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Necessary but Uncomfortable

Guilford public schools are confronting structural racism as we navigate changing times. This is important work and deserves our support.

Growing up in Guilford during the Civil Rights Era, I learned in school about consequential legislation like the Civil Rights Act and the Voting Rights Act, but we never fully addressed racial equity. The horrors of Jim Crow made it easy to be for civil rights for Blacks, because we treated it as a Southern problem. In those days, we overlooked our own complicity in perpetuating racism.

Today’s Guilford Public Schools (GPS) curriculum is facing the necessary but uncomfortable reckoning with our history of racism. Our discomfort should force us to come to terms with things we have done and said or supported that today could be seen as racist. Superintendent of Schools Dr. Paul Freeman and GPS are prepared to directly engage the issues, and future Guilford students will be the wiser for this. They’ll be better prepared to interact in today’s complex society.

Teachers in the Guilford public schools are learning as well. Dr. Freeman took a bold step to assign them a provocative book by an anti-racist scholar. Reading such provocative literature can be a catalyst for working through these issues and should be praised rather than denigrated.

Sanitizing history is not patriotic. America is stronger if we confront the good and the bad. Americans must understand our complex and sometimes ugly history as we strive to improve our country. Fifty years ago, many would have argued against the proposition that slaves were held in Guilford. In 2021, we know differently, having learned from the research of our 8th graders.

The superintendent should stay the course and the community needs to support him and our teachers in these efforts.

Tim Sperry

Guilford