Oral History Interview with Shawnta Freeman

Title

Oral History Interview with Shawnta Freeman

Interviewee

Shawnta Freeman

Interviewer

Lizzy Ray

Description

Shawnta Freeman of Oxon Hill, Maryland was interviewed by Lizzy Ray, a Sewanee student, on October 26th, 2023 on Zoom. While their conversation was primarily on the Black Lives Matter Movement, they also discussed the variation of the amount of Black History taught in public schools between various localities. We hope that this conversation will assist scholars with a further understanding of race in the United States during the early twenty-first century. Please click on the link to see the full interview.

Transcript

1:26 Lizzy Ray: I am just having this be muted for the time being until Shawnta shows up. Just FYI.

6:10 Shawnta Freeman: Okay, now I'm un-mute. There we go. Here we go. Hello.

6:17 Lizzy Ray: Hi. How are you?

6:20 Shawnta Freeman: Hey! You look like your mom!

6:25 Lizzy Ray: How are you?

6:29 Shawnta Freeman: I'm well. How are you? Sorry I'm late.

6:32 Lizzy Ray: Oh, you're completely fine. Nothing to ever be sorry about.

6:38 Shawnta Freeman: Cool beans. Okay. I'm ready when you are.

6:41 Lizzy Ray: Awesome. Well, I got to start out with some formality things that I've been given. Okay. This is Lizzy Ray from Sewanee, the University of the South. It is October 26th, 5:48 Eastern time. I'm with, can you state your name and where you're from?

7:03 Shawnta Freeman: My name is Shawnta Freeman. I am from Washington D.C. I reside in Oxon Hill, Maryland.

7:11 Lizzy Ray: Awesome. Thank you so much, Shawnta, for being here. Okay. So Shawnta, are you originally from Washington D.C?

7:22 Shawnta Freeman: I am. I was born and raised here.

7:25 Lizzy Ray: Awesome. Well, thank you. What kind of community would you say you had growing up?

7:37 Shawnta Freeman: What kind of community did I have growing up, a chaotic community. I grew up kind of in an urban neighborhood, so to say. It was very, it put it in the, guess nice way... Ummm... No really nice way to say it. Kind of grew up in a challenging neighborhood. My family was great for the most part. We did have some challenges, but no family goes without challenges, but the community itself wasn't the best place for a child to be raised or pretty anyone to be honest. So the community wasn't that great of a community, but I did grow up there. There were some, I guess life lessons that I learned, but I don't think that I would choose to raise my children in that type of environment.

8:56 Lizzy Ray: What would you call your community today?

9:01 Shawnta Freeman: The same. Not much has changed since... within my community since I left. It probably maybe is a lot worse than it was when I was younger. I don't think much has developed in the community. I don't think that anything has been done to enhance the community at all. I kind of think that it's one of those places where either you get stuck there and trapped there and you never leave or you kind of figure out how to get out and you succeed. It's one of the two. There's no in-between.

9:51 Lizzy Ray: Well, thank you. What do you do for a living and what has kind of led you to this job?

10:03 Shawnta Freeman: Oh, wow. So I am a, I'm not going to, I get confused with my title, but basically kind of what I do is compliance in nature. I check over things and make sure they're right. I make sure they're following the regulatory laws, and I also make sure that they're following the company laws. I work for Wells Fargo, so there's a whole bunch of, not company laws, but policies. There's a whole bunch of rules and regulations that banks have to follow, and I kind of go in and make sure that we're following those rules and regulations. How did I get there? I started out in banking as a teller almost 20 years ago, like 18 and a half years ago. From being a teller, I transitioned to a teller manager from a teller manager to a... goodness, a credit associate, and then from a credit associate to a... goodness, a credit something manager, and from there to this position where I'm at now.

11:23 Lizzy Ray: Awesome, thank you. Well, I know you have a daughter, Destiny, what kind of, was Destiny raised in Washington DC or in Maryland, where you now reside?

11:43 Shawnta Freeman: Destiny was raised all over. I feel that. So Destiny was born in DC. She was born in DC then we moved to Greensboro, so she was kind of raised there a little while. Then we moved back to DC and then she spent maybe her teenage through now life in Maryland.

12:10 Lizzy Ray: Awesome. Thank you.

12:12 Shawnta Freeman: So she's been a couple of places.

12:14 Lizzy Ray: Yeah, me too. Ummm... So what would you say was the school life for Destiny, or how would you say you kind of raised her about, well actually scratch that. I want to get back to you. Sorry. What kind... In school, what kind of things were you taught about regarding the Black Power Movement or the Civil Rights Movement?

12:55 Shawnta Freeman: One of the things that I kind of really, really admire now that I'm an adult about my school system, because I went to school in DC public schools, and one of the things that I admire now that I know a lot of people didn't get is that we were taught about black history in DC public schools, and we were taught a lot about black history in DC public schools, and not just your cliche civil rights leaders and the surface level, Martin Luther King and Malcolm. We were taught a whole variety of different things down to in DC learning about the architecture of DC was originally designed by a French man, but he got mad and left and a black man took over. So a lot of people don't know that, and so my schooling system taught a lot and didn't necessarily focus on black power, so to say, but just educating their students about the impact of black influences in the world and not just the United States, but in the world. And it wasn't just centered on those really big historical figures, but even down to the really small impacts that we made. So I was really surprised at some of the things that we learned in DC and I used to think that DC school systems suck until I became an adult, and I was like, you guys didn't learn that? Okay, well, maybe the school system wasn't that bad.

14:56 Lizzy Ray: Yeah, no.

14:57 Shawnta Freeman: But yeah,

14:58 Lizzy Ray: I've interviewed another person and she did not learn anything like that in her all the way from elementary to high school years. They barely scratched the black power surface her last year of high school, so...

15:13 Shawnta Freeman: Oh, wow. From as early as I can remember to kindergarten to high school, we always did something black history related, and it wasn't just in the month of February. It was like throughout school, we've always did something black history related, and it wasn't just like when you think black power, you kind of think Black Panther because that's, I'm not going to say it's centric, but it's rooted in the fist raise the fight for your rights type of thing. Not necessarily in learning your history, but I think that's what your question is about black history. We learned that throughout my schooling, like from, again, from elementary school to high school. I remember learning something about someone black throughout the entire phase of my education.

16:31 Lizzy Ray: That's impressive. You sometimes don't even see that in current day schools with children. So...

16:39 Shawnta Freeman: I know; my daughter.

16:42 Lizzy Ray: Yeah. Did they have a similar curriculum when Destiny was in school or anything like that?

16:50 Shawnta Freeman: No, no. Again, so she went to school in three different states, and I definitely saw the difference in the education system in the three different states. In North Carolina... I don't remember there being any type of focus at all on black history or black culture in DC We get back to dc there was, and I think that has a lot to do with DC. The population in DC is heavily African-American, so of course you're going to get a lot of history there, and then you get to Maryland, the curriculum changed again. It wasn't that there was no black history, there was less history...

17:45 Lizzy Ray: Really?

17:45 Shawnta Freeman: in the Maryland education system. So I don't think that there was a black or any type of thing. It was just less history.

17:58 Lizzy Ray: Well, thank you. Okay. Now I'm going to get more into the Black Lives Matter and that sort of stuff. Okay. How do you receive the news? What news organizations do you read or listen to, that sort of thing?

18:20 Shawnta Freeman: I listen and read everything. That's my problem, I shouldn't... I literally, I read everything and listen to everything. I'm on TikTok, I'm on Facebook, I'm on Instagram, I'm on CNN, I'm on MSNBC, I'm on Fox, I'm on BBC. I get the news in Africa. I shouldn't look at as much news as I do, but I do. I think it's important to stay in touch with what's going on in the world because what's happening everywhere impacts how you live. So yeah, I'm in all types of news cast, news stations. I'm looking at everything.

19:13 Lizzy Ray: Awesome. Well, thank you. That also goes along with my next thing, but how did these different news articles, how did they report the Black Lives Matter to different aspects and stuff when you were reading them also with Current Day? How do you see the difference between these news articles, especially those international ones that you say you read?

19:40 Shawnta Freeman: Well, I think you have to, of course, everyone is gonna... going to report the news based on their audience, so they're going to cater to their audience, and you have to think about that when you are watching the news. The news is still entertainment. You know... You have to take it for what it is and what's that saying, believe half of what you hear or half of what you see and none of what you hear or something like that. The news is that you can't, they're going to cater to their audience, so they're going to report the news based on what their audience wants to hear. And the way that I take news when I'm hearing it from someone that's different from me is just the difference of opinion. And I think it's important to understand how other people think because not everyone is the same. Not everyone's going to think the same, and so that's just nature, that's human nature, and I don't know everyone.
20:49 I'm not going to come across everyone. And one of the ways that you do kind of see how other people think and react to things that's going on is through the news outlets because they cater to their audience. And so my reaction to certain things that some news outlets report is like, oh, I can't believe people think that way, or you know, that's sad that they think that way. Again, just knowing that not everything that the news report is fact or true because there's a lot of other things that go behind some people's actions or there's a lot of things that they don't report, they don't say in the news. Again, you have to remember that they're catering to their audience. So it's news, it's entertainment. Got to take news for what it is.

21:49 Lizzy Ray: You brought up TikTok, Instagram and Facebook. Currently, my TikTok is full of Palestinian Israeli conflict and then Funny Baby and Dog videos. What was your social media...

22:03 Shawnta Freeman: Balance

22:04 Lizzy Ray: Yeah, what was your social media during the Black Lives Matter movement? What did you see and how did you interact with social media during that time? Like 2020 and on?

22:18 Shawnta Freeman: So I'm a big empath, and when things happen like that, that's really sad. I disconnect from social media because I take on all of those emotions and then I become really, really sad. I always disconnect for a couple of weeks just because I will really engulf in whatever's going on, and I'll take on those emotions after finally being able to say, okay, I can get back on a lot of anger, rightfully so. I think that people are particularly, people are tired of being oppressed and tired of just, for lack of better word, being bullied. They're just, they want change. They want to feel human, like they're human and they want to feel safe and protected. They want to feel like that American dream also applies to them. All of those rights and protections that we talk about that is America. They want to feel like it applies to them, and so often we don't get that feeling, and sometimes it makes us angry, and that's kind of what I saw when I finally was able to get back on to the social media. It was a lot of anger, particularly from the African-American community, from the other side, I felt like there was a lot of fear, a fear of the unknown, like, okay, I don't know what's happening.
24:16:00 I see a lot of angry people and I can empathize with that too. It is like there's a lot of angry people out here, and I'm fearful that they might do something to me because they're angry at their circumstances, and so that's also challenging because I empathize with feeling that uncertainty. I don't know what's happening right now. This is something that I'm not used to, but yeah.

24:54:00 Lizzy Ray: Yeah, awesome.

24:55:00 Shawnta Freeman: Social media can, it's a gift and a curse sometimes.

24:57:00 Lizzy Ray: Oh, yeah, I do understand that. Did you ever feel any of that negativity on social media directed directly towards you or...?

25:08:00 Shawnta Freeman: No. No. Most of my accounts are private, so I only engage with people that I know that I never interact, and then the people that I know me, they don't try me in that way.

25:27:00 Lizzy Ray: Yeah. Okay. How did you first encounter the Black Lives Matter movement?

25:38:00 Shawnta Freeman: I think my first encounter with that particular movement was the Trayvon Martin experience. I think that's when I became aware of that group and what they stood for and what they were attempting to do and bringing awareness to the need of black people being protected and being treated the same as everyone else.

26:11:00 Lizzy Ray: Yeah. Awesome. How did you see the whole Trayvon Martin murder play out on social media, and how did you see that play out in the news?

26:30:00 Shawnta Freeman: I don't remember social media. I can't tell you social media, but I do remember the news and I do remember feeling very sad that this young man, they portrayed him as a criminal, all of his... I think kids, children, teenagers make choices that aren't the best, and his life choices got blasted in front of everyone to make it seem like it was okay that he got murdered because he made, and they weren't bad life choices, they were teenage life choices because he made teenage life choices, and I felt like the news made him to be this bad person, and I don't think that was fair for him. That kind of made me feel a little bit sad.

27:46:00 Lizzy Ray: Yeah.
27:50:00 What was your opinion of the Black Lives Matter movement in like 2014 when it first started becoming a thing?

27:59:00 Shawnta Freeman: I thought it was a good movement to have because again, you bring awareness to an issue that definitely needs attention. There's this thing happening where there's this group of people that they're not being treated fairly, they're not having the same experiences as everyone else, and there's never too many people to speak up for someone or something, or a group of people that's not being treated fairly. There's never enough people that could say, Hey, that's not right.

28:53:00 Lizzy Ray: What is your current opinion of the Black Lives Matter movement and how has it kind of evolved or...?

29:01:00 Shawnta Freeman: I still think it's a great movement. It's had some challenges with some of the bad press that it has gotten over the years, but I don't think that takes away from its overall goal. I think that sometimes that when you're doing something good, they try to pick out and point at the bad things because that's how they make the good that you're doing. They try to minimize the good that you're doing by pointing out those bad things. I still think the overall objective of the organization, it's still there.

29:48:00 Lizzy Ray: We talked about community towards the beginning of this. How did your community kind of react to the Black Lives Matter movement in the whole 2014 to 2020 and on sort of murders and occurrences?

30:06:00 Shawnta Freeman: I think that my community felt the same as all of the other African-American communities around the United States. Like, okay, it's about time that we see change. We've been fighting and fighting for all of these years and we still haven't seen the change that you promised us, and now it's just time. And I think that just having that Black Lives Matter organization or movement at the forefront was the glue that all of the communities, including my community, needed to make everyone come together and fight for something that was common, a common ground, common goal goal, which was treat us the same. And that's kind of what I noticed about the community, even though where I grew up, like I said in the beginning, wasn't the best environment. It wasn't somewhere that I would choose to raise my children. I think they still understood the importance for their future generations of protecting and providing justice for everyone. And the Black Lives Matter movement kind opened their eyes to that.

31:42:00 Lizzy Ray: Yeah. Awesome. What generation do you feel was most affected by the Black Lives Matter movement? Do you feel like it was more your daughter's generation, yours, your parents?

32:02:00 Shawnta Freeman: I definitely feel like it's my daughter's generation and generations after her, umm... generations before her, we've lived out most of our lives. We won't see the benefits of the Black Lives Matter movement until we're probably way older. We're seeing them, but I think you guys will really start to see the effects, and I can see it now, the way that this generation fights for what's right. They don't take any crap. It's like, you guys are straightforward. It's just amazing to see how you don't let anything stop you. And you do not by any means allow negativity or negative people to thrive in your spaces. You immediately saying, that's not right. You can't do that, and we won't allow you to do that. And I feel like that's a immediate impact of that Black Lives Matter movement, and that's continuing to trickle down into your generation and it's going to trickle down into generations after you, because you're learning to change. It's already starting to take place.

33:37:00 Lizzy Ray: How has the Black Lives Matter movement impacted your life as a whole or just in some parts? Essentially?

33:48:00 Shawnta Freeman: I think that just before Black Lives Matter, I have always been like, I've always known that being black comes with certain responsibilities and just certain things that you know about being black that you just know. And I think I took for granted, my grandma grew up in the south and she would always tell me, oh, you can't do this and you don't go in this neighborhood and you can't do this around these people. And I'm like, but they're just people. And I took that for granted, and I think the Black Lives Matter movement and the whole, just everything that happened during that time kind of opened my eyes to racism, and it made it make me feel like, okay, it's not really that distant. So before I kind of felt like racism was just a distant thing, that was something that my grandmother experienced, and then Black Lives Matter happened, and I'm like, okay, it's not that distant. And then you start to see people around you and you start to experience little micro racism and then kind of impacts your day-to-Day life. And you start to notice things and you're like, okay, well, this is different. And all of that happened after the Black Lives of the Matter thing. And so for me, it just kind of opened my eyes just a little bit that everything wasn't as peachy as I thought, and I guess I was just living under this imagination, this imaginary rock, that everything was just nice and dandy.
35:50:00 Life is life.

35:53:00 Lizzy Ray: Yeah, it is. Umm... How did the movement affect your family and friends? How did they encounter the movement or how were they involved in some sort of way?

36:16:00 Shawnta Freeman: I think my nephews were the most impacted by the movement. I think that because a lot of the issues that happened happened with black men and they were in their phase of going from teenagers to manhood, and it kind of made them feel like, okay, well, this could happen to me. And it kind of scared them a little bit. So I think that my nephews were most impacted by everything that was happening, and it frightened them a little bit, but what I, what the Black Lives Matter movement did for them was make them feel empowered in taking back that strength and making them feel like they could fight for themselves really. And then in doing that, fighting for others. And so that was really good to see like my nephews go out and march and protest. And I was really proud auntie at that time because they was out fighting for fighting for everyone.

37:33:00 Lizzy Ray: Do they live in Maryland as well, or the DC area? Yeah. What was it like when your kids went to school, and I know in Asheville, my high school did a bunch of walkouts to downtown to protest and stuff. Did anything like that occur with your children's high schools or your nephew's high schools and stuff like that?

38:02:00 Shawnta Freeman: Yeah, I do not remember. There were a lot of protests in the area. I don't remember if Destiny Destiny or my nephew's school actually participated in any of 'em. I know that a lot of the schools around the city did do some walkouts.

38:27:00 Lizzy Ray: Awesome. Okay. Going back to your nephews, how have you seen this essentially change their aspect of life? How have you seen their view on the world kind of change through this whole movement?

38:52:00 Shawnta Freeman: I think that they're more, again, I don't think that they see things negatively. I don't think that the events, so to say, impacted their view of the world. I do think that the movement gave them hope and power in their voice, and I think the movement in itself made them feel like, okay, I may not be able to change the world, but there is something that I can do. I may not be able to make a big impact, but I can make this small impact. And I think that that's why they felt proud in doing the protest because of that small impact and just knowing that that's something that they could take with them. I may not be able to make this big change, but I can do something small.

39:58:00 Lizzy Ray: Awesome. How has the Black Lives Matter movement changed how you interact with people of other races?

40:13:00 Shawnta Freeman: I wouldn't say that it has changed how I interact with people of other races. I think that the movement in itself hasn't impact how I interact with other races. It did impact how I view policies in governments and the police and those types of things when it comes to people of other races, I think that culture and background and ethnicity plays a lot into how people interact with other people in other races and cultures, and not necessarily, I don't think Black Lives Matter had much to do with my interpretation or adjustment or any type of influence on me personally with dealing with other people, but it did highly impact how I view policies and government and police and our elected officials.

41:40:00 Lizzy Ray: Yeah. Could you go into more depth about what policies or how you said police and that sort of stuff?

41:50:00 Shawnta Freeman: So one of the biggest issues for me when thinking about Black Lives Matter and policies and police, black people are heavily incarcerated at a much higher rate than any other race. And then you have to think about, well, why is that? So you dive into those things, but why are African-Americans incarcerated more? And you look at the policies and then you look at some of the policies are targeted at American communities. When you look at, say, the sentences for crack cocaine versus the sentences for cocaine, the powder substance, you get a heavier sentence for crack cocaine than you do for the powder substance. Crack cocaine is more seen in African-American communities. The powder substance is more seen in white communities, and you look at the judges who's making the sentences. Those are elected officials, and you look at the police force who's training these people. I don't think that's a black or white thing. I just think that's a policy thing. They have no guidance, they have no training. There's no requirement for them to have a certain type of training to deal with mental illness. There is now, and they're still not everywhere. There is in some places. So all of those things that have changed because of Black Lives Matter and some of the things that were fought for during those time periods, but because of those time periods that made me look at the policies and what are we doing?
44:02:00 I don't think the police are bad. I do think there are bad police, but I also think there are bad people. So I also don't think the police are adequately trained to deal with every situation. So they react how they react as people, not as police officers. They act as people fearing for their lives. So you have to take that into account, and if you want them to act as police officers in certain situations, then you have to give them the tools that they need. And that's what I mean by it. It made me look at the policies and the laws, and it made me look at those things differently.

44:51:00 Lizzy Ray: Thank you for elaborating.

44:54:00 Shawnta Freeman: Oh, no problem.

44:56:00 Lizzy Ray: How do you think the Black Lives Matter movement has succeeded, or how do you think it has failed? Like what are some pros and cons or something like that?

45:06:00 Shawnta Freeman: So I think it has, going back to those examples that I think that it has succeeded where it has brought the attention to where there are areas that need attention, that, again, back to the police force, there's certain training that should be had and that can be had. And some police forces have heard that, and they said, okay, well, we're going to implement a mental health unit, so we'll respond to mental health, mental health crisis. Not by sending out armed police officers, but sending out a mental health unit, but still making it safe because people are crazy. They still might need an armed police officer, but let's make sure we have that mental health specialist to deal with that part of it too. So they heard that because of that movement that was heard. I think where it kind of dropped the ball was that the negative attention that it received on the back end with their leadership, I think it was hard for some people to kind of take it seriously because of the negativity that surrounded their leadership.

46:36:00 Lizzy Ray: Yeah. Awesome. Going with the whole policies thing that you mentioned earlier, what do you believe is the state of relations, state of race relations in the United States currently, or especially during 2020 and that time period?

47:02:00 Shawnta Freeman: I think it depends. One of my favorite e-con teachers said, the answer is always, it depends, and it really does. Sometimes it's good, sometimes it's bad. I think right now we're in a good state with race relations because the focus isn't on us. The focus is on Israel and Palestine. And so we have this common, some of us have this common, I guess, belief in either Israel is wrong or Palestine is wrong, so that we're not really, there's no race there. There's just this one thing that's happening over there, and that could easily turn as soon as something happens over here, and that changes all of that. But a couple of years ago, maybe last year or a year and a half ago, I would say that the race relations was probably maybe during the Trump era, was still bad, were very bad, very bad. And I think a lot of that was incited by the leadership that we had in place. I think that he caused a lot of race tension, and because of that, there was not a lot of harmony, so to say, between the races, not even just the two. All of them, everyone... kind of weren't on the same page.

48:50:00 Lizzy Ray: Yeah. Awesome. How do you think, as you brought up, if something could occur over here, also talking about the Palestinian Israeli conflict, what do you think that would do to race relations in the States?

49:13:00 Shawnta Freeman: When you say something was to happen over here? I'm sorry. Hold on. I'm getting a call and it distracted me.

49:24:00 Lizzy Ray: You're all good. I mean, if a conflict that is occurring over in another part of the world were to come over here, do you think that would affect current race relations with races that aren't even involved in the conflict that's occurring in other parts of the world?

49:57:00 Shawnta Freeman: So if somehow the conflict over in Israel trickled to the US do I think we would be divided as the races would be divided? I don't actually. I think that we're divided between us. It's like that family thing. We can fight with each other, but you can't fight with us. So I think that we would feel the need to protect us if a conflict of any sort was to come here, if that makes sense.

50:45:00 Lizzy Ray: It does. Thank you. Okay. What do you think the future of the Black Lives Matter movement is?

51:02:00 Shawnta Freeman: You got stuck.

51:04:00 Lizzy Ray: Oh, should I say it again?

51:08:00 Shawnta Freeman: I can't hear you.

51:09:00 Lizzy Ray: Wait one sec.

51:12:00 Shawnta Freeman: I didn't hear you.

51:13:00 Lizzy Ray: Can you hear me now?

51:17:00 Shawnta Freeman: Stuck... must be me. Is it me? Okay. There you go.

51:24:00 Lizzy Ray: Can you hear me now?

51:25:00 Shawnta Freeman: Are you moving? Okay. Yes. Okay. There you go. All go.

51:32:00 Lizzy Ray: Beautiful. Sometimes technology does not like me.

51:36:00 Shawnta Freeman: Yes.

51:36:00 Lizzy Ray: Humans in general. Okay. What do you think the future of the Black Lives Matter movement is?

51:51:00 Shawnta Freeman: I think the Black Lives Matter movement still has a lot of work to do. I think the newer generation, again, I see a lot of good things with this newer generation. I feel like the forward thinking, the no nonsense, change oriented mindset, I do see good things from them. I think that I would like to get away from organizations being led, organizations that impact the future being led by older people. And I know that we have wisdom, but I would like to see that wisdom being used as a tool like mentor, but I would like to see the organization being led by the generation that's going to move the movement forward. So that's kind of what I would hope to see happen, and where I think the movement will go, where I will hope the movement will go. So I think it has a lot of work to do. I think it will do a lot more work. I think a lot of the negative stuff is behind it. I'm hoping a lot of negative stuff is behind it. I think if the younger generation can get involved, then it'll be okay. It has a lot more work to do. We're nowhere near where we should be.

53:36:00 Lizzy Ray: Yeah. This is kind of recalling something from the beginning of this, but how would you like to see the whole Black Lives Matter movement or just black power and just black history taught in the school system, especially since you said the different types of teachings that occurred in all these different schools?

54:08:00 Shawnta Freeman: I think that I would like there to not really be a difference. When I say we, black people play a huge part in American history, and it shouldn't be separated. American history is American history. The good, the bad, the ugly, all of it should be taught.
54:36:00 So I would like to see there be no separation or no exclusion of any of the history in the school system. The things that I learned in school should be taught to everyone, and the things that you learned in school should be taught to everyone. I don't know why. There's different curriculums for each state, and I get each state has their own rules and regulations. But when it comes to American history, we have such a complex, robust history that it should include everything and nothing should be left out. And to leave things out doesn't do us justice. We put ourselves at a disadvantage, and that doesn't help us any when we're not learning our own history.

55:34:00 Lizzy Ray: Yeah. Well, that's all that I have for you. It's all the questions that I have. But I really appreciate you talking to me tonight.

55:46:00 Shawnta Freeman: Umm, you're going slow again, slow.

55:48:00 Lizzy Ray: Oh, no. We good now.

55:52:00 Shawnta Freeman: Okay. There it goes. Okay.

55:53:00 Lizzy Ray: Okay. Well, those are all the questions that I have for you right now.

56:00:00 Shawnta Freeman: Okay.

56:01:00 Lizzy Ray: Do you have anything you'd like to add or

56:06:00 Shawnta Freeman: I don't. This was a great interview. Thank you for considering me.

56:11:00 Lizzy Ray: Of course. Well, thank you very much for letting me interview you, and I hope you have a great rest of your night.

56:18:00 Shawnta Freeman: You too.

56:19:00 Lizzy Ray: Awesome. Thank you so much. Bye.

56:21:00 Shawnta Freeman: All right. Goodnight. Bye-Bye.