Dibny Gamez said her 14-year-old daughter, Ayesha, could not complete the assignment because it made her feel uncomfortable. Ayesha is among a small number of Black students in the class.
"She just starts tearing up,” Gamez said. “And I was, like, 'No, listen, you don't have to be ashamed of who you are.' I said, 'You are beautiful for who you are. Don't let not one soul make you uncomfortable for who you are.'”
Assignments asking students to role-play enslaved people or slave owners trivialize or distort the actual events of slavery, said Justin Grinage, a professor of curriculum and instruction at the University of Minnesota who focuses his research on race and education.
“The best-case scenario with lessons like this is that students come away with a fabricated lie about history. So, best-case scenario, they don't really learn anything, or they learn the wrong thing,” Grinage said. “Worst-case scenario is that it's a deeply traumatic experience for students of color, particularly Black students.”