Recorded at | March 16, 2018 |
---|---|
Event | TEDxNashville |
Duration (min:sec) | 18:00 |
Video Type | TEDx Talk |
Words per minute | 185.8 fast |
Readability (FK) | 67.92 very easy |
Speaker | David Ikard |
Official TED page for this talk
Synopsis
Black history taught in US schools is often watered-down, riddled with inaccuracies and stripped of its context and rich, full-bodied historical figures. Equipped with the real story of Rosa Parks, professor David Ikard highlights how making the realities of race more benign and digestible harms us all -- and emphasizes the power and importance of historical accuracy.
1 | 00:14 | I am the proud father of two beautiful children, | ||
2 | 00:19 | Elijah, 15, and Octavia, 12. | ||
3 | 00:24 | When Elijah was in the fourth grade, | ||
4 | 00:27 | he came to me, | ||
5 | 00:29 | came home from school bubbling over with excitement | ||
6 | 00:32 | about what he had learned that day about African-American history. | ||
7 | 00:37 | Now, I'm an African-American and cultural studies professor, | ||
8 | 00:41 | and so, as you can imagine, | ||
9 | 00:43 | African-American culture is kind of serious around my home. | ||
10 | 00:46 | So I was very proud that my son was excited about what he had learned | ||
11 | 00:50 | that day in school. | ||
12 | 00:52 | So I said, "What did you learn?" | ||
13 | 00:54 | He said, "I learned about Rosa Parks." | ||
14 | 00:57 | I said, "OK, what did you learn about Rosa Parks?" | ||
15 | 01:00 | He said, "I learned that Rosa Parks was this frail, old black woman | ||
16 | 01:06 | in the 1950s | ||
17 | 01:08 | in Montgomery, Alabama. | ||
18 | 01:10 | And she sat down on this bus, | ||
19 | 01:13 | and she had tired feet, | ||
20 | 01:15 | and when the bus driver told her to give up her seat to a white patron, | ||
21 | 01:20 | she refused because she had tired feet. | ||
22 | 01:22 | It had been a long day, | ||
23 | 01:24 | and she was tired of oppression, | ||
24 | 01:25 | and she didn't give up her seat. | ||
25 | 01:27 | And she marched with Martin Luther King, | ||
26 | 01:29 | and she believed in nonviolence." | ||
27 | 01:31 | And I guess he must have looked at my face | ||
28 | 01:35 | and saw that I was a little less than impressed | ||
29 | 01:39 | by his | ||
30 | 01:41 | ... um ... | ||
31 | 01:42 | history lesson. | ||
32 | 01:44 | And so he stopped, and he was like, "Dad, what's wrong? What did I get wrong?" | ||
33 | 01:48 | I said, "Son, you didn't get anything wrong, | ||
34 | 01:50 | but I think your teacher got a whole lot of things wrong." | ||
35 | 01:53 | (Laughter) | ||
36 | 01:54 | He said, "Well, what do you mean?" | ||
37 | 01:56 | I said, "Rosa Parks was not tired. | ||
38 | 02:00 | She was not old. | ||
39 | 02:03 | And she certainly didn't have tired feet." | ||
40 | 02:06 | He said, "What?" | ||
41 | 02:07 | I said, "Yes! | ||
42 | 02:08 | Rosa Parks was only 42 years old" -- | ||
43 | 02:12 | Yeah, you're shocked, right? Never heard that. | ||
44 | 02:14 | "Rosa Parks was only 42 years old, | ||
45 | 02:16 | she had only worked six hours that day, and she was a seamstress | ||
46 | 02:21 | and her feet were just fine. | ||
47 | 02:23 | (Laughter) | ||
48 | 02:24 | The only thing that she was tired of | ||
49 | 02:27 | was she was tired of inequality. | ||
50 | 02:30 | She was tired of oppression." | ||
51 | 02:32 | And my son said, | ||
52 | 02:33 | "Well, why would my teacher tell me this thing? | ||
53 | 02:37 | This is confusing for me." | ||
54 | 02:39 | Because he loved his teacher, and she was a good teacher, | ||
55 | 02:42 | a young-ish, 20-something white woman, | ||
56 | 02:45 | really, really smart, pushed him, so I liked her as well. | ||
57 | 02:49 | But he was confused. "Why would she tell me this?" he said. | ||
58 | 02:52 | He said, "Dad, tell me more. Tell me more. Tell me more about Rosa Parks." | ||
59 | 02:56 | And I said, "Son, I'll do you one better." | ||
60 | 02:58 | He was like, "What?" | ||
61 | 03:00 | I said, "I'm going to buy her autobiography, | ||
62 | 03:02 | and I'm going to let you read it yourself." | ||
63 | 03:04 | (Laughter) | ||
64 | 03:07 | So as you can imagine, | ||
65 | 03:10 | Elijah wasn't too excited about this new, lengthy homework assignment | ||
66 | 03:15 | that his dad had just given him, but he took it in stride. | ||
67 | 03:19 | And he came back after he had read it, | ||
68 | 03:23 | and he was excited about what he had learned. | ||
69 | 03:27 | He said, "Dad, not only was Rosa Parks not initially into nonviolence, | ||
70 | 03:34 | but Rosa Parks's grandfather, who basically raised her | ||
71 | 03:38 | and was light enough to pass as white, | ||
72 | 03:40 | used to walk around town with his gun in his holster, | ||
73 | 03:45 | and people knew if you messed with Mr. Parks's children or grandchildren, | ||
74 | 03:50 | he would put a cap in your proverbial bottom." | ||
75 | 03:54 | (Laughter) | ||
76 | 03:55 | Right? | ||
77 | 03:57 | He was not someone to mess with. | ||
78 | 03:59 | And he said, "I also learned that Rosa Parks married a man in Raymond | ||
79 | 04:05 | who was a lot like her grandfather." | ||
80 | 04:09 | He would organize. | ||
81 | 04:11 | He was a civil rights activist. | ||
82 | 04:13 | He would organize events | ||
83 | 04:17 | and sometimes the events would be at Rosa Parks's home. | ||
84 | 04:22 | And one time Rosa Parks remarked | ||
85 | 04:24 | that there were so many guns on the table, | ||
86 | 04:26 | because they were prepared for somebody to come busting into the door | ||
87 | 04:29 | that they were prepared for whatever was going to go down, | ||
88 | 04:32 | that Rosa Parks said, "There were so many guns on the table | ||
89 | 04:35 | that I forgot to even offer them coffee or food." | ||
90 | 04:38 | This is who Rosa Parks was. | ||
91 | 04:41 | And in fact, Rosa Parks, when she was sitting on that bus that day, | ||
92 | 04:46 | waiting for those police officers to arrive | ||
93 | 04:48 | and not knowing what was going to happen to her, | ||
94 | 04:51 | she was not thinking about Martin Luther King, | ||
95 | 04:53 | who she barely knew. | ||
96 | 04:55 | She was not thinking about nonviolence or Gandhi. | ||
97 | 04:58 | She was thinking about her grandfather, | ||
98 | 05:00 | a gun-toting, take-no-mess grandfather. | ||
99 | 05:04 | That's who Rosa Parks was thinking about. | ||
100 | 05:07 | My son was mesmerized by Rosa Parks, | ||
101 | 05:11 | and I was proud of him to see this excitement. | ||
102 | 05:15 | But then I still had a problem. | ||
103 | 05:17 | Because I still had to go his school | ||
104 | 05:19 | and address the issue with his teacher, | ||
105 | 05:21 | because I didn't want her to continue to teach the kids | ||
106 | 05:25 | obviously false history. | ||
107 | 05:27 | So I'm agonizing over this, | ||
108 | 05:29 | primarily because I understand, as an African-American man, | ||
109 | 05:32 | that whenever you talk to whites about racism | ||
110 | 05:35 | or anything that's racially sensitive, | ||
111 | 05:37 | there's usually going to be a challenge. | ||
112 | 05:39 | This is what white sociologist Robin DiAngelo calls "white fragility." | ||
113 | 05:45 | She argues that, in fact, | ||
114 | 05:47 | because whites have so little experience being challenged | ||
115 | 05:51 | about their white privilege | ||
116 | 05:52 | that whenever even the most minute challenge is brought before them, | ||
117 | 05:56 | they usually cry, | ||
118 | 05:58 | get angry | ||
119 | 05:59 | or run. | ||
120 | 06:00 | (Laughter) | ||
121 | 06:01 | And I have experienced them all. | ||
122 | 06:04 | And so, when I was contemplating confronting his teacher, | ||
123 | 06:10 | I wasn't happy about it, | ||
124 | 06:11 | but I was like, this is a necessary evil | ||
125 | 06:13 | of being a black parent trying to raise self-actualized black children. | ||
126 | 06:18 | So I called Elijah to me and said, | ||
127 | 06:19 | "Elijah, I'm going to set up an appointment with your teacher | ||
128 | 06:24 | and try and correct this | ||
129 | 06:26 | and maybe your principal. | ||
130 | 06:27 | What do you think?" | ||
131 | 06:28 | And Elijah said, | ||
132 | 06:29 | "Dad, I have a better idea." | ||
133 | 06:33 | And I said, "Really? What's your idea?" | ||
134 | 06:34 | He said, "We have a public speaking assignment, | ||
135 | 06:39 | and why don't I use that public speaking assignment | ||
136 | 06:42 | to talk about debunking the myths of Rosa Parks?" | ||
137 | 06:46 | And I was like, | ||
138 | 06:48 | "Well, that is a good idea." | ||
139 | 06:51 | So Elijah goes to school, | ||
140 | 06:55 | he does his presentation, | ||
141 | 06:56 | he comes back home, | ||
142 | 06:58 | and I could see something positive happened. | ||
143 | 07:00 | I said, "Well, what happened, son?" | ||
144 | 07:03 | He said, "Well, later on in that day, | ||
145 | 07:05 | the teacher pulled me aside, | ||
146 | 07:07 | and she apologized to me for giving that misinformation." | ||
147 | 07:12 | And then something else miraculous happened the next day. | ||
148 | 07:16 | She actually taught a new lesson on Rosa Parks, | ||
149 | 07:20 | filling in the gaps that she had left and correcting the mistakes that she made. | ||
150 | 07:24 | And I was so, so proud of my son. | ||
151 | 07:29 | But then I thought about it. | ||
152 | 07:33 | And I got angry. | ||
153 | 07:35 | And I got real angry. | ||
154 | 07:38 | Why? Why would I get angry? | ||
155 | 07:40 | Because my nine-year-old son had to educate his teacher | ||
156 | 07:45 | about his history, | ||
157 | 07:47 | had to educate his teacher about his own humanity. | ||
158 | 07:50 | He's nine years old. | ||
159 | 07:52 | He should be thinking about basketball or soccer | ||
160 | 07:56 | or the latest movie. | ||
161 | 07:58 | He should not be thinking about having to take the responsibility | ||
162 | 08:02 | of educating his teacher, | ||
163 | 08:05 | his students, | ||
164 | 08:08 | about himself, about his history. | ||
165 | 08:10 | That was a burden that I carried. | ||
166 | 08:12 | That was a burden that my parents carried | ||
167 | 08:14 | and generations before them carried. | ||
168 | 08:16 | And now I was seeing my son take on that burden, too. | ||
169 | 08:21 | You see, that's why Rosa Parks wrote her autobiography. | ||
170 | 08:26 | Because during her lifetime, | ||
171 | 08:28 | if you can imagine, | ||
172 | 08:29 | you do this amazing thing, | ||
173 | 08:34 | you're alive and you're talking about your civil rights activism, | ||
174 | 08:38 | and a story emerges | ||
175 | 08:40 | in which somebody is telling the world | ||
176 | 08:43 | that you were old and you had tired feet | ||
177 | 08:45 | and you just were an accidental activist, | ||
178 | 08:48 | not that you had been activist by then for 20 years, | ||
179 | 08:52 | not that the boycott had been planned for months, | ||
180 | 08:55 | not that you were not even the first or the second or even the third woman | ||
181 | 09:00 | to be arrested for doing that. | ||
182 | 09:03 | You become an accidental activist, even in her own lifetime. | ||
183 | 09:08 | So she wrote that autobiography to correct the record, | ||
184 | 09:11 | because what she wanted to remind people of | ||
185 | 09:15 | was that this | ||
186 | 09:17 | is what it was like | ||
187 | 09:19 | in the 1950s | ||
188 | 09:23 | trying to be black in America | ||
189 | 09:25 | and fight for your rights. | ||
190 | 09:28 | During the year, a little over a year, that the boycott lasted, | ||
191 | 09:33 | there were over four church bombings. | ||
192 | 09:35 | Martin Luther King's house was bombed twice. | ||
193 | 09:39 | Other civil rights leaders' houses were bombed in Birmingham. | ||
194 | 09:43 | Rosa Parks's husband slept at night with a shotgun, | ||
195 | 09:48 | because they would get constant death threats. | ||
196 | 09:51 | In fact, Rosa Parks's mother lived with them, | ||
197 | 09:53 | and sometimes she would stay on the phone for hours | ||
198 | 09:56 | so that nobody would call in with death threats, | ||
199 | 09:59 | because it was constant and persistent. | ||
200 | 10:01 | In fact, there was so much tension, | ||
201 | 10:04 | there was so much pressure, there was so much terrorism, | ||
202 | 10:06 | that Rosa Parks and her husband, they lost their jobs, | ||
203 | 10:09 | and they became unemployable | ||
204 | 10:11 | and eventually had to leave and move out of the South. | ||
205 | 10:17 | This is a civil rights reality | ||
206 | 10:20 | that Rosa Parks wanted to make sure that people understood. | ||
207 | 10:25 | So you say, "Well, David, what does that have to do with me? | ||
208 | 10:31 | I'm a well-meaning person. | ||
209 | 10:33 | I didn't own slaves. | ||
210 | 10:35 | I'm not trying to whitewash history. | ||
211 | 10:36 | I'm a good guy. I'm a good person." | ||
212 | 10:40 | Let me tell you what it has to do with you, | ||
213 | 10:42 | and I'll tell it to you by telling you a story | ||
214 | 10:44 | about a professor of mine, a white professor, | ||
215 | 10:48 | when I was in graduate school, who was a brilliant, brilliant individual. | ||
216 | 10:52 | We'll call him "Fred." | ||
217 | 10:55 | And Fred was writing this history of the civil rights movement, | ||
218 | 10:59 | but he was writing specifically about a moment | ||
219 | 11:02 | that happened to him in North Carolina | ||
220 | 11:04 | when this white man shot this black man in cold blood in a wide-open space | ||
221 | 11:08 | and was never convicted. | ||
222 | 11:10 | And so it was this great book, | ||
223 | 11:12 | and he called together a couple of his professor friends | ||
224 | 11:16 | and he called me to read a draft of it before the final submission. | ||
225 | 11:20 | And I was flattered that he called me; | ||
226 | 11:22 | I was only a graduate student then. | ||
227 | 11:24 | I was kind of feeling myself a little bit. I was like, "OK, yeah." | ||
228 | 11:28 | I'm sitting around amongst intellectuals, | ||
229 | 11:31 | and I read the draft of the book. | ||
230 | 11:35 | And there was a moment in the book | ||
231 | 11:37 | that struck me as being deeply problematic, | ||
232 | 11:40 | and so I said, | ||
233 | 11:41 | "Fred," as we were sitting around talking about this draft, | ||
234 | 11:45 | I said, "Fred, I've got a real problem with this moment that you talk | ||
235 | 11:49 | about your maid in your book." | ||
236 | 11:52 | And I could see Fred get a little "tight," as we say. | ||
237 | 11:59 | He said, "What do you mean? That's a great story. | ||
238 | 12:03 | It happened just like I said." | ||
239 | 12:05 | I said, "Mmm ... can I give you another scenario?" | ||
240 | 12:08 | Now, what's the story? | ||
241 | 12:10 | It was 1968. | ||
242 | 12:12 | Martin Luther King had just been assassinated. | ||
243 | 12:16 | His maid, "domestic" -- we'll call her "Mabel," | ||
244 | 12:20 | was in the kitchen. | ||
245 | 12:22 | Little Fred is eight years old. | ||
246 | 12:24 | Little Fred comes into the kitchen, | ||
247 | 12:26 | and Mabel, who he has only seen as smiling and helpful and happy, | ||
248 | 12:33 | is bent over the sink, | ||
249 | 12:35 | and she's crying, | ||
250 | 12:37 | and she's sobbing | ||
251 | 12:40 | inconsolably. | ||
252 | 12:42 | And little Fred comes over to her and says, "Mabel, what is wrong?" | ||
253 | 12:47 | Mabel turns, and she says, | ||
254 | 12:50 | "They killed him! They killed our leader. They killed Martin Luther King. | ||
255 | 12:54 | He's dead! They are monsters." | ||
256 | 12:59 | And little Fred says, | ||
257 | 13:00 | "It'll be OK, Mabel. It'll be OK. It'll be OK." | ||
258 | 13:04 | And she looked at him, and she says, "No, it's not going to be OK. | ||
259 | 13:07 | Did you not hear what I just said? | ||
260 | 13:09 | They killed Martin Luther King." | ||
261 | 13:13 | And Fred, | ||
262 | 13:15 | son of a preacher, | ||
263 | 13:17 | looks up at Mabel, and he says, | ||
264 | 13:20 | "But Mabel, didn't Jesus die on the cross for our sins? | ||
265 | 13:25 | Wasn't that a good outcome? | ||
266 | 13:27 | Maybe this will be a good outcome. | ||
267 | 13:30 | Maybe the death of Martin Luther King will lead to a good outcome." | ||
268 | 13:36 | And as Fred tells the story, | ||
269 | 13:38 | he says that Mabel put her hand over her mouth, | ||
270 | 13:43 | she reached down and she gave little Fred a hug, | ||
271 | 13:47 | and then she reached into the icebox, | ||
272 | 13:49 | and took out a couple Pepsis, | ||
273 | 13:51 | gave him some Pepsis | ||
274 | 13:53 | and sent him on his way to play with his siblings. | ||
275 | 13:56 | And he said, | ||
276 | 13:58 | "This was proof that even in the most harrowing times of race struggle | ||
277 | 14:04 | that two people could come together across racial lines | ||
278 | 14:07 | and find human commonality | ||
279 | 14:09 | along the lines of love and affection." | ||
280 | 14:12 | And I said, "Fred, that is some BS." | ||
281 | 14:16 | (Laughter) | ||
282 | 14:18 | (Applause) | ||
283 | 14:20 | Fred was like, | ||
284 | 14:23 | "But I don't understand, David. That's the story." | ||
285 | 14:26 | I said, "Fred, let me ask you a question." | ||
286 | 14:29 | I said, "You were in North Carolina in 1968. | ||
287 | 14:35 | If Mabel would've went to her community -- you were eight years old -- | ||
288 | 14:39 | what do you think the eight-year-old African-American children | ||
289 | 14:42 | were calling her? | ||
290 | 14:43 | Do you think they called her by her first name?" | ||
291 | 14:45 | No, they called her "Miss Mabel," | ||
292 | 14:47 | or they called her "Miss Johnson," or they called her "Auntie Johnson." | ||
293 | 14:50 | They would have never dared call her by her first name, | ||
294 | 14:53 | because that would have been the height of disrespect. | ||
295 | 14:55 | And yet, you were calling her by her first name | ||
296 | 14:58 | every single day that she worked, | ||
297 | 14:59 | and you never thought about it." | ||
298 | 15:01 | I said, "Let me ask you another question: Was Mabel married? | ||
299 | 15:05 | Did she have children? | ||
300 | 15:06 | What church did she go to? | ||
301 | 15:08 | What was her favorite dessert?" | ||
302 | 15:12 | Fred could not answer any of those questions. | ||
303 | 15:17 | I said, "Fred, this story is not about Mabel. | ||
304 | 15:20 | This story is about you." | ||
305 | 15:22 | I said, "This story made you feel good, | ||
306 | 15:25 | but this story is not about Mabel. | ||
307 | 15:28 | The reality is, | ||
308 | 15:29 | what probably happened was, Mabel was crying, | ||
309 | 15:32 | which was not something she customarily did, | ||
310 | 15:34 | so she was letting her guard down. | ||
311 | 15:36 | And you came into the kitchen, | ||
312 | 15:38 | and you caught her at a weak moment where she was letting her guard down. | ||
313 | 15:42 | And see, because you thought of yourself as just like one of her children, | ||
314 | 15:45 | you didn't recognize that you were in fact the child of her employer. | ||
315 | 15:50 | And she'd found herself yelling at you. | ||
316 | 15:53 | And then she caught herself, | ||
317 | 15:54 | realizing that, 'If I'm yelling at him | ||
318 | 15:57 | and he goes back and he tells his dad or he tells mom, | ||
319 | 15:59 | I could lose my job.' | ||
320 | 16:02 | And so she tempered herself, and she ended up -- | ||
321 | 16:05 | even though she needed consoling -- she ended up consoling you | ||
322 | 16:09 | and sending you on your way, | ||
323 | 16:11 | perhaps so she could finish mourning in peace." | ||
324 | 16:16 | And Fred was stunned. | ||
325 | 16:17 | And he realized that he had actually misread that moment. | ||
326 | 16:22 | And see, this is what they did to Rosa Parks. | ||
327 | 16:25 | Because it's a lot easier to digest an old grandmother with tired feet | ||
328 | 16:31 | who doesn't stand up because she wants to fight for inequality, | ||
329 | 16:34 | but because her feet and her back are tired, | ||
330 | 16:36 | and she's worked all day. | ||
331 | 16:39 | See, old grandmothers are not scary. | ||
332 | 16:42 | But young, radical black women | ||
333 | 16:44 | who don't take any stuff from anybody | ||
334 | 16:46 | are very scary, | ||
335 | 16:47 | who stand up to power | ||
336 | 16:49 | and are willing to die for that -- | ||
337 | 16:51 | those are not the kind of people | ||
338 | 16:54 | that make us comfortable. | ||
339 | 16:59 | So you say, | ||
340 | 17:01 | "What do you want me to do, David? | ||
341 | 17:03 | I don't know what to do." | ||
342 | 17:07 | Well, what I would say to you is, | ||
343 | 17:09 | there was a time in which, | ||
344 | 17:11 | if you were Jewish, you were not white, | ||
345 | 17:13 | if you were Italian, you were not white, | ||
346 | 17:16 | if you were Irish, you were not white | ||
347 | 17:17 | in this country. | ||
348 | 17:19 | It took a while before the Irish, the Jews and the Italians became white. | ||
349 | 17:24 | Right? | ||
350 | 17:26 | There was a time in which you were "othered," | ||
351 | 17:28 | when you were the people on the outside. | ||
352 | 17:33 | Toni Morrison said, | ||
353 | 17:35 | "If, in order for you to be tall, I have to be on my knees, | ||
354 | 17:38 | you have a serious problem." | ||
355 | 17:40 | She says, "White America has a serious, serious problem." | ||
356 | 17:44 | To be honest, I don't know if race relations will improve in America. | ||
357 | 17:50 | But I know that if they will improve, | ||
358 | 17:51 | we have to take these challenges on head on. | ||
359 | 17:56 | The future of my children depends on it. | ||
360 | 17:58 | The future of my children's children depends on it. | ||
361 | 18:01 | And, whether you know it or not, | ||
362 | 18:03 | the future of your children and your children's children | ||
363 | 18:07 | depends on it, too. | ||
364 | 18:09 | Thank you. | ||
365 | 18:10 | (Applause) |