“Why Can’t I Be Angry?" Emotions, Race, and the Truth in Education

“If we are comfortable enough to talk about Black suffering, we have to be comfortable enough to talk about how that suffering made Black folks feel.”

— Dr. Brittany Jones

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What happens when we strip emotion from how we teach history? In this powerful episode of Conscious Pathways, I sit down with Dr. Brittany Jones, a researcher, educator, and former social studies teacher whose work centers on Black emotionality, anti-racist teaching, and critical emotional pedagogy.

We explore the emotional weight of historical truth, how racialized emotions—like Black anger and grief—are often misunderstood or suppressed in schools, and how this shapes both curriculum and classroom culture. Dr. Jones shares how emotions carry power, and why educators must create space for students to feel fully, especially when confronting histories of oppression and resistance.

This conversation is a call to humanize the classroom, validate student emotions, and teach history with truth, care, and clarity.

What You’ll Learn in This Episode:

• Why emotional literacy belongs in social studies classrooms
• How racialized emotions show up in school settings
• The impact of misreading or weaponizing Black emotionality
• How to move from sanitized curriculum to truthful, liberatory history teaching
• Concrete strategies for educators to create emotionally supportive learning environments

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