Chauncey DeVega says: Charlotte History Teacher Reenacts Slavery with His Black Students or Now that is One Dumb--and Soon to be Unemployed--Black Man

There is a bit of an uproar in Charlotte, N.C., as parents, teachers and the local NAACP are livid over a civil war lesson that supposedly went wrong during a Rea View Elementary school class trip to Latta Plantation on Wednesday.

According to WSOCTV.com, Ian Campbell, a black historian, had three black students, already a racial minority in their class, model cotton-picking slaves, with bags around their necks, in front of their peers. Kojo Nantambu, president of the NAACP in Charlotte-Mecklenburg, is one of many who believes the demonstration was both insensitive and poorly executed:

There is a lingering pain, a lingering bitterness, a lingering insecurity and a lingering sense of inhumanity since slavery. Because that's still there, you want to be more sensitive than politically correct or historically correct.

Campbell, though, begs to differ. As a historian of 15 years, he argues that he has had kids partake in demonstrations before, and this is the first time there has been a complaint. Campbell also believes he is being historically accurate...

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To paraphrase Robert Dinero in the movie Casino, "now that is one dumb black man."

I believe in the power of experiential learning. But, one has to act both appropriately and considerately. For example, in a society where black children continue to be marginalized, ought one to further dis empower them in class? I am less worried about the idea that reenacting slavery "stigmatized" these children because there is no shame in being the descendants of a people who were enslaved by others. Moreover, Africans in America fought at every step for their freedom--and improved American democracy through their efforts--so I feel no lingering embarrassment or lack of pride in my people or their accomplishments.

My concern is that while the lesson was effective in one sense (for the white kids in class, having to see how a seemingly arbitrary decision about the personhood of their friends can be based on something as "simple" as the color of one's skin) can never replicate, not in any way, the dehumanizing, violent, and debasing experience that was chattel slavery. In fact, if the point of Mr. Campbell's lesson plan was to encourage the children to reflect on slavery as something more than a historical abstraction and mere curiosity, he could have instead made the white children slaves. Or if he were really sharp, Mr. Campbell would have auctioned off the white children in an imaginary slave market where their peers, as well as students from other classes, could have bid on them.

Alternatively, Mr. Campbell could have even done some version of the classic blue eyes/browns eyes experiment to greater effect and far less controversy.

I have tried to use experiential learning techniques in my classes on race with mixed results. The white students resented having to discuss their relative privilege. In fact, several opted out of the exercise (here: the privilege walk). In the same instance, the black students (with the other students of color somewhere in the middle in terms of their comfort level) were disgusted with having the present and persistent realities of racial privilege as inextricably tied to past inequalities of race, wealth, and opportunity laid bare for all to see. I suppose they wanted to keep this naked "secret" all to themselves.

For those teachers and educators among us, how have these exercises worked out for you in class? Are we being too hard on Mr. Campbell? Is this all to do about nothing? How would the public respond if it were a simulation of the Holocaust for example? Would there be the same amount of controversy? Is Mr. Campbell a visionary who we should be encouraging?

The story follows here.