The Power of a Story

A few months ago, we were talking about cultural appropriation in my social studies classes, just in time for a discussion of Halloween costumes. We were talking about what cultural appropriation is (the use of elements of a marginalized culture by a dominant culture for entertainment or profit), specific examples of it (Halloween provides a wealth of these), why it's problematic, and what we can do to avoid it in the future.

Of course, as part of this conversation, the topic of blackface came up. This is a tough one to explain to a bunch of privileged white kids, because they honestly can't internalize how ugly and devastating this particular manifestation of racism is. They hear it, and they believe it (for the most part), but they still struggle a bit.

It takes a story for them to understand.

A couple of weeks ago, Cora provided them with the story. As I was explaining the history of blackface and why it is still problematic today (you know, in 250 words or fewer, in a way 7th graders will grasp), I asked the kids why they thought some people may still participate in such degrading actions. She raised her hand.

"Yeah, Cora?"

"People think of this as something that happened a long time ago, in the distant past. Put it's not a long time ago. My grandparents had to move, because they weren't legally allowed to be married in the state they were living in. People hated that they were an interracial couple. And that's... my grandparents. That's not a long time ago. My grandmother wasn't a slave, but her [great-grandmother?] was. She still lives with that. That's still something that she thinks about, that affects her. This wasn't all a long time ago."

The other kids gazed at her, and I could see the processing happening in their eyes. They believed her. They felt her story, in a way that did not feel my explanations and my visual aids.

It wasn't Cora's job-- it isn't any person of color's job-- to tell the story so that her white classmates could begin to understand. But when she chose to take that on, when she decided to explain to her class? She made it matter to them.

The stories matter.