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What do you teach?”  \nSometimes I’m purposefully vague. I respond to the cab driver, the airplane seatmate, or the fellow traveler on the crowded train that I teach US history. I pray that it’s left there.  \n“Do you have a specialty?”  \n“Um, yeah, US cities,” I say as I reach for my phone or focus my eyes back on the page in front of me.  \nI don’t want strangers to know that I teach African American history. Don’t get me wrong; I’m proud of what I do. I’m proud tobe part of a field that has advanced knowledge about race and revived the legacies of freedom fighters. And I’m proud that I have inspired scores of my students to commit to careers in racial jus-  \nMarcia Chatelain is a professor of history and African American studies at Georgetown University. Previously, she was a Reach for Excellence assistant professor of honors and African American studies atthe University of Oklahoma Honors College. Her most recent book, Franchise: The Golden Arches in Black America, won a Pulitzer Prize in 2021.  \ntice, from legal advocacy to joining the ranks of scholars and teachers of the subject. Whenever I have opportunities to share African American history with my friends’ curious children, older adults gathered at continuing education lectures, and learners in life stages in between, I feel overjoyed that I have chosen this career path. But these days, I can never tell what the stranger I have just met thinks when I say “African American history.”  \nThe recent and rapid organizing against content that has been falsely labeled as “critical race theory” has brought my work into a terrible, distorted focus in daily life. Critical race theory—the legal framework developed by the late Harvard University law professor Derrick Bell1 in the late 1970s—has emerged as the misnomer for content that offers context, critique, or concepts about American history while upholding the values of diversity and expanding the American narrative. Over the past academic year, we have witnessed the evocation of “critical race theory” to justify an array of actions—from suggesting that Black History Month activities should be optional to banning books, restricting instruction in K–12 and higher education, and even shuttering entire courses of study at colleges.2  \nMy beloved field is in the crosshairs ofthis most recent battle of our nation’s culture war. Once maybe regarded as a niche or narrow area of history (although it is not), African American history has become one of many targets of legislative and activist efforts to end the teaching of honest, thorough, and accurate his-  \n16 AMERICAN EDUCATOR | SUMMER 2022  \ntory. African American history is not alone: ethnic studies and women’s and gender studies are also targets of groups ranging from parents to politicians seeking to intervene in classrooms.3 These reactions, practices, and forms of dramatics are not new,4 but with each cycle of organized attempts to undermine the nuances of classroom subjects, teachers find themselves grappling with a growing culture of fear inside their schools.5 I’m supposed to enjoy a level of academic freedom because of my position as a college professor. Yet, it is irresponsible to believe that my teaching is disconnected from the preparatory K–12 years. In trying and difficult times, it’s important to remember that all of us who teach must be united against cultures of misinformation and disinformation.  \nme to start a social media campaign, \\#FergusonSyllabus, to encourage educators to devote some portion of the first day of classes to talking with students about the crisis in the St. Louisexurb.7 Rather than perpetuate the silences that some children may have encountered around what was unfolding in Ferguson, I believed that teachers could guide students in","cbCaigx37F8WrVlw","https://ap.wps.com/l/cbCaigx37F8WrVlw","pdf",763174,"English","# Teaching African American History in Public Life\n## “Critical race theory” and classroom restrictions\n## Academic freedom, misinformation, and unity among educators\n## Social media initiatives and teaching responses","[{\"question\":\"Why does the author feel “trapped” by questions about what she teaches?\",\"answer\":\"As a history professor, she finds that strangers’ reactions can become uncertain once she reveals she teaches African American history. She sometimes gives vague answers to avoid exposing that focus.\"},{\"question\":\"How does the text explain “critical race theory” and its impact on education?\",\"answer\":\"It describes critical race theory as a legal framework but argues the term is used as a misnomer for materials that provide context, critique, and concepts about American history. It then links that label to bans, restrictions on instruction, and course closures.\"},{\"question\":\"What approach does the author propose for educators facing these pressures?\",\"answer\":\"She stresses the importance of remembering that teachers must be united against misinformation and disinformation. She also highlights the need to ground teaching in the purpose of education and to guide students toward thoughtful reflection.\"}]","ITeach the Truth - Illustrations by Sonia Pulido - By Marcia Chatelain | PDF",13]