Black Lives Matter Movement
As has been taught in school for decades, African Americans have experienced different forms of racism for centuries. The Black Lives Matter (BLM) is the latest expression of concern beginning with Trayvon Martin’s murder in 2012. According to the official BLM website, the scope of the organization goes beyond the senseless killings within the United States, but also to fight for the societal rights of all blacks in the categories of diversity, globalism, women, villages, families, restorative justice, collective value, and queer and transgender affirmation.
As an African American male science teacher, I boldly state that I do not fully agree with the complete agenda of the BLM. However, I would be culturally insensitive to ignore the cry of my people and not offer some type of solution or therapy for my students through my science teaching. I am one who grew up in Louisiana and experienced racism not only in the south, but also in California where I finished high school. I have attended both historically black and ivy league institutions and I know what it feels like to be the first African American leader within the microcosms that I have lived in. Although I will not mention much of W. E. B. DuBois and Booker T. Washington, I constantly walk the tightrope of their differing views concerning the education of African Americans. I feel like a Moses of Israel, who grew up familiar with Egyptian culture, yet a foreigner to his Hebraic roots. Thus, I am deeply convicted that I must use my ability to travel between different microcosms to find a solution that will transform the lives of African Americans. Thus, the closest individual that I can identify with is George Washington Carver, who used his scientific background to offer solutions that would transform black lives.
George Washington Carver
When people talk about George Washington Carver, I believe his accomplishments have been minimized and simplified to something mundane, such as creating multiple uses for peanuts. His story is not often told from a heroic or activist perspective, even though he did not actively pursue either of those titles. Poor Southern farmers did not see any economic reasons to plant many of the crops that Carver worked with.
One account of Carver’s life that I believe contains the solution to the BLM is that written by the American Chemical Society.1 Carver’s viewpoint insisted that blacks should abandon or postpone the idea of demanding political and social rights, believing that those rights would actually be a positive consequence of having developed economic independence. The premise is that any race that offers a meaningful contribution to society would remove itself from the spotlight of ostracization.
Carver focused on interracial cooperation and elevating former slaves out of an antiquated economy and into a new one. Carver believed in being a dedicated servant and scientist to his students. He accomplished his goal of creating an economy as an agricultural and food chemist. Carver was gifted in the area of building interdimensional gateways between the research world and the farming community, in which the poor farmer would benefit from the practices invented in the research world. During Carver’s era, Europeans were implementing travelling schools, which Carver adopted in order to disseminate scientific information to the public.
Overall, my approach to designing this unit sets to accomplish many things. This unit will activate my power as a teacher to provide students with meaningful engagement and application of chemistry to produce a product that has a potential consumer demand. In addition, the unit seeks to follow Carver’s pattern of disseminating information to the public.
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