Did you know that the boat in the logos of both Manchester United and Manchester City soccer clubs represents a slave ship? Probably not, and neither did senior Nathan De Carvalho before he signed up for African American Studies last year.
African American Studies is a mixed-level honors and Advanced Placement (AP) senior history class that is new to the high school this year. The class explores the African American experience through discussion and primary sources.
African American Studies is taught by Social Studies Curriculum Coordinator Jen Martin, who said the class builds on the knowledge that students learned in U.S. History classes but through the lens of the African-American experience.
“I think it’s super unique. I do not know another class where you’re literally back-to-back, taking something that you actually built your knowledge on, and now you get to use it to understand something different,” Martin said.
According to Martin, the class offers a multitude of ways to learn, from field trips to guest speakers. Martin said that the topics the class teaches are very relevant to the modern world.
“America in general is more interested in African American history and culture than it ever has been,” Martin said. “So, in some ways, I’m thinking about DoRRS [Day of Racial Reform and Solidarity] and stuff where we talk about what is still going on in the country [and] why it is still hurting [people] of color.”
According to Martin, the class is more than just a traditional history class, as it incorporates many different learning experiences.
“It’s also cool, looking at paintings and listening to music and it’s not just reading and learning the history of it,” Martin said. “We’re trying to figure out the why.”
The main differences between the AP and honors curricula are in the workload and difficulty of tests, quizzes, homework and note-taking assignments. Senior Babette Hall said that she doesn’t notice the difference between levels much.
“I think [mixed levels] brings a lot of kids together. [..] I miss my WHISP [World History: Identity, Status and Power] class, where I met a bunch of different people that I wasn’t always in the same class with, which was super great. I feel like a lot of times the class levels can kind of divide. […] It doesn’t leave space for more kids to meet each other,” Hall said.
Senior Ilan Lusczynski-Williams took the class because he is deeply interested in history and thought the class would be intriguing. He said the most interesting project he has done this year was looking at the evolution of enslaved Africans’ names through primary sources and other documents.
“I did not realize how much there was for us to look at, and how names were either African names, but then African names that were anglicized,” Lusczynski-Williams said. “Or that the slave owner would call the slave one thing, and the slaves would be able to maintain their African name that way.”
Many students mentioned that they enjoyed the discussion aspect of the class. Martin said that there hasn’t been a class so far this year where students haven’t had the chance to talk with each other.
“It’s just a really fun group of kids who are genuinely interested in actually talking about real topics and they don’t all agree with each other, which is so cool,” Martin said. “So when I pose a thought-provoking question, people will actually debate each other about whether it is true or not true.”
De Carvalho said it’s great to take a class centered around one’s own identity, especially in a positive light. He said even if one doesn’t identify as a person of color, they still learn about things they never expected to learn about.
“Being able to do group work and talk to people, and also the fact that not necessarily just a history class, you get to connect things from the outside world that isn’t necessarily directly history. Could be math, sciences, religion, etc- that makes class more interesting,” De Carvalho said.
According to senior Joey Elasmar, there are many different opinions represented in African American Studies, which creates an interesting and well-rounded class environment .
“There’s a lot of diversity in that class; the people are very different. Like, you have people doing three histories, and then you have people [for whom] this is their only history class, and there are [people for whom] this is the first AP class. So you have a lot of differing viewpoints,” Elasmar said.
Hall said she would recommend the class to current juniors. She said they should not be worried about the workload and that it is not an overly stressful class.
“I think it’s somewhere where I’ve been able to find a space to just be fully enveloped by the content, […] instead of worried about the next homework or how difficult this class is gonna be and worried about my grade. It’s more so a learning opportunity,” Hall said. “Which is super cool, because I feel like BHS, especially, everyone’s worried about how they do in the class, which is kind of sad.”
According to Hall, African American studies is an incredibly important class at the high school because it helps to provide more space to talk about the Black experience.
“A lot of the teachers are talking about how they want to implement [diversity] in the curriculum and make it a very normal thing that is talked about,” Hall said. “[It’s important to] create space for it to be talked about and for different experiences to be shared.”
