A Wake County mother is trying to get a video about the Native American perspective on Thanksgiving banned from schools because she claims it is full of lies and racist toward white people.
O YouTube video from Cut.com shows Native Americans using words like “horror beyond measure,” “massacre, “butchered,” “romanticism,” and “lies” to describe what thoughts they associate with Thanksgiving.
On Wednesday, the Wake County school system’s Instructional Materials Review Committee unanimously upheld Alston Ridge Middle School’s decision to use the video, despite objections from parent Beth Braswell. The committee also voted unanimously to allow the video to continue to be used in elementary and middle schools.
“Banning the video does not change the history of the atrocities committed against the Native Americans who owned these lands and were killed by Europeans to create the colonies,” said district committee member Nicole McNeil. “Instead, it suppresses Native American beliefs and opinions.”
After the vote, Braswell said he would not appeal the committee’s decision to the school board.
“I was trying to assess the ideological capture of the Wake County school administration and teachers,” Braswell said in an interview Wednesday. “I know now.”
Native American Perspective
The video is part of Cut.com’s “One Word” video series that asks people what they associate with a specific word. Chris Rudy, CEO of Cut.com, said the people in the video were selected after producers put out a call in Seattle asking Native Americans to share their thoughts on Thanksgiving.
Rudy said the Native Americans in the video are not actors.
“If they have a perspective rooted in their experience, how can you say it’s not credible?” Rudy said in an interview on Wednesday.
According to Braswell’s complaint, the video was shown to her daughter’s eighth-grade social studies class in Cary before Thanksgiving break. It is part of an effort made in recent years by teachers to incorporate more of the Native American perspective of Thanksgiving.
“My concern is that WCPSS is trying to educate my daughter in Marxist ideology by lying to her about the history of America,” Braswell wrote in her complaint dated February 15.
Mom Claims ‘Shadow of Evil’ on Thanksgiving
Braswell cites several comments in the video, including words like “white pilgrims,” “the Puritans came and slaughtered us,” and “they slaughtered millions of us.”
“The goal was to cast an evil shadow on the Thanksgiving holiday so that children would not want to celebrate the holiday,” Braswell wrote. “The goal was to encourage racism against white Americans by saying that their white ancestors massacred Native Americans on Thanksgiving.
“All these purposes fuel the desire of teachers and educators who are Marxists to transform the USA into a communist country.”
Braswell’s complaint echoes the concerns of some people who accuse public schools of teaching Critical Race Theory to make white students feel guilty for the actions of their ancestors.
“WCPSS teachers and administrators are encouraged by WCPSS to denigrate white people in American history and to show preferential treatment toward brown and black people,” Braswell wrote in his letter seeking district-level appeal. “This translates into anti-white racism, which is very popular right now. Especially in the gym.”
Braswell also claims that it is inappropriate to show the video because Cut also plays the drinking card game Truth or Drink. She says the company promotes sexual promiscuity, drunkenness and drug use.
Company keeps your video
On February 26, a team at Alston Ridge Middle voted unanimously to continue allowing the video to be shown to students. The team also rejected Braswell’s request that the teacher apologize for showing the video.
The Alston Ridge committee was made up of the principal, teachers, parents, a counselor and the library’s media coordinator.
Braswell then appealed the decision to the district’s Instructional Materials Review Committee, which consists of administrators, teachers and parents. This time, Braswell called for the video to be banned not just from Alston Ridge Middle, but from all schools in the Wake district.
Rudy, the Cut.com executive, supports the video, which he says is part of an effort to increase empathy and understanding by hearing other people’s perspectives.
“I’m not a Marxist,” Rudy said. “I am not a communist. I just feel like we should try to understand where everyone is coming from.”
Video called ‘appropriate instructional material’
During Wednesday’s meeting, committee members said they were pleased that the teacher showed the video by projecting it onto her laptop screen. The teacher did not link to the Cut website or the YouTube page that had the content questioned by Braswell.
Committee member Rachel Huber-Jones said the video meets North Carolina social studies standards about discriminatory practices and resilience to inequalities, injustices, discrimination, bias and prejudice.
“Over the course of eighth grade, they will look at things like the Trail of Tears, the reservation system, relocation acts, and broken and unfulfilled treaties with Native American tribes,” said Huber-Jones, who is Wake’s senior administrator for social services. secondary. studies: “So having this conversation about what this holiday would be like today would make sense in that context.”
Committee members said the video is one of multiple sources students will watch about the Native American experience. There are 366 Native American students at Wake, or 0.2% of the district’s enrollment.
“It seems like not only appropriate instructional material, but a solid choice when it comes to ensuring that children have opportunities to critique and determine how they will think about a specific moment,” said Kate Fehling, committee member and principal at Hilburn Academy in Raleigh.
District committee decisions are binding for two years unless reversed by the school board.
