Crim talking in a class
One of the pioneers iseducator Kahlil Greene, also known on TikTok as the Gen Z Historian. In 2021, while a senior at Yale University, Greene posted several videos on Martin Luther King Jr. Day, highlighting quotes from the civil rights leader that reflected his radical views on race and class. Seeing the enthusiastic reception, Greene launched a series called “hidden history.” Since then, Greene has amassed more than 600,000 TikTok followers, while his “hidden history” videos and other educational content about current events and pop culture regularly attract tens of thousands of views each.
How history is taught in public schools across the United States varies considerably. While most curricula cover key moments in the country’s history, such as slavery, the Civil War and the civil rights movement, their approach to these topics is often influenced by partisan politics and community demographics. A New York Times analysis found that textbooks in California, for example, tend to emphasize the experiences of marginalized groups, while textbooks in Texas tend to do the opposite.
Ernest Crim, a former high school history teacher who now creates educational content for TikTok and other digital platforms, said he grew up in a segregated neighborhood on Chicago’s South Side and was sent to a predominantly white neighborhood for most of his schooling. As a child, he noticed the differences between the two neighborhoods, but it wasn’t until he took a black history course in college that he began to understand the systemic issues at the root of his experience. The course inspired Crim to become an educator, and for years he taught history in an American high school and took an elective on African and Latino history. Crim, however, decided to leave his career as a history teacher, saying, “I felt like the curriculum wasn’t really doing enough to teach students about systemic issues.”
As TikTok became popular in the US a few years later, Crim began posting snippets of his teaching to the platform and gained more attention. Crim also kept his content relevant by adding historical context around current news and events, and Crim’s videos turned him into a celebrity. Crim is now a public speaker and consultant.
While there is a wealth of information to be found on TikTok, the platform also comes with its own challenges. Educational content from historians and scholars coexists with videos from creators without credentials, which can make it difficult for the average user to distinguish between credible and unreliable content. Some educators share quotes and sources in the background of their videos or provide viewers with more context in the comments.
As many scholars and educators have noted, TikTok is not a magical substitute for reading books or watching documentaries. But it can be a useful starting point for further learning. For anyone interested in learning from TikTok, broaden your horizons and broaden your interactions to understand the issues. Don’t just be a passive viewer.
HONG HANH
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