Mom schools publisher McGraw-Hill after they called African slaves ‘workers’
'Workers implies wages... Yes?'
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Your support makes all the difference.Roni Dean-Burren was less than impressed when her son’s “World Geography” textbook attempted to whitewash her son’s textbook.
The Houston mother’s 15-year-old son sent her a photo of a text bubble that read: “The Atlantic Slave Trade between the 1500s and 1800s brought millions of workers from Africa to the southern United States to work on agricultural plantations.”
Ms Dean-Burren would eventually call out the publisher on Facebook: "The Atlantic slave trade brought millions of workers...notice the nuanced language there. Workers implies wages... Yes?"
Ms Dean-Burren has worked at her son’s high school for 11-years as an English teacher. She’s also a doctoral candidate in the University of Houston’s Language Arts program, the Washington Post reports.
The Atlantic slave trade brought millions of workers...notice the nuanced language there. Workers implies...
Posted by Roni Dean-Burren on Wednesday, September 30, 2015
The publisher would soon issue a statement claiming they would rewrite the textbook's passage after Ms Dean-Burren's complaint.
This week, we became aware of a concern regarding a caption reference to slavery on a map in one of our world geography...
Posted by McGraw-Hill Education on Friday, October 2, 2015
Ms Dean-Burren told the Post: “On a surface level, ‘yay.’ I understand that McGraw-Hill is a textbook giant, so thumbs up for listening.”
“I know they can do better. They can send out a supplement. They can recall those books. Regardless of whether you’re left-leaning or right-leaning, you know that’s not really the story of slavery. Minimizing slavery in any way is a way of saying those black lives, those black bodies, that black pain didn’t matter enough to give it a full description.”
In July, the paper reported that students would be using new social studies textbooks across Texas that barely address racial segregation, Jim Crow laws and the Ku Klux Klan.
Former US Secretary of Education and Houston Superintendent Rod Paige, a Republican, argued against the state's new curriculum in 2010. He said he believes that the guidlines "swing too far" to the right and diminishes the importance slavery and the civil rights movement that "shaped who [Americans] are today."
“I’m of the view that the history of slavery and civil rights are dominant elements of our history and have shaped who we are today. We may not like our history, but it’s history, and it’s important to us today."
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