Taylor Cassidy made her way into viewers’ minds (and Time’s 100 Creators list) with her TikTok series Fast Black History, in which she showcases a variety of Black historical figures and their accomplishments to her audience of more than two million followers. In her YA nonfiction debut, Black History Is Your History, she continues to highlight the impact of influential Black leaders by showcasing more than just pain. Here, Cassidy reflects on how her own experience learning Black history in classrooms discouraged her from wanting to engage with the subject, and why she’s taken it upon herself to find a new way to look at the past.
I remember it happening twice in my childhood. The first time was in fifth grade when my classmates and I were working together on our history assignment. Hearing a student from our group read an excerpt aloud from the textbook about enslaved people’s lives in 1800s America, a kid nearly choked on her own gasp upon hearing the term “KKK.” Whipping her head toward me, then back to the other student, she whispered in panic, “Don’t say that around her!” It happened again in eighth grade when I had a bully who loved to remind me every day how much I stood out for being the only Black student in our class. There I was minding my business, and after the teacher uttered “KKK” during his lesson, you would have thought my bully’s favorite contestant from Love Island was booted off the show. His resounding, “You can’t say that, she’s right there!” made embarrassment and frustration flood my face with heat.
All I wished back then was to be like everyone else, try to get good grades, and hopefully survive middle school. But what I was being taught from bullies, obvious stares from students during the slavery portion of history class, and my friends shutting down anytime race came into our conversations was that Blackness was placed into a box labeled, “Sad and Traumatic. Do not touch.” Years later, I’ve learned a thing or two about how this happens in schools. I’ve also contemplated yelling, “BLEH BLEH, KKK!” in a Dracula voice to scare away strangers trying to touch my curls without asking, but my rule of thumb is to do things that wouldn’t make my ancestors roll in their grave, so….
My woes came from being singled out, but it also plagued me during middle school to see curricula teach about Black people from such a flat lens. Whereas Black history was mostly associated with violence, slavery, and endless fighting for change in school, my home was a sharp contrast where bookshelves were filled with world history, walls were blanketed with art depicting Black culture, and Alex Haley’s Roots was our choice for family TV night. I now understand why my parents gave me fun Black history lessons, trips to museums, and surrounded me with cultural arts. They knew that the little Black history taught in my school would be strictly from a lens of trauma when the truth held so much more possibility. My parents wanted to build my sense of self-worth and education by not only teaching the cruel reality of slavery and uphill battle for civil rights, but also how Black people still triumphed in diverse careers and led complex and extraordinary lives. They made sure I knew my people’s role in creating, developing, and advancing U.S. history inside and outside of slavery. When history is taught to you in such a complex way, you can’t help but become excited to learn about it!
That curiosity is what I bring to my book Black History Is Your History. I wrote this book after spending five years teaching Black history on TikTok. Millions of people following my page and sharing their newfound curiosity proved to me that when you learn history from a context of joy, you’re more likely to stop shying away from conversations about today’s society and release your own limits about how Black people can make history. Black History Is Your History is an extension of that mission, with 12 Black historical figures’ stories and 12 personal lessons from my own life to make Black history relatable, humorous, and fun.
This book is meant to engage every young reader who might stay away from educational writing. The purpose is not only to teach Black history in a way that opens their world, but also to help them feel seen in their daily struggles of growing up, just like I needed in that eighth-grade class. They’ll see themselves in each historical figure while I guide them by using examples of modern challenges and self-growth from my own life. When the book closes, readers will have learned how to fearlessly analyze and talk about events from a broader historical context and believe in their ability to make some history of their own.
Black History Is Your History by Taylor Cassidy, illus. by Adriana Bellet. Atheneum, $19.99 Oct. ISBN 978-1-66595-770-0
