounts, we are living in “unprecedented times” and the Biden-Harris inauguration is unlike any other.
The historical record, however, presents us with several precedents for times such as these. There are those who claim, “This is not America. This is not who we are.” Yet, for the generations of oppressed and dispossessed, this is the America that we have always known. On March 4, 1865, Abraham Lincoln, in his Second Inaugural Address, reflected on the Civil War that was looming four years before, “while the inaugural address was being delivered from this place, devoted altogether to save this Union without war, insurgent agents were in the city seeking to destroy it…” This sounds familiar. Reconstruction policies that contributed to a wave of African American political participation were met with a backlash of massacres and riots at the hands of white supremacist mobs. In the years following the Civil War and Reconstruction, former Confederates and Confederate sympathizers sought to make sense of their defeat and decided to rewrite history. This mythical movement, the Lost Cause, reimagined the causes for secession, depicted slavery as beneficial and necessary, and cast Confederate military and political leaders as noble heroes. The Lost Cause was largely championed by white Southern women who formed memorial organizations, erected memorials and statues, and wrote textbooks. Today, we see the Trump Administration’s 1776 Commission attempt to carry on the mission of the Lost Cause movement, rewriting our history as white supremacist mythology. Though Trump and other white supremacists would hide the truth: as a nation, this is who we are. We have been in similar circumstances before. The question is, how do we break this cycle and move forward?
“ Among the calls to unite and heal, we must uplift the voices that demand reckoning and reconciliation first. “This is not who we are” is a dangerous notion. How fortunate it is that this is not who we have to be.”
The Ida B. Wells Education Project knows that the United States has often failed to live up to its ideals. While we are aware of the violent and oppressive history of white supremacy in the United States of America, we are still shocked at the ever-increasing lengths white supremacy will go to sustain itself. Yet as deaths-by-despair skyrocket for white males in America, we can see that white supremacy does eat its own. There is yet another population of students who are “at-risk.”
It is in times such as these that the role of the educator is made clear. We have to tell the truth about America to its face. What problematic ideologies do we consciously or unconsciously subscribe to and need to unlearn? How can we teach a people’s history that does not uplift oppressors as heroes? Where can we support the development of critical thinking and media literacy skills so citizens can recognize and resist false narratives? How can we build community with our students to have difficult conversations?
There are so many questions to be asked and a lot of work to do. Among the calls to unite and heal, we uplift the voices that demand reckoning and reconciliation first. “This is not who we are” is a dangerous notion. How fortunate it is that this is not who we have to be.
Ida b. Wells education project
Statement on the 2020 Election
As the election results rolled in, we all waited anxiously to find out if a new administration would enter the White House. For many days, percentages were displayed on screens, notifications were announced, protestors took to the streets and social media was a frenzy of fear and hope. As the last mail in votes were counted in diverse counties, the whole country witnessed the power of grassroots mobilization in communities of color, which have once again moved our nation toward a fairer democracy.
As a country, we held our breath. As educators, we can’t hold our breath - we breathe for our students. Whatever happens in the next days, weeks and months, we will stand with them, ease their fears, and tell them that the job is not over. While a new administration means a new president, white supremacy still permeates our institutions and schools. We will continue to teach our students that the lives of Black, indigenous and people of color must always be celebrated, respected and heard. We will shine light on the voices that have been historically erased, and we will keep them centered, growing and thriving in our classrooms and curriculum. We will not stop dismantling racism in our schools and we will continue to stand up for justice. We will continue to be the Ida B. Wells Education Project.
As the great Ella Baker famously said, “We who believe in freedom cannot rest.” For anti-racist educators, the work continues. Join us!
5 Tips for teaching in times of “civil unrest”
Many teachers are preparing for difficult conversations with students this week. We’d like to share our tips for effective teaching in times of great social change.
Validate students’ feelings. Listen and question.
Students will have powerful feelings about the changing world around them, do not shut them down. Do not tell them how to feel. Your goal is to help students explore, process, think critically and grow. Don’t substitute your feelings or perspective for the “correct” answers. Their experiences, thoughts and feelings are valid. Hear their anger and hurt. You can encourage respectful disagreement while also maintaining a safe space for vulnerable populations. Put strong discussion guidelines in place and stick to them. Don’t be shocked by student responses, learn to question and talk them through their feelings instead.
2. Analyze powerful media images & language together.
Take time to analyze images and language that are in the news, with students. Ask what kind of images they’re seeing, labels they’ve heard. This helps to draw out their questions, fears and misconceptions. Are students seeing pictures and video of diverse mass marches, full of ordinary people who have united for justice? Or are they seeing scary images of fires, weapons, destruction and police violence? Media literacy is important: help students question their sources, why might the media show more of some images and not others? Take time to dissect labels like “riot”, “looter”, “thug” or “terrorist”. Interrogate the use of these labels throughout history. When are these words used? Are there similar circumstances in which they are not used? What do they mean? Is this an uprising, a rebellion, or a riot? What’s the difference? Help students wrestle with these terms and ideas.
3. Teach real history:
social change has rarely been “peaceful.”
Many in the United States have been taught that effective social change is always peaceful, orderly and nonviolent. This version of our history is a complete fabrication, ahistorical and false. Students must know that “civil unrest” is not new and it is not unpatriotic. It can be very painful and scary in the short term but in the long term, organized movements for justice often win greater rights for all. Teach the reality of the historical Civil Rights movement, the women’s movement, the labor movement, in which organizers were beaten, arrested, killed and frequently denounced in the press. Don’t be afraid to ask students to make comparisons and connections to today. Teach about the reality of white supremacist terrorist violence (which has historically recieved varying levels of support and collusion from those in power) and the ways in which organizers and communities have confronted this violence over time. Teach the dark topics but shine a light on agency and resiliency in movements for justice.This knowledge can help students process and prepare for challenges they may face in movements for justice today.
4. Teach the movement:
Our rights were won by organizing,
even in dark times.
Our rights, the rights of African Americans, workers, women, LGBTQ folks and more, were not handed to us by benevolent politicians, but were in fact won by many years of militant, sustained, grassroots organizing by oppressed people. Students must understand the power of mass movements to create change and there is ample evidence in our history to teach them. Give students role-models, teach about people just like them, who found ways to use their talents, skills and passion to work for justice even in dark times. This is important for giving students hope and efficacy, the idea that they can do something right now to help change this world for the better. Make sure that students can see that we are surrounded by ordinary people who are organizing to make our world a better place, each day.
5. Make room to share experiences &
process together
Take time to make your classroom a place of healing and strengthening. Encourage reflection, writing, art and healing practices when engaging in these stressful topics with students. Participate in these activities with students, reflect and share some of what you’re feeling as well. Let them know it’s okay to feel their feelings. Check in on emotional well-being frequently. Share news and updates about positive organizing that is happening in your community, for students who want to do more. Where possible, participate in movements and share your experience with students, this will help demystify the protests and make students less afraid. Wherever possible, find ways to incorporate connection to the movement to your classroom practice and offer support for students seeking ways to engage in movements for justice themselves.
For a more detailed orientation, check out the “How to teach about the George Floyd protests” video on our anti-racist educator resource page!
Introduction:
Lovecraft Country Lesson Series
By Cyrus Hampton | October 11th, 2020
The last few decades in American media have seen an explosion of science fiction, fantasy, and other speculative genres. We have reached a point where it is almost a given that the most popular films, television shows, video games, and books will feature fantastical, otherworldly elements. And though fantasy and sci-fi have traditionally been marked as the domain of white men, this boom in speculative media has unavoidably affected and included Black Americans, both as creators and consumers. Black people are no strangers to sci-fi. There have always been Black fans of comic books, and Black readers of pulp sci-fi before them. The boom of Afrofuturist and Black speculative fiction which dominates African American literature today, can trace its roots back to stories written by authors like Pauline Hopkins and even W.E.B. DuBois in the early twentieth century. Science fictional otherworldliness, futurity, and the potential of imagination are as far reaching within Black American culture as the jazz of Sun Ra, the hip-hop of Outkast, the hopes for utopian communities of MOVE and the Black Panthers, and the unflinching optimism of slave folklore about people who could fly.
But, for all the momentum of Black sci-fi and the rise of Blerd culture, sci-fi has always been troublesome for Black people. Stories about the dark and monstrous other, the brutish demi-human, and the alien invader seeking to steal away helpless damsels are as common to the annals of American racism as they are in science fiction. Indeed, they are in many ways the same beast. The fear of the other, the myth of white exceptionalism, and the failure to address one's own prejudices have all been alive and well within the works of many of our most classic sci-fi and fantasy writers. BIPoC fans of sci-fi have always had to navigate their favorite stories with a double consciousness: seeing themselves as liberated by intellect and imagination to overcome horror, but also seeing themselves, once again, reflected through the mirror of racism as the monsters and aliens, or simply as a gibbering, destructive otherness. Sometimes, the place of racism in sci-fi is more apparent, as with John Carter of Mars—a foundational series by Edgar Rice Burroughs detailing the adventures of a quintessentially antebellum, Confederate soldier who is transported to Mars where he dominates and eventually rules over the indigenous peoples. Other times, as with the writings of J.R.R. Tolkien, the racism sits idly by, always present, but somehow more comfortably looked past.
When we at the Ida B. Wells Education Project heard that HBO would be releasing a new series called Lovecraft Country, and that this series would be about black characters facing down cosmic horror, we felt that old double-consciousness come to life. H.P. Lovecraft, for whom the show is named, is not only an important sci-fi and fantasy author from the early twentieth century, but his approach to horror is foundational to how many of our scary stories, in print and on screen, are told today. Even if you are unfamiliar with Lovecraft's writings, you are more than familiar with his style—a haunting threat, just beyond view or just beyond understanding—and chances are you are familiar with some of the themes he popularized, most notably the small, helplessness of humanity in a cold, horrible universe.
H.P. Lovecraft was also famously racist. He was so racist that his racism stood out in an era when the horrors of segregation and the KKK defined the American social landscape. Just as much as his stories featured dark gods and monsters from beyond time, they featured disgusting depictions of BIPoC as filthy, animalistic, and inherently evil. So again, when we heard HBO would be releasing a series called Lovecraft Country, and that this series would be about black characters, we felt our doubled-consciousnesses come to life. When the first episode aired, we were not sure of what we were sitting down to watch. We hoped, but almost could not imagine that this television show could reconcile the writings of Lovecraft we praised, the ideas of Lovecraft we despised, and the troubled realities we have been burdened with through the viciousness of racism.
Lovecraft Country meets that challenge head on, and while it is not always successful, sometimes even stumbling in hurtful ways, the effort to create something transformative out of the legacy of Lovecraft’s writings and the lived experiences of Black people is palpable. If Lovecraft's own writings explored the unsettling nature of knowledge, Lovecraft Country is about the deadly nature of ignorance. Its characters could not survive the dark otherworldly threats, nor could they survive the very real hazards of racism, if they allowed themselves a moment of ignorance. Likewise, the show should be instructive to us as thinkers, laborers, activists, and artists, that the way to survival and liberation is through, not around. The show plunges us through the ugliness of its source material and the very real horrors of history, demanding that they all be contended with. This is a series which owns horror, not as a sideshow attraction, but as a quintessential teaching tool for exploring the realities of what it is to be black in America.
Here at the Ida B. Wells Education Project, we are excited to think and talk about Lovecraft Country, not only as fans of fantasy and sci-fi (many of us might describe ourselves as Blerds), but as educators. Lovecraft Country blends cosmic horror with historical horror, to add meaningful gravitas to the former and to shed needed light on that latter. Through the real histories it references, it offers a host of teaching moments by bringing the realities of American racism to the horrible forefront of its story. Even when these references are but passing details, we believe that they offer valuable opportunities for us to better teach ourselves, old and young, BIPoC and white, about the real histories of America.
So, in that light, we are setting out to release this series of lessons and teaching resources, which use pieces of Lovecraft Country as the tips of the proverbial icebergs. The television show interweaves so much history into each episode. Our aim is to assist educators, students, and everyone in between in grabbing hold of these historical threads and following them, in the classroom and beyond. Whether you have seen the show or not, whether you are a fan or you struggle with the show’s missteps, we want to help you use Lovecraft Country’s fantasy as a way to get into the realities it draws upon.
So, check out the show. It is not always perfect in its execution, but when it finds success at drawing upon and representing the lived realities of Black Americans, its can be transformative. And, when you are ready to begin exploring the very real, dark realities at the show's heart, join us here. Together, we can face off against the troubled past of the American nation, not by going around, but instead by going through.
Want Lovecraft Lesson plans? Click here!