How I Address African American History

Do you ever wonder how to address issue in your classroom that are stereotypically touchy subjects? Teaching about African American history is one of those areas. I teach both American and World hisory and it is easier to address African Americans in American history rather than World history. One of the reasons for this is because in American history we use the Jim Crow laws and Civil Rights Movement as the springboard for discussion. This will usually talk about how mistreated blacks have been in history. This also leads to discussions of other minority groups that have been mistreated.
On the flipside with World History we talk about how it was not whites who went to Africa and enslaved the Africans. Students do not like being told that something new to what they have generally is the truth. I have also found a disinterest from African American students on their culture or history. But when we discussed reparations and who should receive them and for what circumstances shoud individuals receive monetary settlements they all believed that they should receive money for what happened 150 years ago.
I do try to cover all cultures in my classroom and I do expect the students to pay attention and participate. I would like all of the youth to look at their backgrounds and understand why they are the way they are. Unfortunately that is only happening with a handful of individuals.