Parent Talk: The Truth About Black History Month.

we're live surprise everybody we're live today is Tuesday February 20th we are live on Facebook and YouTube I'm Jill simonian from Prager you kids and I have with me someone who I'm gon to clap for who are you sir hello I'm Xavier D ruso Prager youu personality yes but you forgot the most important part I I sure did I am the host of guess or mess you knew exactly where I was going and I love that you knew exactly where I was going he is the host of Prager you kids guess or mess which is the silly crazy game show that we invented at prer you kids oh my goodness a couple years ago and it really is I mean you've gotten like like you're You're The Keeper of the chaos in this messy game show for children where they learn about historical figures on prageru do Prager kids.com subscribe if you haven't yet parents and teachers um but you're The Keeper of the chaos and when we first brought you in to not only be a Prager personality who I highly recommend that you follow Exavier because he's like on fire fear I don't know if people use those words anymore so you follow him on Instagram but we brought you in to be the host of this kids show that involved pies in the faces and messy ooey gooey things in the name of teaching children about historical figures and you were just like I you were like I'm sorry what's happening and then you were all in yeah when I was presented about Guest mess and it was being described to me like oh yeah you pour these messes on the kids when they answer questions and I was just like is this some type of like I was just like okay I smiled and nodded and then we get to the set and I see like all the jars of the disgusting grossness and I'm like okay this is going to be fun in case in case you might not know what we're talking about I have the show pulled up on my screen right now we're going to get to Black History Month in a moment because Xavier has some really hot takes that we're going to talk about that I want to talk talk to him as a mom um and say okay what are your thoughts on this you know with you know black history month and schools and kids and what they're doing now with black history month but for a moment take a look at my screen if you're watching live guess or mess Exavier is here and the children with all of the ooey gooey messes of this crazy game show learning about historical figures sports legends presidents all the shows are here there are wow tons of shows to watch for free Prager kids.com subscribe for free and get your kids learning all the things that should be taught we like to say in schools so okay you know why you're here today I do okay so we're talking about Black History Month because February the month of February is coming to a close and I really wanted to talk with you about this because you have some very hot takes about Black History Month and I've been you know I always scroll my Instagram feed and I will see these things you say and I'm like what Exavier back down hold on like too dramatic man and but it's really I'm curious your thoughts because Black History Month as we know is in February and I for one as a mom I have never ever ever questioned why do we have black history month because I think that there's a lot of Americans in history who in previous history books that you know have been written have really been overlooked or there's only spent a little you know a little amount of time on them and and the education for our children is in fact lacking with certain characters like you know Harriet Tubman and Frederick Douglas and Booker T Washington and and in fact prageru kids we just did a craftery episode about um George Washington Carver how he contributed uh so greatly to uh the farming industry during his time despite that he was born a slave um so I've never seen the problem with Black History Month um but I feel like it's been politicized now and I'm curious your quick take thoughts of course so when people talk about Black History Month they always debate should we have black history month or should we not and my unpopular opinion is I don't necessarily similar to how you were saying I don't necessarily see an issue with having a black history month I have an issue with what black history month has become because if you look in history back to this 7s when Black History Month became popular what it was supposed to be was celebrating the accomplishments of black Americans throughout our history and it was supposed to be a way of showing wow look how far black people have come look how far our country as a collective whole has come because ultimately let's not forget black history is American history and that's what we should be celebrating 100% but now what it's turned into is let's spend an entire month telling all these people and all these black kids that white people did this this this this and this and it's this negative thing where we're constantly saying to black kids your people used to be slaves and white people did all this to you and it's this divisive rhetoric that's been hijacked with a whole another element of BLM I'm sure we'll get into yes and just all these different things that make black history month so negative and somber to the point that I I'm just so turned off when I see it I just don't want anything to do with it anymore when I wish we could go back to what it was because if you teach black history in the correct way what you actually see is that our country country is the most free and equal country in the world because black and white people and every other race in between have fought to be where we are today yeah and that's one thing and I've I've often said this um by the way I in case I forgot to mention which I think I did forget to mention tell me what state you're from if you're watching live I want to know what state you're from because at the end I do like to go through the comments and see who's watching from California near us who's watching from across the country and so forth um I to to go back to your point though I as a mom have said on this on these lives frequently that working here has now made me understand and reconcile how so much of my own education was lacking yes particularly in history and there were I mean I'm embarrassed to admit this but I've admitted many embarrassing things on these lives before so don't judge me okay I never would before coming here and you know doing the research and the work and the and the uh learning of all the things that were lacking in my own educational history I did not know who a lot of our most historical black American Figures were in this country and so that's one thing that I thought well that I don't like that that's not right and I did not know who and I'm going to use a character not a character I'm going to use a figure who we profiled in one of our Leo and Leia episodes Leo and Lea episodes from PR kids I did not know who Ida B Wells was before working here and it made me really question like okay there is a need for like you say black history month at times when I was not taught about these most incredible Americans who changed the course of history um so that said I want to just quickly bring up something that was um shared in uh I'm on emails for um to receive emails from education.com now I got an email from education.com blackhistorymonth resources and I'm pulling it up on my screen and I just thought to click into it to see what was offered right so we have the Harlem Renaissance which to me looks pretty cool explore a fascinating period of US history with this informational reading worksheet you know it's like I'm looking at these worksheets and these are all downloadable for various you know for teachers biography of th Good Marshall we have Jun emancipation day biography of George Washington Carver informational reading comprehension and then we have and this was the and all of these really look like based on my limited review of them the they have Misty Copeland who's a ballerina who I love who's so talented but then they have kamla Harris it's a coloring page of kamla Harris for preschoolers me kamla de Harris the 49th Vice President of the United States born in Oakland California Kamala has spent her career in public service she was the district attorney of San Francisco so I see see things like this you know Cala became the first woman the first black American and the first South Asian-American to be elected vice president students can use this coloring page so I see this now yes I will say that vice president Harris is definitely a black a woman black American woman in history right but when I look at the other when I compare her to women like Ida be Wells I often think what has vice president Harris accomplished maybe I shouldn't be saying that but that's when I started wondering hm is this politicized uh you have opinions about black lives matter in schools can you share with me some of those o yes well because there was a black Liv matter spirit week every week at the beginning of February so they were looting the school well no I don't know if they were sounds like to me there were rioting in the playground no Xavier what else has black lives matter done besides Loot and Riot and cause division here's what I want here's what I want to discuss for our parents and teachers watching and listen I the fact that we're laughing here we listen nothing about this is silly we're talking about history we're talking about American history we are talking about I you know contrary to if you just joined us and I'm laughing you know we do I do and I know that you feel the same way we are firmly rooted in we are united out of many one together as one no matter what our difference is in this country and that's always the foundation for the for the education that we produce at pru kids especially but when I look at the month of February and I see that black lives matter Spirit Week in schools for the first week of February um and this is a nationwide thing I have an article pulled up um admittedly from you know February 6 from the daily wire and this is an article uh from a few weeks ago talking about for the first week of Black History Month Satan Elementary School in Washington DC held a black lives matter at school spirit week that urged students to focus on race and sexual identity now race and sexual identity what does sexual identity have to do with studying figures like Martin Luther King or Ida B Wells or Booker T Washington or any other black Americans right what does sexual identity have to do with that answer me Exavier I feel like you have the answers to this well I have the answers of what they wanted to be what they wanted to be is they've created this massive umbrella I call it the bullying umbrella where they take all these different random Hot Topic victim Bingo type of issues and what whether it's race or your gender identity or your sexual identity or your pronouns of the week and they say that you have to support people's everchanging versions of all of these or what they identify as otherwise you're a terrible person and you are exiled from society and the fact that they're teaching that to kids this young is disgusting to me because if you're going to teach again like if you're going to teach the history of the Black American triumphs in America it does not need to be political you can just teach the history teach the facts that's what the people are being paid to do like I can let it slide having a Comm Harris coloring book I I know I know because you know she is is uh I say funny but not funny in the way she wants to be funny but she is always laughing um like she is a historical figure technically somehow but when it comes to things like BLM that is just so inherently political you cannot have a discussion about black lives matter without having a political discourse because look at what they've done look how many times they have been exposed over and over again because what happens to the kid who walks up to the teacher and goes well what has black lives matter done this this teacher now has to lie to this student and come up with all these narratives or put their own narratives onto that student so I'm I'm just very against putting something like that in school when they have done so much more destruction and I want to say more destruction than positive but I couldn't tell you was single positive of black lives matter but going back to the original question about the sexual identity being added into that as well that to me is just that should be illegal that should just be a Flatout crime and the way that they have grouped in these LGBT issues with black issues as if they have any correlation that is wild to me especially with the the trans movement because if you're being honest if you asked majority of black people and it wasn't on camera they would tell you they do not agree with this trans movement with this um particularly what the pressure that they're putting on kids they don't agree with the non-binary narratives the pronoun narratives black people culturally are very conservative behind the scenes it's just we've allowed this woke just disease to take over the narrative that surrounds black people well that yeah that's that's what I just I have a really hard time wrapping my head around it all because okay so if you look at this there's a flyer on this article black lives matter at school Sean spirit week and Monday so you know spirit week every parent knows when it's it's spirit week at school all of a sudden you have to like produce all these costumes all of a sudden like you become like the you know Halloween Headquarters at your house and you have to produce all these costumes for your kids to go to school and every day because they got to wear something that is uh you know celebrating the spirit day so on Monday and this was back the first week of February like I said uh BLM week spirit week was the first week of February and they popped it into Black History Month um so Monday kids were supposed to red to represent the blood that unites people of black African ancestry Tuesday you were to wear black represents the members of the black community uh Wednesday they wanted kids to wear green to represent the Abundant natural wealth of the continent of Africa Thursday then turned into where colors inspired by the inclusive rainbow flag and that's what got me because what does that have to do with black history it does not have anything to do with black American history or American history in the black community in America it just it has nothing to do with it and then Friday was where logos or colors inspired by BLM or historically black colleges and universities so this is where as a parent it gets really dicey because I don't know anyone who doesn't appreciate learning about all Americans I'm Armenian American I'm a fourth generation Armenian absolutely I think that children in schools should learn about the Armenian Genocide as part of world history as a mention what was America's role in it how did America respond as a part of American history but I don't think that these these types of you know education about topics concerning a particular community of people should be hijacked for political gain that's that's what really gets me that's what gets me um what would you I want to see if we can um look up some of the comments here see if anyone's following sometimes the comments are exploding sometimes people are on their coffee breaks let's see hold on uh Exavier while I'm looking up comments what is something I'm curious if you have any wishes for Black History Month I mean what should we do do you know what I mean like if you were in Char if someone said Exavier you are in charge of all of America what should we do tell me I would want if we were going to keep black history and I were the one orchestrating it I would make it how history should always be taught historically I think we should be teaching what actually happened I think we should be teaching like yes like these were the terrible blemishes of our past but this is how we progress as a country and this is how we've come so far because we shouldn't be putting this narrative into black kids' heads that oh you're still oppressed and all these terrible things happen to you it's like no like there are I think it's 2 million black millionaires in America today black people are better in America than or they're better off in America than they are in the entire world if you look at the statistics so I think we should be teaching people to recognize yes this is the good and yes this is the bad but we don't need to paint this colorful picture and lie about black history and tie in all these issues of today that have nothing to do with black history into black history we should be learning the real stories about people even like Rosa Parks people don't even know the real story of how everything went on with Rosa Parks I think that'd be amazing to teach I probably don't oh yes and how Rosa Parks like it was a pretty coordinated effort like when they had her go and sit on the bus and she took a stance like there was a plan there it wasn't just her randomly just being just fighting the power that day it was like no she was very calculated she was very smart very intelligent and I think if we taught black history and the proper way black I think black children one would feel a lot more empowered by just how smart and hardworking and how talented a lot of these people were and a lot of how their ancestors just accomplished so much and then I think it would also make less weird unnecessary awkwardness because you want to be telling white people all the time oh you guys are all terrible because this happened two years before your parents even met each other like it's just strange so you know what you know what gets me if we break it down like look at okay you just mentioned Rosa Parks Rosa Parks it was a I'm going to call it concentrated an educated effort yes for her to do what she did on that bus that we teach children across this country about every single year we teach them to stand up for what's right we teach them look at this woman who was so brave who put herself in this horrible situation to be humiliated to be you know very dangerous situation she stood up and spoke the truth to do what is right for the betterment of mankind yet how do you think some of these BLM proponents would react should another black woman stand up in a public place as Rosa Parks was to speak the truth about these political organizations would it be celebrated well it depends which side the political organizations are on if it's pushing this woke narrative this divisive narrative dare I even say some of them are black supremacist narratives then they'd be all for it they'd have their fists up high they'd be marching on right alongside but if it's a slightly more conservative organization or even just a conservative individual that they're guing behind like someone as accomplished as a Larry Elder or a Clarence Thomas then it's World War II immediately all within the United States it's very it's it's disheartening that we're not allowed to teach more depth and there's so much more to black history and so many more accomplishments that should be talked about and we should be talking more about the unity like I even talk about with the Jewish and the black community and how historically there was such a strong Unity there like if you look up the stories in Selma how people were sacrificing their lives just for the fight to make sure that black people could vote but now there's narratives trying to put black people in the Jewish Community against each other and I think that if we actually knew how far we have come and we acknowledged how far we have come people would be so much more at peace with each other mhm yeah yeah I hope I hope you're right let me um let me see teach the words of those in history not what modern people think or say about historical times that was from Janna let me see yes we need to stop analyzing history from the perspective of somebody in 2024 this comment from Alina and I'm reading these cold I'm not screening these uh blacks represent less than 19% of Americans whites non-hispanic Latinos are close to 60% it is impossible to integrate all Races without bringing down someone no one teaches to be grateful for our advancements of society Unity Alina yes let me see could you imagine who's this Curtis could you imagine saying that BS to Jewish people or Native American Prager you shame on you oh I'm sorry you feel that way Curtis maybe you didn't hear the full conversation or maybe we just have to agree to disagree and you'll be okay uh mainstreaming ideologies that are not mainstream this is teaching a worldview when is Christian History Month when is American History Month um this brings Jonna left that message to I'm or Jana if I'm pronouncing your name correctly I am curious uh because sometimes you know we get we do Caught Up get caught up and I myself get caught up and saying absolutely sure let's learn about everybody but do we think now we've reached a point where compartmentalizing everything has divided us even further it definitely has divided us even further what's the logical argument that I can see of somebody pushing because if they got rid of black history month I wouldn't necessarily be opposed to it because again it's been befed at this point but when it comes to black history there like there is still a lot that needs to be taught there and I just think it makes sense from an educational standpoint to have a section of your year where it's like it's taught in schools I think for schools and like these young children who are learning about it it it is beneficial I guess to have the month of February to talk about these issues and just have a focus I don't think the entire world needs to revolve around black people in the month of February that's like very strange but I can understand just with like the jaded history that there is from what happened centuries ago in black history it makes sense to teach um with a more concentrated effort I got you for organizational purposes for the teachers yeah I know what you mean I know what you mean because yeah they a lot of teachers have a lot of stuff on them right now with having to you know check all the boxes fill all the gaps yeah I got you uh all right let me share one more thing about you Xavier thank you for being here of course I I sent him a note yesterday everyone and I said hey you want to come on to the live with me we're going to talk he's game for anything this is your recent if you have watched this yet Xavier did a really great 5minute video for us when did this debut I can't even see my own screen I think it was February 3rd it was February 3rd okay yeah around then first week of February so the title of your five minute video is the real victims of affirmative action I'm just going to play a little bit of it for people to hear and this is on prageru.com you can watch it um I just want to watch it I'm going to put this on so that I know when to stop take a listen I was having lunch with some new friends suddenly out of the blue one of them said hey Xavier did you just draw a smiley face on your application to get in here puzzled I asked what does that mean you know you're black and probably had decent grades you could have just attached a smiley face and I'm sure you would have gotten in I stared back at him dumbfounded then I just got angry I told him about the Merit Scholarships I had earned none of which had anything to do with my race I was even in the honors program he got the picture and immediately apologized for about an hour I felt very proud of myself I told this guy where he could stick his bigotry then suddenly a feeling of doubt that I never felt before swept over me all right so I just watched the first part of your video it was your words so you already know what it's about but it was the story about how you you were valid dictorian of your high school you have you were you had all these incredible accomplishments Merit scholar honors program you go to college you're sitting at the lunch table and the guys said sitting we're laughing it's not funny but laugh at My Pain In the words of Kevin I'm not laughing at your pain no but the guy at the lunch table said oh hey how'd you get in you probably could have just drawn a smiley face on your application and then um and and then you told them where to stick it and then you felt good about yourself for an hour and then you realize you had self-doubt and the title of this video again is the real victims of affirmative action um if you have not watched this F minute video I really recommend that you watch it because you really always have a very very very rational and levelheaded way of thinking and communicating thank you real actual life experience that you know people you really shared a lot in this video uh tell me a little bit about that experience um yes so that that was one of those moments that I knew I was always going to remember because it was after that moment that it dawned on me and it started getting into my head that because of things like affirmative action which I think just going into the history briefly of affirmative action it made sense to an extent when it first started in the 60s when we're integrating it's like there were a lot of businesses that did not want to integrate but now it's like that is so far from the issue so we really should not have affirmative action in the workplace or in schools because I just find it to be unfair but what happened in that or what inspired the video is what I was thinking about it it's I spent so much time after that incident at the lunch table thinking how many people are looking at me thinking that I don't deserve to be here and then I start thinking maybe I don't deserve to be here and even though everything in my track record I was in 15 clubs two sports validor and did all these different things and yet I was sitting there wondering did I actually earn my place here because of policies like affirmative action then you have the other side of that where there are people who don't actually really have the skill sets to be there if for just being totally honest and when they start to fail they start pointing at this person and this person then this person saying it's your fault teachers that I'm failing it's your fault schools that I'm failing because you're all racist and you're making me uncomfortable because I'm black and all these different narratives start to go into their head when really they could have went to a perfectly good University that is slightly less rigorous that would have been more appropriate for their skill set and then they could have succeeded but instead they went to the school that was above their their skill set and now when they fail that is a huge blow to their confidence it's a huge blow to the way they perceive themselves and the world and no one talks about that those are the real victims of affirmative action and I just do not understand why we continue to have affirmative action to this day yeah I don't I don't know I don't know but Exavier if you ruled a lot of the things that need reform right now I feel like we would be in good shape you're going make me run for president I feel like I know I feel like you're young you got time you got time to think about it oh man okay listen up I want to thank first of all I want to thank you for coming here very spontaneously saying hey let's talk about Black History Month are you cool with it yeah you know I follow Xavier on Instagram because when you follow him and this is for you know parents and teachers you're just you're just such a you're a really enlightening example for young people particularly high school students um you know some of the things you say I don't know if it's appropriate for elementary school middle school I don't believe in elementary and middle school kids being on social media but if you have high school students you're really you're really insightful about a lot of things and I've learned a lot from you and and um thanks for being here just to you know talk about how we we believe wholeheartedly in learning American history black black history Native American history we believe in wholeheartedly learning American history out of many different types of communities As Americans together but what we don't believe in is the the victim mindset and of course not the Pol po politi politicization politici politi politici politicization we don't believe in politicking to our young students by way of something that is meant to be educational or something as you know black history month so anyways thank you for being here if you have not Subs subscribed to prer kids.com yet for free get to it people and watch all the episodes of Guess or mess with Xavier quizzing young children about Carrie strug Benjamin Harrison Chester A Arthur George P Mitchell John Tyler William Henry Harrison lenoy asham and more it's all it's all on our website Prager kids.com for free We wish all of you parents godp speed and good luck educating your kids always you know you can find All of Us online on Instagram on prer kids.com for any questions and until next time we will say goodbye