fandomhigh | American History: Lies Your Other Teachers Told You [Friday, November 14, 2014]

Josh had written a quote up on the board again:

History, despite its wrenching pain,
Cannot be unlived, and if faced
With courage, need not be lived again.--Maya Angelou

"One of the most pervasive themes in our history is the domination of black America by white America. Issues of black-white relations destroyed the Whig Party to collapse, prompted the Republican Party to form, and had the Democrats position themselves as the "white man's party" for almost a century," Josh began. "Senators mounted the longest filibuster in history--more than 534 hours--to oppose the Civil Rights Act in 1964. And that's not even mentioning the Civil War that split the country in half and killed 620,000 Americans--which is about the same amount as every other war we've ever got involved in combined. It still affects the way we look our world--no one can convince me that the rise of the right wing extremist Tea Party isn't a direct result of Barack Obama being a black man. And the most infuriating part is that the history books, for the most part, refuse to address it."

He ran his hand through his hair. "The Civil War was about tariffs. Thomas Jefferson, who owned slaves, really loved freedom. The Civil Rights Act fixed everything magically forever, assuming you even get to the '60s in your class. And that, dear students, is a load of crap. We--and here I mainly mean 'white guys who approve history books'-- just don't like looking ourselves in the face about this."

He took a sip from his coffee. "We'll get into specifics about this next week, but why do you think we don't talk about race except in a 'oh, that was in the 1800s' sort of way?"

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Why would textbooks leave out this glaring character flaw? So many reasons! Pick your favorite.

"Everyone wants to think the world is harmonious and good and that we're better than we were," Flick decided. "They don't want to accept that there are still issues because that means that they might actually have to admit they're part of the problem."

"But if they faced the problem, we might actually fix it," Josh replied. "Wouldn't that be better?"

"Please, there are way too many awful people around to fix anything," Flick said cynically. "They'd argue for months and come up with some half assed solution that wouldn't actually be a solution at all."

"It's like you've watched Congress," Josh said. "Huh. We should go watch them some day. It's super depressing."

"Probably because admitting that it's still going on means admitting they're not just naturally awesome and amazing forever," Raven said. "Looking too closely at what's happening then means having to admit it's still happening now, and that hurts their precious little egos."

Sorry, Josh. The blue girl had developed a fine impatience with the privileges of white men.

Josh couldn't really blame her. "So this whole system is to protect a few egos?"

"I wouldn't say 'a few'," Raven said. "There are a whole lot of white guys."

"Many in this classroom, even," Josh agreed. "So this is just to reinforce our view as masters of the universe?"

"Well, and to pretend that the position is the natural order of the universe. It can be hard to admit that the reason you're doing so well is because your culture's been busy keeping everyone else down for you."

"I've seen the comments on websites," Josh said, nodding sagely. "They get downright incoherent and ungrammatical about it."

And those were the reasonable ones.

"They tend to take it really personally," Raven agreed. "So a lot of the ones who get to be in charge just decide not to have those conversations at all."

Josh nodded. "It's chickenshit, but politically expedient."

"Let's not forget how many people deny to this day that we have a race problem anymore or that white and male privilege exists," Kathy said, surely shocking Josh with her participation. "Obama was elected and therefore racism must be a thing of the past, right? Now, from an actual textbook point of view, we once again have to point fingers at Texas. I bet that if the East Coast or certain parts of California had their textbook monopoly, they'd look different. Not much different, mind, because they'd still be under the purview of a bunch of rich, old, white guys who have a vested interest in promoting the status quo, but it's entirely possible that they wouldn't be deliberately undermining advances of minorities while promoting American exceptionalism."

Josh was shocked that Kathy had an opinion! Really! "The Alamo wouldn't be a thing we cared about either," he added.

Especially on a subject like this, right?

"We're happy to acknowledge that racism was a bad, bad thing, but only inasmuch as it's over and we've moved on. Doing otherwise would require the country to admit that our country is still deeply flawed and scarred by race and would undermine the whole idea of people being able to pull themselves up by their bootstraps. White people would have to admit that maybe they're on top because the dice have been rigged in their favor for generations and that maybe it's not laziness and ignorance keeping minorities down. And without those protective, cushioning lies, where would they be?"

"Facing the world as it is?" Josh suggested a little dryly.

"Perish the thought," Kathy snarked. "The poor dears might not survive."

American History: Lies Your Other Teachers Told You [Friday, November 14, 2014]

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