I am in my eighth decade. I have an undergraduate degree from the University of Maine and a graduate degree from the University of Alaska. I have taught elementary school, middle school and high school. I have been principal of four schools. Until two years ago when I watched the Watchmen television series, I had never heard of the Tulsa Massacre. At that time, I wasn’t sure whether it was historic or fiction…
It has
always annoyed me that history is heavily edited by the nation or state where
it occurred, in order to only show a positive image, while white washing any uncomfortable
realities.
The United
States is not ‘The shining city on the hill’ as President Regan
proclaimed. All nations are self-serving
with both laudable and despicable histories; but the positive aspects are the
only ones that get recorded in our history books.
Along with
attempted genocide of the Native population; the institution of slavery; being
the most warlike nation on earth (in two-hundred-forty-five years the U.S. has only experienced sixteen years of
peace); the confinement of Japanese American citizens in detention camps during
the Second World War; the bombing of two Japanese cities with nuclear weapons
killing almost a half-million civilians; racial violence in the integration of
the South, the confinement of children
and the confinement of parents seeking asylum into separate detention camps… is
the history not taught in our schools.
The good,
the bad, and the ugly are all a part of our history; and unless we truly teach history
in its entirety, we are doomed to repeat the atrocities.
The governor
of Oklahoma has signed a bill forbidding the history of the Tulsa massacre
being taught in Oklahoma schools. He reasons it would make white students feel uncomfortable.
If schools
won’t teach our history, parents should.
Only by citizens understanding our history, can we continually move
toward a more perfect Union.
I do not believe the sins of the parents fall to the children and the next generations. People are products of their time and their culture, and conform to those expectations.
I do not accept reverse racial profiling. I do not apologize for being white. I do not apologize that my great uncle was a member of the KKK. I do not laud that my great-great grandfather died in the battle of Shiloh fighting for the North. I am neither of those people. I have no racial animosity, though I know there are those who do - and that needs to change. I support Black Lives Matter; but I do not support civil anarchy and destruction of property by any side.
I see and understand the injustice suffered by the black population and support their cause. I feel that teaching accurate history can bring about more change than passing laws in a divided Congress and divided nation.
the Ol'Buzzard
America has never had an education system - It has always been a political system. My daughter was not taught about the VietNam war! Robert E. Lee's birthday was a Georgia state holiday when I grew up. Politicians always keep their thumbs on the scale of education to perpetuate their own bias. I hope parents realize this.
ReplyDeleteOther events swept under the rug of the winners: the Pullman strike, the Homestead strike, the massacre at Ludlow, Colorado, the Triangle shirtwaist fire, the massacre at Rosewood, Florida, the massacre at Sandy Creek, . . . it's a long list. I haven't looked at any American history textbooks since I got stuck being a T.A. for the survey course in AmHist in grad school (History 101, the course that has a text a foot thick and the professor never manages to get very far past Pearl Harbor before the semester fizzles out). My memory is that it may have mentioned that the KKK was evil and that the South lost the Civil War, but for sure social movements, civil rights, and labor history were pretty much ignored. In the defense of the textbook authors, I will concede it's hard to write survey texts that are not incredibly superficial.
ReplyDeleteThere's lots of hidden atrocities in the history of every country. Slowly, sometimes, they come to light.
ReplyDeleteI agree that hidden atrocities doom us to repeat the worst of History we can't Learn from because we don't know about any of it. I had a Native American Dad and in High School when they were teaching about the Holocaust and asked us to write a report on it, I wrote about the Indigenous Tribal Holocaust and my Teacher was shocked, but gave me an A and asked to keep the Artwork and Report, it had Moved him, he was Teaching History yet he knew not. I am in my 6th Decade and hadn't heard of the Tulsa Massacre either, I wept during the Documentary, taking 99 Years to reveal an atrocity and Truth is so late, but at least now it's come to Light and people must face that horrible part of American History. It's not a lone example and sadly, even January 6th Insurrection and Coup attempt they are now trying to Whitewash and 'move past' as if it was No Big Deal to the Political Party that instigated it. My DIL and her Family escaped the Killing Fields of Cambodia, many of their Family didn't and they were in Refugee Camps for Years before being allowed Asylum to America, where they now prosper and feel Grateful to be Citizens. She was telling me that during the last Administration is frightened her Family because it was reliving the nightmare for them of what they had escaped narrowly... and she hoped that American did not become an Authoritarian Regime where the Majority would end up persecuted and perhaps exterminated by the Extremist Groups in Power. It gave me Pause, since I was hearing the same thing from German Friends who'd lived thru Nazi Germany. ALL of American History should be taught, the good, the bad and the ugly, it's the only way we can ensure atrocities don't abound.
ReplyDelete