The Untold Story of the Story That I Told: Correcting Mistakes When Teaching Kids About Slavery

Did you read the title of this episode? It’s a doozy!

As convoluted as “The Untold Story of the Story That I Told” is, I couldn’t resist calling this newest episode that because of the WILD ride I went on making it.

Years ago I made an eBook called “Rise and Resist” where I highlighted five different Black people who were alive around the time of Juneteenth. I told their stories and really wanted people to use this eBook to be able to share stories of Black resistance with children and students.

I was planning on using one of those stories in today’s episode as a way to illustrate how talking to kids about slavery can be complicated, but when I opened the book, I was astounded. I could not believe some of the stuff I wrote!

There were things in there that I would never say today — things I would cringe about if someone else said them, but I double cringed knowing that I wrote them!

So this episode is a little bit of what I had planned, but also a little bit of me correcting what I got totally wrong.

I hope this episode reminds you how anti-racism is a journey. It’s about growth. And the best thing we can do is keep moving forward and keep trying to grow. Sometimes we’ll be in a position where our growth is evident, even if it’s a little embarrassing, but it’s worth it. If we’re not trying to make change, speaking up and telling stories, then we might miss the opportunity to try to make things right — which is something I’m trying to do today!