“It is hard to ignore the realities of indigenous boarding schools when you have to reckon with the countless unnamed burials attached to these schools,” Flewellen says. “It is impossible to ignore the travesty of the Tulsa race massacre when you are confronted with the actual mass burials of African Americans who sought to live there.”

Flewellen is especially troubled by the seeming lack of concern among some political figures for students who come from communities that have seen their histories either whitewashed or left out.

Political and educational leaders in places such as California, Texas and Florida, where the scholar grew up, have moved to ban the study of systemic injustice under the guise of eliminating critical race theory. Some school districts have imposed restrictions on teachings about gender on the grounds that affirming portrayals of LGBTQ people are harmful to children.

Source: Stanford archaeologist defends Black history, LGBTQ education – Los Angeles Times