1500
rating
5
debates
70.0%
won
Topic
#6283
Should schools teach more black history?
Status
Debating
Waiting for the next argument from the instigator.
Round will be automatically forfeited in:
00
DD
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00
HH
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00
MM
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SS
Parameters
- Publication date
- Last updated date
- Type
- Standard
- Number of rounds
- 5
- Time for argument
- Two weeks
- Max argument characters
- 30,000
- Voting period
- Two weeks
- Point system
- Multiple criterions
- Voting system
- Open
1488
rating
11
debates
68.18%
won
Description
This debate will be centered on whether more black history should be taught in schools. Pro will argue that black history should be taught more in schools, while con will argue that the amount of black history taught in schools is adequate. The response period will be two weeks due to me going on vacation at some point in the summer (I want to have time to enjoy my vacation without worrying about responding early).
Round 1
Methodology
I want to first thank my opponent for being willing to debate me. I hope this is a spirited discussion, and I hope that this becomes a fun debate. To start, I think it is best to lay out a methodology to help determine what is true. This debate remains mainly a history/policy debate, so it is important to view expert opinions and history to see how things function currently. Additionally, it is important to view research, so we understand how behaviors based on racial items affect racial issues today. To start I will use the concept of reliability which states “whether an instrument can be interpreted consistently across different situations” (Field, 2018). Additionally, to get to causation or to get to the explanation that is most true it is important to eliminate confounding variables “other explanations for the data”, and to gain correlations from different variables in regard to the main thing we are studying (Field, 2018; Myers et al., 2017). Along with this it is important to view quantitative data, qualitative data, and mixed methods approaches to get to causation due to the qualitative data helping explain the quantitative data (Campbell & Stanley 1959; John Hopkins; Friedman, 2006). To end this is a discussion about history so, history expert opinions, and policy information will be cited to show that black history should be taught more in public schools (Owenzbuguy & Frels, 2016).
Key Terms for Racism
In this round I won't try to prove racism exist, due to the argument of whether black history being taught more in schools doesn't require it. I still will define different types of racism, due to the possibility of some of these arguments possibly touching on it. Due to this, racism may end up being discussed depending on contentions my opponent may bring up, and due to my contentions touching on racism seen through the past and today. Racism is defined as “the incitation of discrimination, hatred or violence towards a person or a group of persons because of their origin or their belonging, or not belonging, to a specific ethnic group or race” (Cornell). Additionally individual racism is defined as “support or perpetuate racism in conscious and unconscious ways” (Cornell). In addition to this I will also define institutional racism as the process by which racial oppression is imposed on subordinate racial groups by dominant racial groups through institutional channels” (California State University Northridge).
Whitewashed history and possible discriminatory attitudes
To open up in the first part of my case, I will start by saying that history is whitewashed. Examples of this can be shown by issues such as Thomas Jefferson saying that Phillis Wheatley was too stupid to write the first book of poems due to her being black and inferior (Givens, 2023) (I am just naming a random history fact, most don’t hear in school. I’m not making an argument this alone should be taught, but more illustrating that we hide and make things not look as bad when viewing black people in history). Along with this we could see slavery being downplayed in numerous areas such as minorities being under fed, facing harsh conditions and beatings, wearing tough material on their skin that resembled pin needles piercing one’s skin (Givens, 2023; Washington). One of course could ask why this is important, but we actually see that some individuals on the right are trying to cover up the truth in regard to the severity of slavery. Trump in the past has tried to implement Patriot Education, which has attempted to whitewash history by saying things such as Black slaves just being worker, even though history shows this wasn’t true (Pene, 2020). A new form of this is actually currently trying to be passed and is being formed as a way to keep kids from forming a “victim mentality” (Whitehouse.gov). The problem of this, is we see that the move to perform acts like this has cause more issues in regard to hate on minorities. For example the old patriotic education was formed and resembled similar language to Textbooks that made slavery to not look as bad, which has emboldened a set group of people (Pene, 2020). We can also see that this attitude has emboldens people due to hate crimes being significantly high in regard to white on black crime with white on black hate crime being the highest cited in any citation I can think of with “2,871 incidents in 2020, a 49 percent increase from 2019 (statistica.com). Premise one simply is showing that by viewing history, we should want to hear things from the total truth of history because we are not being told the full truth now. Additionally the premise in this section is that the fight to shut down true history has emboldened certain individuals, so it is important to teach the truth so we can eventually move away from this way of thinking (Harvard.edu; Pene, 2020). By performing what (Ambrose, 2014) says about bridging the gap, we can eventually become more kind to one another. The contrast could be for history to possibly have some semblance of repeating itself if it goes backwards such as resegregation or more rise in hate crimes like in the past, which is also been being shown over the past ten years (Harvard.edu).
Individuals to look up to and solutions to solve issues
As someone who thoroughly enjoys black history, individuals such as the first African American who obtained his PhD in WEB Dubois is often rarely talked about in education depending on what state someone resides in. Similarly, the second African American who obtained his PhD in Carter G Woodson is typically talked about vaguely in schools and he is the founder of black history month. Teachings of individuals such as this are often small based on their being state difference in curriculum and black history often being taught 8-9% of the time in class (Science.org publication). This is an issue because black history is often taught poorly with most studies just focusing on the bad and not the good (John Hopkins). Woodson was the only African American to obtain his PhD despite being a former slave, and both individuals lived during slavery time. Showing examples of individuals like this, could possibly give black individuals inspiration, and individuals to look up to. Similar to this black people can use inspiration from Black scholars on how to move the black community further (Illinois.edu). It is no secret that the black community is hurt with poverty and examples like debates between WEB Dubois and Booker T Washington serve as a reminder of ideas of how to improve living conditions for minorities and fight racial inequalities (Illinois.edu; Berliner & Hermans, 2022).
Helps us understand how racism happens today
As stated in a previous section our history is whitewashed which has been shown in the past and even in current times (FAMU; Woodson, 2018; Pene, 2020). Individuals such as African American Historians that lived during the time racism was more prevalent can show racism in our society today. For example, Woodson in his book “The mis-education of the negro” mentions how racism can happen in domains such as workplace issues, politics, and hiring despite there being possible minorities hired (Woodson, 2018). This contention may be challenged heavier in the rebuttals, but for now I want to outline the data to prove how this information rings true today. First off there are a few different studies that show that minorities are 50% less likely to be hired for jobs, even when they have similar credentials to their white counterparts (Chicago booth.edu; Quillan & Le, 2023). Along with being less likely to be hired black people are more likely to be paid less for the same job and for the same degree when compared to white people (Berkeley; Pew research). Additionally, DEI research and research that relates to behaviors in the workplace show that minorities are more likely to be discriminated in the workplace (Rice et al., 2024). From understanding this the main contention in this section would be that understanding the past can give us knowledge into racial injustices in the present (Harvard.edu). This provides an additional reason more black history should be taught in schools.
Provides context to problems in minority communities today
If you read history, you would know that Black people are behind in numerous areas that are not the fault of their own in many situations (Berliner & Hermans, 2022). Historically Black people produced their own schools even before segregation took full effects, and most of them only attended schools that had a K-2 education (Givens, 2023). This was the norm for the black educational experience for generations close to when segregation happened (Givens, 2023). Even during the period when Brown Vs. Board happened minority schools remained underfunded, which was one of the major reasons many minorities fought to desegregate schools (Berliner & Hermans, 2022; Givens, 2023). Unfortunately, we are faced with a more by choice form of segregation, which still leads to disadvantages for minorities outside of their control (More a de facto segregation instead of de jur) (Berliner &Hermans, 2022; Frankenburg, 2011). The main reason is due to schools being funded through local property tax, which means that minority schools are underfunded and sometimes are even closed depending on items such as school choice movements (Berliner &Hermans 2022). Additionally lock up rates for minorities have been high since the civil rights movements and the war on drugs (Berliner & Hermans, 2022; Givens, 2023; Pew research). Regardless of your viewpoint in the situation with the war on drugs, the black household has had high lock up rates since the civil right movement (Givens; 2023; Pew research ) (Many due to protest, which makes sense during this time). This means that there is an additional barrier to the black student for learning, because they are at an increased risk for being locked up, and it is often harder for them to succeed in life (Anamma 2018; Berliner & Hermans, 2022). Now I won’t go into arguments about how to fix issues in an opening statement, and it is often debated how these problems would be fixed. I do have a hypothetical plan, but it may go outside the span of what this debate requires. Based on this section though the main contention is that black history can teach us about problems we had in the past, which translates to current issues we face today (Given, 2023; Harvard.edu). Political talk people with little credentials often blame the issues on other things, which means to fix the problem, we first have to agree on what the problem is (Berliner & Hermans, 2022). Bringing history to full light will show this, so our future youth can come up with ideas to solve the problem.
Interest in Black History will Draw more Individuals to want to Learn
My final contention that I will make in here is that teaching more black history in schools/teaching true history instead of whitewashed history will actually help many minority members want to learn. African American historian Carter G Woodson actually made this point and gave several examples in his book where Caucasian individuals went to different countries to teach minorities such as the Fillapino’s after the Spanish American war with little to no success (Woodson, 2018) (These were professionals from institutions like Harvard and Yale). Individuals with little teaching experience came back into these countries and had great success. Great success was attributed based on the educators teaching and involving history, and culture within these countries (Woodson, 2018). Research and science shows that individuals are more likely to take an interest in learning, if individuals are interested in the topic (Interest citation). There is no question Black people are interested in black history, which is shown through studies and educational researchers writing (Berliner & Hermans, 2022). This means that one major contention of this debate would be that minorities will learn even more if history is taught in a way that relates to them.
Conclusion
In conclusion each argument follows under a few different premises that improve either minorities or each race as a whole, which is why black history should be taught. Based on past history, and policy we see that history is taught in a white washed manner (Pene, 2018; FAMU). This has been proven to embolden individuals to hateful behaviors and attempts to change curriculum in a negative manner (Pene, 2020). Both are dangerous, and with possible changes in the curriculum, we can see that it is possible history can repeat itself (Pene, 2020; Harvard.edu). Additionally, teaching black history helps us see issues in our society today, it helps us see how issues in the past impact today, and it gives a way for additional learning that will be helpful to minorities and other races in our current time. If one can see, history often repeats itself and from viewing a couple of my sections, we see how similar attitudes have spilled over into the current day (Harvard.edu). Based on this, along with solutions to issues outlined, I feel there is a strong case to involve more black history in our schools (Most of this is actually just teaching history to the fullest extent. Our history at times is distorted, which means that much of our black history is just our school systems not teaching history to the fullest extent). To further prove my claims I have so far used history, quantitative data, policy information, and researcher opinions which make for a strong methodology (John Hopkins; Onwenzbugy & Frels, 2016; Field, 2018; Myers et al., 2017; Friedman, 2006). In later rounds I will add qualitative data to help get to causation, but for this round I want to focus on laying a foundation that my opponent and I can discuss. With this being a culminate case that focuses on reliability, each point/sub point adds on each other, which means my opponent will have to show flaws in my methodology, disprove points, provide counter data, or provide better arguments to why the curriculum should stay as is (Field, 2018). In conclusion I do again want to thank my opponent for accepting this debate. I do hope this discussion is spirited, and I will leave the rest of the possible argumentations open so my opponent has plenty of space to address claims.
References
Annamma, S. A. (2018). The pedagogy of pathologization: Dis/abled girls of color in the school prison nexus. New York: Routledge.
Berliner, D. C., &Hermanns, C. (2022). Public Education Defending a Cornerstone of American Democracy. Teachers College Press, Teachers College, Columbia University.
Givens, J. R. (2023). School clothes: A collective memoir of Black Student Witness. BEACON.
Legal Information Institute. (n.d.). Racism. Legal Information Institute. https://www.law.cornell.edu/wex/racism
Pene, M. (2020, October 24). Patriotic Education is a whitewashing of history. UT News.
From 2003: Racial bias in hiring. The University of Chicago Booth School of Business. (n.d.). https://www.chicagobooth.edu/review/racial-bias-hiring
Quillian, L., & Lee, J. J. (2023). Trends in racial and ethnic discrimination in hiring in six Western countries. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 120(6). https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2212875120
Experimental and quasi-experiment AL designs ... (n.d.). https://www.sfu.ca/~palys/Campbell&Stanley-1959-Exptl&QuasiExptlDesignsForResearch.pdf
Meyers, L.S., Gamst, G., & Guarino, A. J. (2017). Applied Multivariate Research: Design and Interpretation, 3rd ed. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.
Rice, D. B., Young, N. C., Taylor, R. M., & Leonard, S. R. (2024). politics and race in the workplace: Understanding how and when trump‐supporting managers hinder black employees from thriving at work. Human Resource Management Journal, 35(1), 256–275. https://doi.org/10.1111/1748-8583.12564
Onwuegbuzie, A. J., & Frels,R. (2016). Seven steps to a comprehensive literature review. Sage.
Frankenberg, E., Siegel-Hawley, G.,& Wang, J. (2011). Choice without equity: charter school segregation. Education Policy Analysis Archives, 19, 1. https://doi.org/10.14507/epaa.v19n1.2011
Woodson, C. G. (2018). The Mis-education of the negro. Youcanprint.
Friedman, B. D. (2006). The research tool kit: Putting it all together. Thomson Brooks/Cole.
Washington, B. T. (1986). Up from slavery: An autobiography. 1st edition. Penguin.
Good Luck too my opponet <3
Let me lay out my main contentions:
Contention 1: Curriculum Overload — Schools Can’t Teach Everything in Depth
There are only so many hours in a school year. U.S. history already spans hundreds of years, touching on colonization, revolution, civil wars, immigration, wars, civil rights, and global affairs. We cannot teach every group’s history in equal depth without sacrificing other critical content.
Black history is already taught — slavery, the Civil Rights Movement, key figures like MLK, Malcolm X, Rosa Parks, and others are part of nearly every U.S. history curriculum. States like New Jersey, Illinois, and Florida even mandate Black history instruction. So, the claim that Black history is being “erased” is exaggerated, especially when it’s already part of state standards.
If we drastically expand Black history, what gets removed? Asian American history? Latinx contributions? Native American history? Global history? Financial literacy? Coding? This isn’t about downplaying Black history — it’s about ensuring balanced education for all students.
Contention 2: The Issue Isn’t “More Black History” — It’s “Better Teaching Overall”
I agree with my opponent that some lessons can feel surface-level or “whitewashed,” but that doesn't mean we need *more* Black history — it means we need to teach what we already have better.
Instead of adding more content, we should focus on quality, engagement, and teacher training so that all history — Black, white, indigenous, immigrant — is taught with accuracy, empathy, and context.
Throwing more content at students isn’t the fix. Making history more meaningful is.
Contention 3: Schools Aren’t the Only Place to Learn Black History
My opponent puts a heavy burden on public schools to solve racial inequality and injustice through curriculum alone. But schools can’t do everything. Black history is also learned in homes, libraries, churches, museums, podcasts, and Black communities themselves.
There are already countless resources and platforms — including Black History Month, documentaries, YouTube channels, books, and online courses — where young people can explore Black excellence deeply
So rather than force schools to become the sole source, let’s empower families and communities to play a more active role in sharing cultural and historical knowledge. That’s more effective and culturally respectful.
Rebutting the Methodology Argument
My opponent opened with a research-heavy methodology (props for that!), but it assumes that teaching more Black history will solve deep-rooted problems like hiring discrimination or incarceration. These are complex, structural issues. Teaching W.E.B. Du Bois or Carter G. Woodson is inspirational, but it doesn’t directly impact hiring managers or systemic poverty.
Yes, history informs the present. But education reform, economic policy, justice reform, and social programs will do far more to address inequality than adding another chapter to a textbook.
Conclusion
In closing, I’m not against Black history — I’m against the idea that more equals better, or that schools are failing because they don’t go far enough. Instead, I believe we should:
- Teach history accurately and effectively, not just expand it endlessly.
- Give equal space to all communities’ stories.
- Acknowledge that schools aren’t the only teacher families, mentors, and communities matter just as much.
- Focus on educational priorities that uplift all students reading, writing, critical thinking, and preparing for the modern world.
Thank you.
Let me lay out my main contentions:
Contention 1: Curriculum Overload — Schools Can’t Teach Everything in Depth
There are only so many hours in a school year. U.S. history already spans hundreds of years, touching on colonization, revolution, civil wars, immigration, wars, civil rights, and global affairs. We cannot teach every group’s history in equal depth without sacrificing other critical content.
Black history is already taught — slavery, the Civil Rights Movement, key figures like MLK, Malcolm X, Rosa Parks, and others are part of nearly every U.S. history curriculum. States like New Jersey, Illinois, and Florida even mandate Black history instruction. So, the claim that Black history is being “erased” is exaggerated, especially when it’s already part of state standards.
If we drastically expand Black history, what gets removed? Asian American history? Latinx contributions? Native American history? Global history? Financial literacy? Coding? This isn’t about downplaying Black history — it’s about ensuring balanced education for all students.
Contention 2: The Issue Isn’t “More Black History” — It’s “Better Teaching Overall”
I agree with my opponent that some lessons can feel surface-level or “whitewashed,” but that doesn't mean we need *more* Black history — it means we need to teach what we already have better.
Instead of adding more content, we should focus on quality, engagement, and teacher training so that all history — Black, white, indigenous, immigrant — is taught with accuracy, empathy, and context.
Throwing more content at students isn’t the fix. Making history more meaningful is.
Contention 3: Schools Aren’t the Only Place to Learn Black History
My opponent puts a heavy burden on public schools to solve racial inequality and injustice through curriculum alone. But schools can’t do everything. Black history is also learned in homes, libraries, churches, museums, podcasts, and Black communities themselves.
There are already countless resources and platforms — including Black History Month, documentaries, YouTube channels, books, and online courses — where young people can explore Black excellence deeply
So rather than force schools to become the sole source, let’s empower families and communities to play a more active role in sharing cultural and historical knowledge. That’s more effective and culturally respectful.
Rebutting the Methodology Argument
My opponent opened with a research-heavy methodology (props for that!), but it assumes that teaching more Black history will solve deep-rooted problems like hiring discrimination or incarceration. These are complex, structural issues. Teaching W.E.B. Du Bois or Carter G. Woodson is inspirational, but it doesn’t directly impact hiring managers or systemic poverty.
Yes, history informs the present. But education reform, economic policy, justice reform, and social programs will do far more to address inequality than adding another chapter to a textbook.
Conclusion
In closing, I’m not against Black history — I’m against the idea that more equals better, or that schools are failing because they don’t go far enough. Instead, I believe we should:
- Teach history accurately and effectively, not just expand it endlessly.
- Give equal space to all communities’ stories.
- Acknowledge that schools aren’t the only teacher families, mentors, and communities matter just as much.
- Focus on educational priorities that uplift all students reading, writing, critical thinking, and preparing for the modern world.
Thank you.
Round 2
I want to again thank my opponent for this debate. I think that my opponent has been reasonable and even though we disagree with the main point, we will have some points of agreement based on there rebuttal. Before going too in detail, I will remind everyone that my methodology helps either gets to causation or helps provide more insight to findings due to adding various data types (John Hopkins; Friedman, 2006; Field, 2018; Myers et al., 2017). I will answer my opponent’s main points in order, in most cases. In some regard I will say many sub points weren’t answered, but I think my opponent is going based on alternative issues such as teaching more black history would be hard, instead of saying my main points are wrong (Meaning my opponent more thinks that her alternative explanation provides a basis for not teaching black history as much).
Curriculum Overload
This contention my opponent brought up is well thought out, but I feel it misses the mark when viewed closer. Overloaded curriculum is an issue educational researchers discuss all the time. Discussions of whether to buy new textbooks/keep old ones, add new things to the curriculum, and to drop things from the curriculum is a process (Campbell & Stanley 1959; Berliner & Hermans, 2022). Even with this many of these same researchers feel that black history should be taught more (Berliner & Hermans, 2022). My opponent cited that there is difficulty in finding time to teach everything, and that would be true in some regard if there wasn’t some form of curriculum shift. Some stuff such as history being whitewashed will be addressed in a different section, but let’s remember that Black history is only 8-9% of the curriculum in most states (USC.edu; Duke.edu). To go to my opponents' broader point where they list some things that are taught in school and mention that we would have a hard to making history be equal between races, has some truth but also some has some flaws. I will say I never necessarily mentioned that we should teach equally between each race because it will be difficult, but we severely gloss over black history compared to other groups. An example of this can be shown based on standards set forth by different states (FAMU; Alabama.gov). History is taught different based on each state, but we can see that much of what is taught is actually taught a few times in history in most states (Alabama.gov). To give an example to my home state of Alabama, U.S. history is taught in four different grade levels and world history is taught twice (Alabama.gov). Now each state is a little different, but most states teach US history at least three times in the K-12 environment (Alabama; FAMU; USC.edu; Duke.edu). What this simply means is that we are reteaching some of the same history, so it wouldn’t be too much of a stretch to refigure the history curriculum to teach more black history during certain stretches of the curriculum where certain things are already being re taught. This is actually even agreed upon through history experts, educational researchers, and professors (Berliner & Hermans, 2022; FAMU; USC.edu; Duke.edu).
Black History
To push back on my opponents' points, I never said black history wasn’t taught at all in school. My main point, which is the main construct of the debate is “Should Black History be Taught More”? In the previous section and in my opening I mentioned that black history is taught around only 8-9% of the time in history (USC.edu). My opponent’s point in this section is that there are states that teach black history, and they name well known black historical figures to make their point. They further mention that if we made room for more black history, would it take away from different ethnic groups. I already answered how room can be made in the curriculum in the first section of this reply, and this can be done for other ethnic groups as well due to us reteaching much of the same material often (So we can teach things such as US history, with different focuses with different ethnic groups depending on the grade level). The weakness in this argument is black scholars actually feel that history for other ethnic groups are under taught as well and should be taught more in depth. Carter Woodson mentions in one of his literary works that “Caucasians are mentioned in depth”, in regard to history,”while “Less attention is given to the yellow people, less to the red, and even less for the brown people” (Woodson, 2018 p. 12). When viewing from the state level this rings true. I know my opponent mentions that I am saying black history is being “erased”, which is semi true, but it is also true that we haven’t taught it well during most of the U.S.’s history (Berliner & Hermans, 2022; Pene, 2020). The effect just rings more true today and that comes through political individuals making policy decisions. I already mentioned Trump, but to cite a study we actually see that many states actually have worked towards removing certain aspects of black history due to making white individuals look bad (FAMU, Jim Crow 2.0). Sadly speaking, one of the states that my opponent named as teaching black history is one of the states that is working to remove aspects of it (Jim Crow 2.0; FAMU). Based on this, my opponents comments about black history being taught goes against the data, professor opinions, policy maker opinions/words, and even against history teachers opinions (FAMU; Berliner & Hermans, 2022). Historical teachers such as this one from Duke university mentioned that history is being taught through a political lenses and is often underdressing black history in most of the curriculum and Textbooks (Duke.edu). Similar aspects are mentioned through articles published at Harvard which shows many issues such as the civil rights movement is oversimplified (Harvard.edu).
White Washed History
This section will be shorter because my opponent basically agreed that history is whitewashed, so we agree in some aspects. My opponent list that we should teach with accuracy, quality, and provide teaching programs. This is all great, but my opponent doesn’t realize this sort of concedes that Black history would have to be taught more. For example, if we didn’t whitewash history we would learn more about individuals such as Ida B. Wells, who was the first black female journalist (Duke.edu). Similarly, my previous section mentioned how history teachers feel history is whitewashed in how the civil rights movement is portrayed (USC.edu). The problem with my opponent agreeing is that this means more individuals will be brought up because we only learn about a few individuals, but the opposition to teaching whitewashed history will be to add more issues in regard to negative and positive things in this time period, which would result in more black history being taught (Harvard.edu; USC.edu). By not keeping history whitewashed you would be learning about issues teachers and educational researchers feel is important such as the Little Rock nine’s move to desegregate schools despite facing discrimination of the highest degree, you would learn about Juneteenth, and the Tulsa Oklahoma massacre (USC.edu; Berliner & Hermans, 2022). Simply put my opponent doesn’t realize that they gave away some ground in this contention if they follow what educators and researchers think is important (I’m not trying to slam dunk. I think my opponent is nice and caring to notice history being whitewashed pretty easily. Most people don’t know).
Schools are not the Only Place to Learn
Contrary to my opponents' beliefs I am not trying to overload the school system (I’m a teacher lol! Goodness knows I don’t want that lol). I am more trying to adjust the curriculum in a way that matches with what experts say. My opponent mentions that schools aren't the only place to learn this stuff, and she would be correct. The problem with telling individuals to learn this information on their own is that most individuals won't. When viewing Pew Research, we do see that among older black families which would be 65 or older report that 6 out of 10 are likely to be informed, while ages 50-63 say they are 53% likely to be informed, while ages 30-49 are 51% likely to be informed, and ages 30 and under drop drastically to 38% (Pew Research). The channels my opponent suggested which is outside learning is how these individuals learned, but this is Black Americans, whose race went through slavery. Many individuals in the 65 or older category likely had individuals that they grew up with who were slaves such as Dr. Gretchen Soren, who wrote the book “Driving While Black” (Soren, 2020). When we get to the younger age group, these individuals seem to not know as much about their own history which begs the question, what about white individuals or individuals of other races? If young black people are not likely to know, what about other races, especially white people who have implemented policies that hurt minorities. Even though I typically love to cite scholarly work, I could not find some that studied how well white people knew black history, but there is some self-reported data that says that of incidents that were surveyed dealing with black history about 24% of black people said they knew a lot about these issues while only 18% of white people said the same (Yougov.com). With this not being a study, it is hard to say how reliable this is, but Pew Research is really reliable. This shows that my opponent may be optimistic in regard to individuals learning these topics on their own. The alternative which would be teaching Black history extensively in schools which has been shown through Dr. Alberts dissertational work that, when black history is taught to white people, they gain a better understanding of issues they face currently and, in the past (Albert). They also felt more empowered to speak out against racism and even elevates tension between ethnic groups (Albert). This goes again to shown my opponent may be overly optimistic in regard to self-learning, even though I do wish more people would do this.
Rebutting Methodology and Concluding Thoughts
So, my opponent in this section doesn't rebut my methodology, because I use various types of data to get to causation (Field, 2018; Friedman, 2006; Myers et al., 2017; Owenzbugy & Frels, 2016). I use a variety of different types of sources to show how things impact individuals today, and how history under teaches Black History. This type of methodology gets to causation due to different types of sources adding their own strength to the analysis (Friedman, 2006; Myers et al., 2017; Owenzbugy & Frels, 2016). My opponent in this section does critique something saying that many problems such as hiring issues, and incarceration won't be solved by education alone, and that I will overwork the school system. I did provide how to implement this, so I will move past this part of the critique, but I would agree with my opponent that teaching Black history won't solve this alone. I don't think I said it would solve all problems, but I could see where one could draw this conclusion. I am more saying that this will give people a better understanding of these issues, provide better learning opportunities for people, keep history from repeating itself, and make individuals more tolerant (Albert; Ambrose, 2014; USC.edu). Each of these has been shown with some form of data, which shows how important these issues are. Social reform in addition to this is better, but due to the debate focusing on education, it does give pause to teach these issues (Berliner & Hermans, 2022). Even though both will be better, it is possible that improving the education could possibly lead to this (Berliner & Hermans, 2022; Albert). With more tolerant ideas, one could eventually hope for a better future (Berliner & Hermans, 2022). To end I will say that my opponent mostly just tries to provide a better explanation of what to do, to keep from overloading the school system and it seems that they agree with many of my explanations in regard to behaviors (If I misrepresent you let me know lol). This means that the best explanation should be the one based on scholarship, teacher opinions, and research. If history teachers themselves feel this is an issue, wouldn't it mean that this is an issue, due to them teaching the curriculum in the first place (Duke.edu; USC.edu)? Again, I would love to thank my opponent, and I look forward to their reply.
Refrences
Berliner, D. C., &Hermanns, C. (2022). Public Education Defending a Cornerstone of American Democracy. Teachers College Press, Teachers College, Columbia University.
Experimental and quasi-experiment AL designs ... (n.d.). https://www.sfu.ca/~palys/Campbell&Stanley-1959-Exptl&QuasiExptlDesignsForResearch.pdf
Meyers, L.S., Gamst, G., & Guarino, A. J. (2017). Applied Multivariate Research: Design and Interpretation, 3rd ed. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.
Friedman, B. D. (2006). The research tool kit: Putting it all together. Thomson Brooks/Cole.
Onwuegbuzie, A. J., & Frels,R. (2016). Seven steps to a comprehensive literature review. Sage.
Why mixed methods?. Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. (n.d.). https://publichealth.jhu.edu/academics/academic-program-finder/training-grants/mixed-methods-research-training-program-for-the-health-sciences/about-the-program/why-mixed-methods
Field, A. P. (2018). Discovering statistics using IBM SPSS. Sage Publications.
Sorin, G. S., Burns, R., Pfeil, E., Lewis, E., Clinard, K., & Bennett, S. (2020). Driving while black. part 2. Ro*Co Films.
Forfeited
Round 3
Not published yet
Not published yet
Round 4
Not published yet
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Round 5
Not published yet
Not published yet
Dang. I just joined the discord. I’m under a new name. I am the research toolkit now. I have part of my new name saved in case someone gets confused. Over time I may remove my old name in the attachment in favor of the new one.
i am very sorry but i will not be able to publish my debate before the website is shut down!
take as much time as you need
I will be on it. I’m slow due to some obligations I have with research for the University. I will typically be quicker than the two week span lol! Only time I won’t will be due to vacation lol!
Ok! Look forward to the debate!
ughhh fine... ill be done by tommorow
To determine what is true you have to look at things from different viewpoints. Policy and behavioral science has a lot to it.
why so much
@Self #22
Or maybe a huge chunk of butter that a cracker has been dipped into.
So much history to teach, so little time.
I look forward to reading the debate.
I would love to say something, but will leave it because I know that there will be a lot mentioned in the debate. I think if I put too much in regard to information in the comment section may take away from the debate. I do hope you enjoy the debate though lol!
Wow this debate made me realise I barley learnt about black people
Don't feel a need to respond to all of this, as I know the debate is still ongoing, just some idle thought on my part.
Or any unless you want to of course.
The problem I see is that there are so 'many minorities, ought every minority have a month?
Or a large focus on X individuals from X minority who have succeeded?
Again, lot of minorities.
I can appreciate people of X group taking a focus on their particular history and accomplishments.
. . . And I 'can see an argument in educating ignorant individuals who think X people are incapable of accomplishments, even though education, wealth and opportunity play such vital roles.
But I also think America's history is 'full of mistaken thinking and errors, that we can now see in hindsight.
I don't remember school or history class all that well, from my 'memory, it 'was pretty shallow. I wouldn't say 'whitewashed, but butter scraped over too much bread.
. . .
Skimming over what I've already read in that book I mentioned,
I found it interesting after the Revolution how laws on Manumissions and Entail and Primogeniture changed,
Manumissions changing to state law and the view that one ought be able to do as they like with their property, increasing State Rights Ideals in southern states.
Entail and Primogeniture, allowing for slavery to spread south and west easier.
Hudgins v. Wrights,
Judge St. George Tucker
I know people argue against the slippery slope in regards of laws, but so 'much of history and law 'is the slippery slope to my view.
Sure there are huge revolutions sometimes, but even those are made of many small parts coming together, many small steps until the destination is arrived at.
The book also talked about of the bad conditions of slaves, and events they endured, blacks serving in the military both Colonial and British, escapes, hypocrisy of slave owners, how vital the system was to the South.
. . .
I do think there is a difference in outcome, based in how information is received.
Theoreticals don't impact as much as experience, maybe.
Some people argue against 'style in debate, but style impacts how something is received.
Nixon vs Kennedy, radio vs tv, though one 'could argue different types of people listened to the radio than people who watched TV.
It's why Pro Life individuals wish for people to view ultrasound of their fetus before choosing abortion,
Course some people argue such can be badgering, fine line, or a spectrum maybe.
While one side of convincing is to fully expose one to a view,
Another is to sanitize and view dispassionately.
Weirdly, I think 'either can lead to atrocity.
Slaves as an example, by style and exposure, one can fire up a panicked fear crazed mob,
By Sanitization and Rational Self interest, one can ignore the suffering of others and focus on supposed necessity.
(For Wylted) I will hold off on replies to this forum simply because I am debating. If you want a message box discussion or a debate I am willing to go through with it. I simply don’t want to ruin the debate by debating in the comment section as well over my own debate. Hope all is well and I hope your day goes well lol!
That is real interesting. I will add it to my bookshelf at some point. Some good reads as well would be Carter G Woodson’s book “the mis-education of the negro”, and WEB Dubois book called “Soul of Black Folk”. A more modern scholar I love is Jarvis Givens. He I’ve read a lot of his work, but my favorite book of his so far is called school clothes. Thanks for giving me a new book to read lol!
(For Wylted) Again look at my original claim. It would match with it because black history will show negative aspects in the American history. Prager mentioned that certain teachings of black history is causing contempt towards America. This matches with my original comment and what it was trying to convey. You mentioning the nuance of his wording doesn’t show anything because black history is black history. Prager isn’t an expert so he is going to say things extremely untrue. The word anti-white doesn’t change that actual message because the words match a similar message of what I was trying to convey some conservatives as saying. Again this is proven true based on his own words. You mentioning me citing a reporter instead of his bill doesn’t mean anything. This researcher may not have been publishing a study, but when you go to do work for colleges, your work goes through a process to ensure a certain level of accuracy (Ruel et al., 2017). This means that the material is checked by other researchers to ensure that the information is accurate. Researchers can still come to wrong conclusions, because all people are fallible, but they are checked for accurate citations. This can be backed up by numerous others such as ones from Florida A&M, and colleges that are more historically white. Critical race theory is honestly just touted as bad by Fox News when the actual definition is “an academic and legal framework that explicates racism as structural, institutionalized in the history, systems, and policies of the United States. Critical Race Theory recognizes that racism transcends individual bias and prejudice, it is embedded in legal, social, and educational policies and systems that uphold racial inequality” (Sage pub). If you want to debate racism we can, I can show you how all this is true basically lol! Simply put though my original comment matches similar to Prager and my research in regard to policy still stands and is shown to be the norm in research. You actually have more bias towards publishing works in favor of minority causes, which I can site if you like (To eliminate this being a anti conservative thing. There are such things as conservative researchers. I know you didn’t claim this, but I hear this a lot so I am addressing it beforehand lol).
Refrences
https://researchmethodscommunity.sagepub.com/blog/critical-race-theory-fire-and-dangerous-things
I've gone to the library a couple times this week,
Trying to change my schedule, so I stop staying up all night,
Hopefully it'll stick eventually.
But, the book I picked off the shelf the last couple times has been,
The Internal Enemy Slavery and War in Virginia, 1772-1832 By Alan Taylor
Some of it I know 'roughly, but it 'is interesting to get a more in depth view of the topic.
And it 'does depict a lot of founding Americans ba- honestly, which for them is a bad light.
I 'do think black history should be taught in schools, and not just skipped over when certain time periods and locations of America are being covered.
I also find it interesting politically/legally, how one can see-
Well, I'll say more in an hour or two, I found a part of that book interesting on attempted legislation and then how the legislator changed their stance for political reasons.
The "l" is actually a capital i if that helps tag me, but these are criticisms of the anti white education some schools teach by Dennis Prager not a criticism of teaching black history.
The example of trump was him also targeting the same things and you could have directly linked to his bill with citations but chose to link to a commentator instead. One who is also pushing critical race theory. It's an attack on the narrative of critical race theory and nothing else. Are we trying to highlight the achievements of blacks and the horrors of slavery so they aren't repeated or are we merely trying to brain wash students into becoming a professional victim class?
I agree to an extent. More of what I would get at though is black history isn’t taught enough. Our history is whitewashed, and made to not look as bad in many areas. When you read into it, you actually see that slavery was more harsh than what is described in our textbooks (A good read on this is African American historian Jarvis Givens). I won’t go into too much detail because the debate will cover a lot of this. Many items are glossed over in relation to schooling, which affected opportunities for African Americans. We also typically don’t learn a lot about Carter G Woodson (Created black history month), and WEB Dubios (First African American with a PhD. Woodson is the second and he actually was a slave at first). I would say teaching black history of how individuals defied odds and made something for themselves is important and gives individuals in the minority community hope. I could point out too that it helps us show racial tendencies as well, but I don’t want to go too in detail. I do agree about the black history month to some degree if everything was taught equally. I do hope you enjoy the debate lol!
(For Wylted. Idk why it won’t tag you lol). I will say I paraphrased a bit, but you do get comments very similar to this. I will cite you a few conservative talk show people as an example, and how Trump has tried to minimize black history in schools to make it not look as bad. Idk why you have to have exactly one certain talk show host, but I can add comments of his as well. First off I wouldn’t say I’m liberal or conservative because I really go different ways on different issues. To start, talk show conservatives such as Dennis Prager says that we teach an anti-white history with a quote here “The purpose of all teaching about race in American schools is to engender contempt for America. They are, therefore, "taught" the lies of The New York Times' "1619 Project" — that the United States was founded to preserve and protect slavery — and of such works as Robin DiAngelo's "White Fragility”. (Creators.com). Contempt for America is implying that we are diminishing something within American history against what is taught. There is more to this article, and more to say in response to this article because he does try to defend his claims. I’m not going to argue about his other claims at this time unless you want to be the one who signs the debate thing here lol! Then we can go at it in regard to arguments about how black history is taught. When you actually read though, history is very white washed, and individuals like Trump tried to actually keep it this way. In Trump’s first term he tried to pass the patriot education act, which minimized slavery in to calling slaves just “workers”. (Penne 2020). This actually downplays how harsh slavery actually was (I will make these arguments more in my opening. I would rather not reveal my first moves lol). Again if you want to debate black history accept the debate or I can replicate this debate for you to accept. Either way doesn’t bother me because I love the conversations. Now in regard to what you mention I gave the citations needed for the message I was actually trying to convey. The founding father things was paraphrased because I was relaxing late at night, but conservatives do feel that black history is taught in a way that is against the ideals of America and you have policy makers who make decisions within that same sort of framework (This does make my founding father thing make sense though, because they are touted as the brave individuals who fought for freedom. Claims with racial items hurts this view, and this is without me saying too much negatively. I don’t necessarily dislike the founding fathers, but if you look at how they viewed slaves it was wrong. We can all learn from individuals past mistakes). If we want to move to Ben Shapiro we can, but it isn’t really necessary. Shapiro is more nuanced than prager, and I wouldn’t say he specifically makes these stamens like prager, but he does downplay slavery. An example of this is a speech that he gave titled, America was not built on slavery. You can do what you want with this claim and I could again argue that this isn’t the best claim to make, but I will leave it at that. Shapiro says more things like “But those who are determined to see America’s story as a continuing story of oppression, those determined to paint America’s history as an eternal story of brutality and slavery, rather than as a struggle toward freedom and equal rights in concert with the original founding principles of the country, suggest that slavery remains the defining feature of American life.” (Bu.edu). I would disagree because we can prove racism heavily in our society today, and past issues from slavery impact black people to this day. If you would want to debate if racism affects the U.S. heavily I can do that as well because that is my most debated topic. My point was that their are plenty of politicians that frame talking about black history as being against actual American ideals, which can be seen if you watch numerous people on the right side of the isle. Also I will comment on your other comments that you left about teaching and I do actually enjoy the back and forth (On another thread). I’m just cooking a mean Philly cheesesteak right now lol! It’s just that my point does stand when you view policy and certain talk show people. If you thought I was being specific with my claim I wasn’t. It was just late, and I made a more general statement, which is really still backed up.
Refrences
https://www.creators.com/read/dennis-prager/11/20/what-american-schools-should-teach-about-race-racism-and-slavery
https://news.utexas.edu/2020/10/24/patriotic-education-is-a-whitewashing-of-history/
https://www.bu.edu/articles/2019/ben-shapiro-at-boston-university/#:~:text=%E2%80%9CThe%2520title%2520of%2520the%2520event,a%2520good%2520university%2520is%2520about.%E2%80%9D
History,
I'd imagine is taught, per what one is.
America as an example,
Has a 'clear, recent and documented founding.
Colonization, Rebellion and Independence, Ideals and Values clear spoken and defined (Kind of).
Compare that with someplace such as Britain, France, Germany, Japan.
Is founding their furthest memory of their people, or their 'current regime and people?
I'll assume 'current regime, else American History would focus 'more on times before The War of Independence.
Though I'm sure previous regimes and accomplishments are still important.
Seems hard to 'avoid speaking of Black history, when speaking of America and it's founding,
Not to mention how many 'current laws and policies are effected by it.
So many laws 'carefully worded, during Independence, out of Southern fear of their slaves having some right to liberty.
The Civil War's effects on States Rights, on Birth Citizenship.
Civil Rights Movement, Effect on Class/Caste? in America.
. . .
Not that Blacks are the 'only ones of discussion in all these events, 'nor that their actions as individuals/Vague Group has always been ideal and good.
. . . I don't think teaching black history, or more black history is wrong.
Though I think it might be an error to teach Black History Month or have a class focus a semester or something on Black History.
. . I think I prefer history by time period and location, there are many groups in America, at every point, exerting influence.
It’s changed if you want to do it. Tell me what you think and I can revise if necessary. I am at a conference so I just did this real quick. I’m off now so I should be able to respond quicker lol!
"You get more conservative people who claim that teaching more on the black perspective is wrong because “It is making the founding fathers look bad”.
No you don't get that from conservatives. Show me a single Ben Shapiro segment that says this. He has discussed about every conservative topic so it shouldn't be too hard to get the conservative view from him on this topic somewhere.
Thank you for understanding. <3
I will accept this debate if you change the objective saying something like, should schools teach More black history. other than what you put.
btw I'm half black so I don't want to seem racist or anything.
I guess, sorry.
I think you're taking this too far now.
I am glad I am not black.
Ok. Well carry on lol
I dont care.
I can’t tell if you’re being sarcastic or for real lol! Seen so many interesting people on the internet it becomes difficult at times lol!
Really depends. I could probably change the topic to is history whitewashed or something. This is more though a debate about whether black history should be implemented in schools. If you read a lot of black history you see not much is taught under the black perspective. You get more conservative people who claim that teaching more on the black perspective is wrong because “It is making the founding fathers look bad”. Some people may not quite understand the implications behind actions they do. If this is a crappy title I will revise it to more of a history/policy debate on if history taught in schools is white washed lol! I’ve just heard some conservatives argue against black history being taught in public schools, which was why this was done.
I dont care for black people enough to accept this debate.
isn't it kind of weird if a white person were to join this debate, it would sort of insinuate there racist if they don't want black history to be taught in schools wouldn't it.