*Roni Dean Burren, the mother of a 15-year-old boy complained about a passage in his geography book that was bothering her son.
The passage read, “The Atlantic slave trade between the 1500s and the 1800s brought millions of workers from Africa to the southern United States to work on agricultural plantations.” Burren was immediately shocked by the language that was used in this educational book and decided to make a video.
The giant book publishing firm had to rewrite the textbook because this mother voiced her concerns on social media platforms like YouTube. She rightfully did so because the book had labeled slaves as workers as ‘immigrants’. She did this when she noticed her son’s textbook titled ‘World Geography’ had notes in a section called ‘Patterns of Immigration.’
In her video, she says the word ‘immigrants’ matters a lot. This is because, between the 1500s and the 1800s, millions of African workers had been brought in to Southern states to work at agricultural plantations. She identified that history cannot be masked over by labeling slavery as mere immigration.
This section of the book also adds that these European immigrants were brought in as indentured servants who had to work for very little or no pay at all. Even though they may be correct about the British and European people, but there was no mention in the book about African slaves working as slaves!
Not only did this concerned mother voice her problems with the text, but she also found that the book had been signed off by the Texas Advisory Board. This means that many professional consultants had gone through the book and had agreed with these ludicrous facts.
Well, McGraw-Hill had swiftly responded to the mother’s call on social media via their Facebook page. In a statement, the publisher expressed regret and promised to fix the section of the book. They also said that the next version will be run as a digital version first. The mother’s response to this was even more beautiful and empowering.
She shared McGraw-Hill’s post there and wrote,” This is change people!!! This is why your voices matter!!! You did this!!!! And to my sweet boy, my only son…. my man Coby Burren… look at your power son!!! #blackboysmatter #blacklivesmatter.”
From her post, we can see that we are all representatives of our history and our future. We should be loud and eloquent about whatever affects our community. Well done Roni!
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