Road to Rwanda---Created Equal

 

“We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of happiness”. 

I suspect that you are not going to like this post and are also going to be surprised (shocked).

Yesterday in my AP World History class, I read the above beginning to the US Declaration of Independence.  I was just hurrying through it, assuming they had heard it many times (and I am SURE they have heard it before in many contexts, but obviously had not stopped to really "hear" it.) I was part way through, when one of the girls asked me to stop.  They could see the words written on the overhead.The phrase she was questioning was that we believe "all men are created equal".  She asked me to tell them again where this was written? I told them.  She said, "Isn't that ironic?" and the whole class burst out laughing.  I stopped, absolutely stunned.  I told them that this was one of the most basic tenets of America! That we were taught this from early childhood. That we fought and continue to fight to defend this concept.  They just stared at me in astonishment.  This was in no way the image they carry of the US.  Remember these are modern, brilliant African teenagers who know our history of slavery, and Jim Crow laws, Martin Luther King, Jr., civil rights movement, current racial divides, etc.  They were not buying at all that we actually believe this....even if it is written in some of our most famous and important documents.  I did not continue to talk about this point right then. I will cycle back to it in the next few days when I have had time to get over my shock and horror that these bratty kids do not believe we actually mean what we say!!