Certainly they had to know this could be problematic in the age of "CONTEXT? We don't need no stinking CONTEXT!"
ATLANTA CHARTER SCHOOL UNDER FIRE FOR BLACKFACE DEPICTION
An Atlanta charter school is under fire for conveying blackface masks while reciting a historic African-American poem that symbolizes black oppression.
Second-graders on Thursday held up blackface masks in a reading of 19th-century author Paul Laurence Dunbar’s poem “We Wear the Mask" as part of the school's black history program, according to The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. The performance at The Kindezi School at Old Fourth Ward is now facing criticism from the community and parents who have questioned the masks' context.
According to a widely shared Facebook post, which was reported by the Journal-Constitution, one parent said that "Kindezi Old Fourth Ward has to do better."
https://www.newsweek.com/atlantic-charter-school-under-fire-depiction-867367
Here's the poem:
It hides our cheeks and shades our eyes,—
This debt we pay to human guile;
With torn and bleeding hearts we smile,
And mouth with myriad subtleties.
Why should the world be over-wise,
In counting all our tears and sighs?
Nay, let them only see us, while
We wear the mask.
We smile, but, O great Christ, our cries
To thee from tortured souls arise.
We sing, but oh the clay is vile
Beneath our feet, and long the mile;
But let the world dream otherwise,
We wear the mask!
The devil made me do it the first time, second time I done it on my own - W
Quote:
ATLANTA CHARTER SCHOOL UNDER FIRE FOR BLACKFACE DEPICTION
An Atlanta charter school is under fire for conveying blackface masks while reciting a historic African-American poem that symbolizes black oppression.
Second-graders on Thursday held up blackface masks in a reading of 19th-century author Paul Laurence Dunbar’s poem “We Wear the Mask" as part of the school's black history program, according to The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. The performance at The Kindezi School at Old Fourth Ward is now facing criticism from the community and parents who have questioned the masks' context.
According to a widely shared Facebook post, which was reported by the Journal-Constitution, one parent said that "Kindezi Old Fourth Ward has to do better."
https://www.newsweek.com/atlantic-charter-school-under-fire-depiction-867367
Here's the poem:
Quote:
We wear the mask that grins and lies, It hides our cheeks and shades our eyes,—
This debt we pay to human guile;
With torn and bleeding hearts we smile,
And mouth with myriad subtleties.
Why should the world be over-wise,
In counting all our tears and sighs?
Nay, let them only see us, while
We wear the mask.
We smile, but, O great Christ, our cries
To thee from tortured souls arise.
We sing, but oh the clay is vile
Beneath our feet, and long the mile;
But let the world dream otherwise,
We wear the mask!
The devil made me do it the first time, second time I done it on my own - W