I get lots of email from cops and prison psychologists and others who work on the front lines.

This might be the most important letter of all:

Somewhat recently on WGBAL I listened to you as a guest on a radio show/podcast where either you or the DJ made side comment… about what upsets today’s black children.

The answer was slavery. Black kids in this 21st century were upset and worried about slavery. What!?!?!? How can children, born after the year 2000 be upset over this- being afraid that slavery can harm them or they themselves may some day be in servitude once again?

Having worked as a children’s librarian for nearly a decade… and interacting with black children, families and schoolteachers (and their white counterparts) there is something I noticed. Though elementary school may not have “Critical Race Theory” being promoted in their hallways… yet; there is an obsession with other racial matters, specifically- the slavery era.

Though there are plenty of books about famous black inventors, athletes, military leaders and blacks in different historical eras… such as the 1920s (Harlem Renaissance), 1800s Buffalo Soldiers, 1700s-1800s Free People of Color, WWII overseas and home-front blacks… plus, modern setting books with blacks; these are not books that are sought. Books about slavery seem to be the only thing on their reading lists.

If not about slavery… then books about discrimination were always requested. This is the only perspective so many youngsters are getting.

When the School Library Journal came out with a list of “diverse” children’s books… there are titles about slave ships, Jim Crow Mississippi and the like. Everything about slavery is focused on American slavery; and the white-black dynamic of it. Slavery in America and elsewhere is a lot more complicated than that.

Oh, and this same list has a children’s book about a little black Muslim girl who lives in Mauritania, Africa… and who wants to wear a head-to-toe covering like the other “grown up Muslim women.”

My jaw dropped when I saw that. Especially, reviews about the book says its a “positive portrayal” of Islamic culture. Seriously?

In the 21st Century… Mauritania still has black slavery- as in black people being bought, sold and owned by black Muslim and Arab Muslim people. Countless women instead of wanting to be covered, wish to live their lives NOT as 3rd class citizens and be free of body coverings. Many more want a stop to female genital mutilation and would like to have educations. This is Mauritania TODAY.

This book is promoted as being “diverse” and be all touchy feely about wonderful Muslim Africa and Islam. Islam for the past 1400 years has had continual slavery- mostly targeting black people.