In a high school classroom in Hillsboro, Texas, county seat of Hill County, population 8,456, John Sepocs was teaching his social studies class of 25 students about the Tulsa race massacre. The class is an honors class on Civil Rights in America. John is white, as are most public school teachers in America, and most of his students are non-white, as are the large majority of public school students in America. The class had just watched a video of the destruction of Tulsa’s Black Wall Street, and the killing of 300 black residents and merchants. John’s curriculum included a wide array of materials on the origin of slavery in America, the ownership of slaves by the founding fathers of our democracy, the origins of the Civil War, the Emancipation Proclamation, Reconstruction, the rise of the Ku Klux Klan, race riots, lynching, the Supreme Court’s creation of the “separate but equal” doctrine, segregation, the Civil Rights Act of 1964, George Floyd’s murder, Black Lives Matter protests, and the aftermath of the 2020 election in which many states enacted restrictive voting laws.

Sepocs asked his students questions as a basis for critical and sometimes animated discussion: Is one race in America seen as inherently superior to another race? Should a person receive adverse or beneficial treatment because of his or her race? Should an individual’s moral character or worth be determined by his or her race? Should an individual feel guilt, anguish, discomfort or psychological distress on account of his or her race? Is there racial inequality in the U.S. today? If there is, why? Are slavery and racism deviations from the authentic founding principles of the United States, including liberty and equality, or is race and racial bias a systemic part of American society that is embedded in virtually every aspect of American life?

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