By Kylee Wellons
February invites us into a deeper kind of learning. At The Conflict Center, our monthly theme—Relearn—asks us to examine not just what we know, but how we came to know it. Relearning is not about accumulating more information or reciting what you’ve heard without regard for where that information came from or understanding the purpose that information is intended to serve.
It begins with something harder and more honest: unlearning.
In the United States, many of us were taught a version of history that centered comfort over truth. Textbooks often minimized the brutality of slavery, framed colonization as “discovery,” and presented civil rights as a finished chapter rather than an ongoing struggle. This “history” doesn’t just omit facts—it shapes how conflict shows up today.
To Relearn, we must first identify the stories that were incomplete, distorted, or designed to exclude, learn what really happened, and question, “why is there a need to reshape history?”
Unlearning whitewashed narratives means recognizing how systemic harm has been normalized through education, policy, and culture. It means acknowledging that conflict in our communities did not emerge in a vacuum; rather, it was cultivated through generations of inequity, exclusion, and silencing.
As we close out February, I urge us all to acknowledge Black History Month as a living history, one that continues to shape how power, conflict, and justice operate today.
At The Conflict Center, we understand conflict not as something to be avoided, but as something to be approached with skill, accountability, and intention.
This work may be uncomfortable. But discomfort is not the same as harm. In fact, it is often the first sign of growth.
Kylee Wellons
Restorative Denver Intake Manager & Building Operations Coordinator
The Conflict Center
