East Lansing schools apologizes for slavery assignment
Tianna Jenkins, WYSM, April 2021
By: Tianna Jenkins
and last updated 2021-04-19 17:00:45-04
EAST LANSING, Mich. â East Lansing Public Schools is planning to change its curriculum after a homework assignment on slavery came under criticism from parents.
The assignment asked students to imagine how they would feel as slaves in several different circumstances. Parents said the assignment was insensitive and even traumatizing for Black students. We don t make any defense on this assignment, but it s completely wrong, and, and we re not going to waste any time trying to defend it or talk about our intentions or any of those kinds of things. It was an inappropriate assignment it was a hurtful assignment, said Director of Curriculum Glenn Mitcham.
A homework assignment on slavery drew sharp criticism after its graphic imagery distressed at least one Black family in East Lansing Public Schools.
Chelsea Wade said her daughter, an eighth grader at MacDonald Middle School, completed an assignment during Black History Month that presented violent images and descriptions of slaves, slave quarters and rebellions, then asked students to imagine themselves as enslaved people.
The assignment traumatized her daughter and the entire family, Wade said.
One exercise on the three-page worksheet showed students a photo of a slave rebellion in which a Black man is strangling a white man. It then asked: Imagine you were one of these enslaved persons. Describe what would bring you to the point of fighting back.