Since 2000, every presidential election has been labeled the most consequential election of our lifetime.
The 2000 presidential election was a hotly contested battle between George Bush and Al Gore. Florida was the state in question over uncounted ballots. At the time, the folks in charge of the election were Republicans, and the governor of the state was the Republican governor of the Republican candidate.
I was a junior in high school and I remember the running joke among friends was with a Bush presidency, we were going to die due to his leadership… then 9/11 happened, and the war and Iraq and Afghanistan. Following was the Patriot Act and this run towards nationalism that set the stage for every presidential election to happen this millennium.
The backlash to eight years of the Bush Administration helped facilitate eight years of the Obama Administration. The backlash to having a Black president helped facilitate the election of Donald Trump. His malfeasance towards the nation is responsible for the election of Joe Biden in 2020. Now we’ve come to another “most consequential election of our lifetime.”
The presidential election was held on November 5th and teachers have possibly spoken with their students about this election and its importance… At least that was normal when I was a student in school. However, today’s politics are so fraught with divisiveness, racism, bigotry, misogyny, and fear, that teachers may be scared to discuss the election with their students… particularly in suburban schools where conservative parents have won school board seats to ban books and censor Black history.
Teachers of Black students don’t have the luxury of cowering away from the issues of our time. For Black children to be prepared for the world that awaits them, their teachers must be fearless with their instruction and use classroom lessons, no matter the content area, to empower Black children to identify anti-Blackness, navigate, and dismantle it.
That means that teachers of Black children need to speak to them about this election, even after it is over.
Speak to them about attempts to compromise the Black vote. Connect that to the history of Black people being denied the right to vote. Teach them about voter suppression tactics of the past and present; poll taxes, literacy tests, voter ID laws, gerrymandering, long voter lines due to voter location closures, and hits to the Voting Rights Act in the courts.
Speak to them about why the primary choices are only two individuals. Connect the present to the past by facilitating their discovery of the binary two-party system, why we have it, and pique their curiosity about why we don’t have multiple parties as other modern democracies have. Inform them of any other candidates running for president (whether currently running or if they dropped out) and why a diverse set of voices matters.
Speak to them about the issues at stake. Teach them about the platforms of all the candidates. Inform students of the issues. Whether it be the economy, education, the border, jobs, housing, police brutality, health care, or international affairs… teach students how these issues impact their world and their communities.
Use every single election as an opportunity to discuss state and local (municipal) elections also. Those elections matter just as much—if not more in some cases.
Allow them to analyze the misogynistic tone that was aimed at the Vice President and past women candidates. Connect the history of patriarchy and how women are held to an unfair standard of decorum when compared to men, in politics and elsewhere. Reference the levels of misogyny and racism experienced by Black women; a discussion can facilitate a lesson on intersectionality and a dialogue on how intersectional identities experience levels of oppression that inflict serious harm on individuals.
These matters and more matter in the context of an election and all students need to engage in lessons and discussions about them. Sadly, all students aren’t guaranteed such lessons or discussions due to the political discord in the U.S. But again, teachers of Black children do not have the luxury of cowering from these important lessons and discussions. Whether folks care to acknowledge it, Black children will be confronted by anti-Blackness, if they haven’t already been confronted by it.
Black girls will be confronted with that and misogyny.
… and just because the election ends at some point does not mean that teachers need to end these lessons and discussions. These can—and must—continue even after the election is over. These things will continue to be issues moving forward. These topics will continue to dominate our politics and how we interpret politicians. But also, they inform us about who cares about the humanity of all people. Black children need to know who cares about their humanity.
Their teachers can show them that they care… by not being afraid to be real with them—about an election, about America.
