VIDEO: Black Children Told To Pick Cotton As White Classmates Watch
I am a history buff. Although my favorite area of study is the Greco-Roman period, I enjoy visiting any time period by way of historical re-enactment or physical re-creation. Whenever I have had the opportunity, I have jumped at the chance to visit venues such as Riley’s Farm, where owners go to great lengths to re-create the Colonial experience for their visitors. I have ground meal for bread, churned butter, loomed fabric, sat in on a mock trial run by British soldiers in uniform, and taken up “arms” to “fight” in a re-enactment of a battle between colonists and soldiers.
One of the places of historic sites to visit is Williamsburg, Virginia – in particular the slave quarters on Oak Plantation. From what I understand, seeing the conditions first hand under which captured Africans were forced to live, is both gut-wrenching and inspiring. I look forward to the day when I can take my entire family on such a visit, so that we can experience this part of our nation’s history and our own personal history as African Americans together.
Visiting historical sites and reliving history can be an enjoyable and exciting glimpse into history. That is why when I learned about the experience of three black students at one of these venues, I was saddened and later confused by how an ignorant tour guide marred what had the potential to be a truly educational experience.
It seems that while a class of Rea View Elementary school in Charlotte, North Carolina, was visiting Latta Plantation, a black tour guide saw fit to instruct three black students to pick cotton while their white counterparts watched them. The CNN video below gives more detail about the experience and includes Syracuse’s Dr. Boyce Watkins ‘ commentary on the event.
In defense of his actions the tour guide stated that he was trying to be “historically correct not politically correct.” It would seem that if he was trying to impress upon the children the evils of slavery, he might have had everyone participate in the back-breaking work. If the class had been all black, selecting a few students would not have been as traumatic for them. But since this tour guide was trying to be historically correct, perhaps he should have demonstrated a mock lynching – just for effect.
The president of the local chapter of the NAACP stated that the tour guide should have “put sensitivity first.”
“There is a lingering pain, a lingering bitterness, a lingering insecurity and a lingering sense of inhumanity since slavery,” said President Kojo Nantambu. “Because that’s still there, you want to be more sensitive than politically correct or historically correct.”
I am saddened by the fact that this man could not see why his choice to subjugate the black children in front of white counterparts was a bad one. The parents of the children involved saw what was wrong right away. Incensed, they have voiced complaints to the school and to the plantation. It will be interesting to see what happens next.
Do you agree? Was the tour guide wrong to have only the black children pick cotton? Are people overreacting? Are the parents wrong to be offended? I invite your comments. Share with the Elev8 community what you think and why.
In the meantime, be blessed Family.
Written by Sheeri Mitchell for Elev8.com
Follow Sheeri on Twitter! Or visit her on Black Planet.
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Comments
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DOING THAT TO MY KINDERGARTEN KIDS?
I WOULD HURT THAT GUY.
PERIOD.
If I was one of those students..I’d of told he tour guide I’d be damn if I picked cotton…Them students should of stood up for themselves.
That’s getting the authenticity down pat. Give them 16 hour shifts along with chitlins and hog mogs and u back in the 1800’s.
From Nas’ song “Project Roach” on 2008’s Untitled album:
“It is absolutely silly and unproductive
To have a funeral for the word n****r when the actions continue
We need to have a movement to resurrect brothers and sisters
Not a funeral for n****rs ‘cause n****rs don’t die”
To “A” I meant slaves picking cotton you have a slaves mentality to think that is education, the thing that I am saying is people assume because they are one race now that they didn’t have a white or black ancestor who had a totaly different role. My great grandfather was an american Indian and he got discriminated against so that means from that part of my bloodline those are my ancestors. So should they do an experiment where white people evict indians from they’re houses for a day ? No ! s**t happens most everybody has ancestors who were oppressed. Moor Beauty you are completely right, There are much bigger issues than this crap. Nobody has addressed the issue of black people with white mob screen names like Gotti and Capone who often used the N word when refering to black people.
I think we have bigger fish to fry personally, such as our water supply being poisoned with fluoride, chemtrails being drawn all over our crops, as for the rest of our food, you might want to do an article on GMO, and how genetically modified food effects the black community…or even maybe a short story of how the hip-hop industry is being used as the number one tool for the conditioning, and dumbing down of our people?
@Blackdiamond184. How exactly do you think cotton is gathered today? a cotton picking machine? I think WE should take all black youth out in the fields to pick cotton and use it as a teaching tool to give a sense of the brutality involved with this, even though, the true brutality and savagery went on during the slave MAKING process.
why do you guys have to always fuel racism?
If you look at the big picture or the overall scheme of things, it really isn’t that bad. This is one of those stories that a lot of worse things could’ve happened. The media or certain groups are going to make a big deal out of it. I just hope the students learned something from the experience and they can move on.
That is the stupidest thing I have ever herd. Nobody has picked cotton in over 100 years, besides there are a lot of white people who have black ancestors who did pick cotton. After the civil war there were a lot of whites who were Octaroons which are whites who are 1/8 black. Light brown men who were a quarter black or more and new whites ways back then got passed off as white because they said they were black Dutch or black Irish.
I see absolutely nothing wrong with this history lesson. You’d be surprised at how ignorant a lot of young black students today are about our history. I think it’s a great idea. Why not give them a ‘physical’ experience of what it was like for slaves? Not only will it help them better understand what our ancestors endured, but they will learn the value of hard work. There are some black kids out here who wouldn’t know the meaning of HARD WORK if it came up and bit them in the butt. I wish this idea would have been around when I was in school taking history.
so-called “white” people were in the fields too….at first anyway.
they were working long hard days under the hot sun. thats why they called them “red necks”. the early Europeans, alot of them were basically rejects of Europe. imagine if the USA took a million people out for the projects, trailor parks and county jails and sent them all to another country…….
quiet as its kept we had ‘white’ slaves BEFORE they had us as slaves.
why do you think Europeans are so protective of their women???
the way your favorite rapper or athlete will run thru a bunch of white groupies after a concert/game….well thats nothing new.
why you think they use to castrate us when they would hang us???
why you think Italians still hate us so much? lol
got another fun fact for dat azz….
** November 25th, 1491 **
after a long bloody fight against the Moors (Moor’enos,negros,blacks,etc) who occupied Spain for over 700 years, King Ferdinand and Queen Isabelle of Spain fell upon their knees and gave thanks to Santiago for their victory over the Moors.
On this same day, the Pope of Rome proclaimed that day to be forever a day of Thanksgiving for all European Christians. Why? Because the so-called Blacks of Granada (called Moors) who were originally from Africa, Spain, and Arabia surrendered the city of Granada, the last stronghold of the Moors in Spain, and the walls of the Moorish Empire came tumbling down.
they are “THANKFUL” for having conquered us both in the East & here in the West also……..
if you see a whiteboy wearing a Fez, he’s just borrowing it. ‘Negro’ aka ‘Necro’ means “dead” in Latin. Ausar(Osiris),Hiram Abiff, Lazarus,etc…. its all talking about the sleeping ‘Negroes’ who have amneshia.
the Marines sing…….”from the shores of Tripoli (Africa) to the halls of Montezuma” (America). In the ancient Americas,before the Aztecs, Inca and Mayans was the OLMECS. (try google images = Olmecs). they(we) were here in the West 1000s of years BEFORE Colombus
ps- we aint N*ggers or N*ggas… we are ‘NAGAS’ aka ‘NEGUS’ . major difference !!!