Modern U.S. History - African American Perspective

In my junior year of high school, our grade had two electives to choose from to fulfill our U.S. history requirement. The classes offered were 1) Modern U.S. History (MUSH) and 2) Modern U.S. History - African American Experience. The initial distinction between general history and history from the “African American Perspective” already seemed a little odd to me (and even more disconcerting as I have gotten older). I also felt like it was an obvious choice to take that class as every other history class I had ever taken up to that point was from the white perspective. The class was taught by a white woman named Ms. Gevelber, and that class was the most racially diverse class that I had been in throughout my entire high school experience (the class was half students of color and half white)*. 

The history we covered stretched from Reconstruction to current issues — the murder of Trayvon Martin occurred during the semester I took this class, so we had many discussions about what was happening in the country and in our lives surrounding his death). Ms. Gevelber had mentioned on the first day that there was "another America" existing right in front of white people's’ noses that was often ignored and/or unseen, but that was a daily reality for African Americans. That class was eye-opening for me, since I grew up in a white liberal city that is too skilled at sweeping racial issues under the rug while hypocritically preaching racial acceptance. 

I was thankful I had the opportunity to take that class, but during and after my time there many questions and concerns arose for me. First, the school’s divide between “Modern U.S. History" and MUSH from the “African American Experience” is so biased - it gives the impression that there is one main history (white history, as per usual), and then an auxiliary historical perspective from the African American point of view. While the White experience of MUSH is strikingly different from the African American experience, the fact that MUSH was not specified as White history bothers me. Also, the fact that Ms. Gevelber was white, teaching the African American perspective on MUSH seems off to me as well. While she’s an intelligent and informed woman with good intent, is it her place to speak on the topic? But is her whiteness an acceptable condition for learning this material as opposed to not having this class taught at all? (Oddly worded, I know…) Thinking now about how my school had almost no teachers of color. The only non-white teacher I can recall having at that school was my gym teacher who was a Black man. It was also so strange to me to have such a racially diverse classroom compared to all my other classes - I remember thinking, “where are all these new faces from? Why don’t I see you in ANY of my other classes? We go to the same school!” I would like to talk to Ms. Gevelber now about her experience teaching that class and how her whiteness affects her understanding and representation of the materials. I think this class will be on my mind a lot throughout this semester...