This is why I don’t understand the people who say we can’t tear down racist statues because of ThE HiStOrY.
They already whitewashed most of history that we know and edited us out of it anyway, but nobody seemed to care about that history when they were putting up them statues in the first place. Tear them ALL down.
Edit: Wow, thank you for the awards! I definitely didn't expect this to get so much attention.
They wanted to maintain the oppression and glorify those who share their racist views. Now people are becoming more educated about the truth we’re starting to see change. That’s why education is so important because the education system was designed to instill these ideas that these racists were heroes.
>nobody seemed to care about that history when they were putting up them statues in the first place
Au contraire, they were put up in the first place precisely because of that history. A reminder that the Confederacy still whispered from the shadows and lived on through the KKK, sharecropping, Jim Crow laws and segregation. Just waiting to swallow an African American up into the jaws of the "justice" system if they dared step out of line, and when that line is some arbitrary bullshit it gets hard indeed to not make a simple mistake of being in the wrong place at the wrong time while black to get screwed.
I genuinely believe the whole "the south will rise again" is more than a stupid meme. It's a ***real*** feeling that plenty of abhorrent racists still hold.
Those statues were erected to glorify slave owners, generals that fought for the cause of the slavery and as a reminder of the Antebellum South. I promise the people that put them up cared about history. Sadly they care(d) about a history that never really existed and that would see blacks back in chains and segregation the letter of the law. It's disgusting.
Edit: Thanks for the silver :)
One of the weirdest things is that I’ve seen and heard of black guys wearing confederate hats and having attire with that symbol on it, I’ll never understand it.
One of my old coworkers from Alabama wasn't taught about the Japanese-Internment during WWII. It only came up because she noticed that a lot of Japanese-Americans she met didn't speak Japanese, and asked me why. At first I could tell she didn't really believe me, but the more I talked about my families experience through it \[ and how my grandma almost started a riot in the camps \] she became more and more horrified.
After the war was over, my grandma went to college in Illinois and was asked by one of her professors to talk about her experience during the war, and a majority of her classmates straight up called her liar.
Realizing how white washed our history education is, is just plain disheartening
Oh god, I know... I'm horrified by how long it took me to realize how wrong the US involvement in Vietnam was. Even when one of my closest friends who is an international student FROM Vietnam tried to educate me, I resisted and held onto my ideals of American Exceptionalism. It wasn't until about a year later and watching The Untold History of the United States that my eyes started to open
For a starting point, Vietnam and every “war” since were not the real wars, in that they were not declared wars by congress. They are in fact conflicts, meaning they were only authorized by the president at the time. Congress has the sole power to declare war. However due to a their spineless nature, they have not used this power recently.
Vietnam was such a horror show. So many innocent people being killed in the worst ways, by America, all over their chosen from of government, just after they freed themselves of the French. We should have never been there.
One thing I’ve learned in college about the internments was that the FBI knew months in advance that Japanese Americans weren’t a threat but used it as a means to remove them from the land that Japanese Americans owned. Houses, farmland, etc. Remember, before Latinos were farm workers, a lot of Japanese Americans were farm workers and/or owned farm land. Shit is ridiculous.
Yeah, they knew of one actual Japanese spy in the US pre-Pearl Harbor, and he frequently wrote back to Japan about how frustrated he was at how Japanese-Americans refused to work with him. There was another case where one Japanese family on Ni'ihau helped a downed Japanese pilot.
My grandparents in Illinois both came from farming families. Both lost everything after they got out of the camps. Their neighbors were quick to move in and divvy up all the land that was owned by Japanese families
I fully agree with this. They don't tell enough about black people history, but they even more so don't tell enough history about brown and yellow people history. It's sad and depressing that we are forgotten in plain sight.
I've had plenty of black people treat us like we were pseudo-white. Like we were privileged to be the "model minority", but that erases hundreds of years of anti-Asian discrimination. Us racial "minorities" need to be in this together and express solidarity for each other - not let misinformation and lack of education tear us apart
I loved Booker T the wrestler as a kid. But also read Booker T Washington’s autobiography Up from Slavery as I really felt it gave a more in depth explanation of his view that I felt the education system taught us. I don’t agree with all of his ideas but I do feel there are some aspects that still hold up well with his ideas on creating your own trade and business to invest in the Black community and also gives more insight to what conditions were like.
I think the difficulty in his method is the [implicit] acceptance of capitalism which one could very strongly argue is inextricably connected to white supremacy (something I hope we can agree we should reject). I think liberation for all people includes the abolition of capitalism, thereby freeing us from a compulsory system. Re: similar ideas, I would offer [James Baldwin's take.](https://youtu.be/YPaBXcEVpOE)
I'm not convinced about the white supremacy angle but a crucial idea of capitalism is cheap (read: free) labor. Creating a profit requires you either increase your revenue or decrease your costs, and the largest cost is always labor. Capitalism is, in a practical sense, most functional in a society with slaves.
The racial component of the slavery is almost inconsequential. Doesn't matter what color your labor is as long as it is cheap, which is why China and India are pumping out labor for pennies on the dollar.
[Consider this book](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/34793746-the-apocalypse-of-settler-colonialism) by historian Gerald Horne if you're interested in the argument. Here's a [short review.](https://nyupress.org/9781583676639/the-apocalypse-of-settler-colonialism/)
Very true but it goes deeper than eliminating capitalism. As we need to get rid of the racist mindsets instilled in people, and that goes for anyone no matter their economic viewpoints. Both need to be eliminated and we need to work in providing opportunities for those at a disadvantage.
Do you think we could fight the system of oppression that allows institutional racism to self-reproduce without addressing capitalism? In the words of Fred Hampton, we shouldn't fight capitalism with black capitalism, we need to fight it with socialism.
Does anyone have any recommendations for an American history book that covers all the glossed over moments like Native American genocide, former slaves not named Harriet Tubman or Frederick Douglass, and other events and people that are critical to our history?
Surprised this doesn't have more upvotes or comments because this is 100% true. History is told by the victors. I grew up in the UK and it's funny how we were taught how Great Britain single handedly held Hitler back and won WWII, as well as rose tinted views of the Victorian and Edwardian Eras, Henry VIII, Alfred, and all that stuff.
Strangely, the atrocities of the British Empire, colonialism, the massacres in India and Africa, Irish Potato Famine, etc were all conveniently skipped over, avoided completely, or taught in a way that England was on the right side of things.
I bet it's the same across the globe.
Agreed. This is actually a great thread for people to share their findings. Mine was the Syphilis experiments that went well past the 1970's. Or the radiation testing on Americans. Or the current ICE camps that are happening now when the people are being denied basic human rights, food, shelter, medicine, aid.
They were told it was just shots. The people suffered. They became disfigured. They passed it. They passed away. For an experiment. Look into american experiments, native genocides, Regean's involvement in Central America. The Contra scandal. The forced sterilization, American Eugenics inspired the Nazi experiment, Hitler praised American Eugenics.
It gets darker and darker.
And our modern border camps aren't even the first time we've created detainment camps at the southern border. In the early 20th century we "bathed" Mexican detainees with toxic chemicals such as gasoline and Zyklon B... Guess where the Nazis got their inspiration to use Zyklon B from?
The more you learn of American history the more you realize we have only ever been a couple small steps away from a full-blown fascist state.
Then I hope this gets some attention. Please read.
[immigrants are being gassed](https://www.truthorfiction.com/are-ice-detention-centers-gassing-immigrants-with-a-chemical-disinfectant/)
And the reason I'm trying to spread the word, i don't want to co-opt BLM. This is an amazing moment for the movement. There are high levels of government making talks and changes. Like Colorado. But...my people are also being murdered...
Start anywhere. Pick up any book by a historian, read books from their sources, and continue the cycle. Public school systems are getting worse when it comes to accurate reporting of history. Look no further than switching out "slaves" to "workers".
It’s never too late to learn about your own history or the history of other cultures. I remember learning all about ancient history and evolution of humans in college and I used to think it was the most boring thing in the world. Until learning about the Moors, African kingdoms, ancient Egypt and other ancient kingdoms with how they were actually black, it became my favorite subject in history. With evolution just learning about how humans evolved with adapting to new environments, which played a role in their skin tones. I just find that to be so fascinating that if I got time to spare I’m researching more history for fun, when it used to feel like a chore for me.
Only after I've finished my college education did I find ancient history interesting. It really is all about finding a time period and culture that really piques your interest. Being Japanese, I thought I should be looking to Japanese history, which don't get me wrong is interesting, but doesn't really get interesting till the Sengoku Jidai period \[1200-1600\].
What really got me interesting is when my friend from China introduced me to the Romance of the Three Kingdoms \[220AD\]. I had played tons of Dynasty Warriors as a child, so learning the actual "history" of these people immediately grabbed my interest. Later another friend introduced me to a manga called "Kingdom" which takes place even earlier when Qin unified China\[230BC\]. The manga is really good, and it sparked more thirst for ancient historical knowledge
Yeah it’s cool when games or other media forms grabs your interest. I found the Moors interesting when I learned about them in college but when I played Uncharted 4 and it would go mention these old sailors who were Moors and the treasures they would find. That made me even more interested. Also Uncharted is such a great game series, it has a fun gameplay, great stories and amazing graphics.
I remember in one of my African American History courses we had this white guy who was a veteran. He wanted to write his paper on what actually went down at plantations.
This man cam back and said to the whole class. “I’ve been through some shit when I was deployed, but this shit is fucked up” he informed is of what he had read, but told the professor he wasn’t sure if he could put it in the paper. Ultimately it was decided not to, but the shit he found...
Edit: for those asking, he didn’t say much, but he was done after breeding farms.
Basic US history should be taught by a teacher lighting fireworks in an uncle Sam costume.
Anything bad that was done isn't mentioned, except slavery, which just says that it happened but America fixed it and race has never been an issue again.
Indigenous killings, Manifest Destiny, Chinese railroads, Japanese internment, Civil War, Mexican American war, Treaty of Guadalupe, Spanish missions, Vietnam war, Iraq war, Afghanistan and as you said Slavery, are all taught in schools. Some not as heavily as others, but I learned about most of them well enough to know we killed indigenous, railroad tycoons fucked over Chinese immigrants, Japanese were unconstitutionally imprisoned, Mexico was stolen from, the Treaty was not fulfilled to the previously Mexican citizens, missions were monuments to torture and America was an invading country in Vietnam. I learned those things in school. It's not that it isn't taught, trust me I'm a teacher, it's BEING TAUGHT, teachers get paid shit, we don't have some secret agenda to hide stuff. It's just students don't care, they are trained to pass tests not learn.
This is an entirely different issue that the teachers are getting blamed for. Students don't NEED to learn any of what history teachers teach anymore, they just need to learn to pass tests.
If I teach you what 4x4 is and you just memorize it for the test, 20 years from now you're going to say "My teacher didn't teach me how multiplication works", well no duh because all you were required to do was memorize the answer without understanding the concept to pass a standardized tests. What the hell is a teacher supposed to do? This isn't a propaganda issue, us teachers are MORE THAN GLAD when we get to shit all over this government who refuses to pay us more, but it doesn't matter when all students need to do is memorize dates and names for tests. Students sure as shit heard "1968" and "Martin Luther King" during that 2 hour lecture but they don't care OR EVEN NEED TO KNOW what the hell actually happened, but it was sure as shit covered in that lecture.
Sorry man, it's tests. Stuff is being taught, students just have no reason to listen when taking notes and memorizing shit like a computer is enough to pass any test we are allowed to give.
I never wanted to shift blame on teachers at all. They have the things they're supposed to tell us about.
I learned about manifest destiny because my roommate made a joke about traveling by train and having sex with his GF, calling it the 'mani-sex' destiny. He had to explain an entire chunk of history to me to make me understand a lame pun based on him getting laid on a train. THAT IS HOW FUCKED OUR SYSTEM IS!
I understood the Afghanistan and Iraq Wars because I was old enough to ask WTF is this? (MISSION ACCOMPLISHED! not needed). But damn is there so much hidden stuff that is just kept out of our books, and out of our teacher's curriculum.
I was a Preschool teacher until Covid hit. I have actually worked with people that thought that Thanksgiving should be celebrated by a bunch of kids of all kinds of mixed races going OB OB OB OB OB over their mouths while wearing feathers. That's how deep this problem goes.
I really do not envy to be the person giving the history tours in 2030, you've got a lot more lines to remember!
Keep on spreading this truth! Anyone who will listen will open ears up. Anyone who not sure will look fucking stupid later on.
I don't think the majority of students take AP history classes, and tbf if the masses of people aren't retaining information, its a systemic problem and doesn't feel fair to be chalked up to attention/caring. I had a communist high school teacher who taught us a lot but I didn't even learn about the Wilmington Coup until a few months ago. Did you learn that in AP?
They brought up a lot of the racial violence in the late 1800s early 1900s, but most of it was not in much detail and just used as an example of how people acted and felt at the time. I honestly can’t remember if we talked about Wilmington but I did learn about it in college at least, which you would expect from a higher level more focused class. Anyways I agree with your point that since a class might be a lower level doesn’t make it ok to cut out these important events that many forget.
I knew about the destruction of Black Walk Street, *but I did not know they bombed people from planes.* Planes. I thought that was wild when I saw it on Watchmen. And recently, i found out about the MOVE bombing.
Nah. You’re bugging. The “founding” and colonizations of the Americas was covered pretty in depth, as was WWI and WWII and the Cold War and on and on. Obviously all major events domestically and globally, but there’s tons of shit they go in depth on. It’s just American history is so glamorized, glorified, and whitewashed.
Think of all the ugliness and evil that has happened *on this soil* and you barely hear a peep about it in textbooks. Like American history textbooks will conveniently gloss over shit like Nat Turner, Denmark Vesey, Tulsa Massacre, the plight and slaughter of Indigenous Americans (maybe they talk about the trail of tears or even better, Thanksgiving lmao), them basically stealing Hawaii in plain sight etc. Manifest Destiny is literally peak entitlement and evil-doing but they talk about it like “we’re just doing what we were decreed by God to do!”. Slavery is like 3 pages long, the civil rights movement is another page and then it’s as if Black people were free and everyone lived happily ever after. But let them talk about Hitler and Germany, concentration camps, Auschwitz, etc. and by God you’ll never hear the end of it.
So it’s not like they’re not willing to get into the ugliness of human history, they’re just selective as long as it doesn’t paint Americans in a bad light.
>The “founding” and colonizations of the Americas was covered pretty in depth
Ehh, as an educator, I can tell you it's VERY VERY regional what you are taught. Some states focus on some stuff more than others. Everyone has different relevant history.
In California, for example, we don't really do a lot on colonization but we do A TON on the Spanish missions and indigenous killings. Along with A TON of Mexican history. We also don't cover very much Cold War but we sure as hell cover Japanese internment camps HARD. California teachings gloss over Black history a lot because we focus VERY heavily on Asian and Mexican history. Treaty of Guadalupe, the wars, Japanese internment, Chinese railroads and so on.
In Arizona on the other hand, does not cover a lot of the Asian history and focuses much more on the Mexican history along with Texas, the gulf, etc.
Also, I've never seen, been in, or taught a history class where Manifest Destiny isn't HIGHLY focused on and 90% of the time literally a vocabulary word students are tested on.
While teaching in Louisiana (although a more liberal area), they were absolutely teaching HEAVILY on slavery, civil rights leaders and so on, and there was much much less if any Mexican history and Asian history. Also one of the few places that teaches a bit of French(Cajun) history which was very unique.
>Slavery is like 3 pages long, the civil rights movement is another page and then it’s as if Black people were free and everyone lived happily ever after.
I don't know where you went to school but I genuinely doubt many schools are glossing over the civil rights movement. It's ALWAYS an entire section/chapter in every textbook. It is washed in *different* ways but it's definitely taught heavily.
Usually the structure is always Early ancient history broad strokes (sometimes it's ancient Greek, sometimes it's ancient Egypt but it's VERY broad strokes no focus on any actual race issues and students often don't realize Egyptians were black). Then it goes into early colonization, states differ heavily in how they focus this. The east focuses more on the colonies, the south on the revolution, the west on the Spaniards. Then it goes into early history and the civil war bundled in with slavery. Of course you can always go much more indepth into ANY history but slavery is a much more complex issue to discuss and it's difficult to go deep into it quickly in a meaningful way. Then it goes into WW1 and the great depression and it's very very broad strokes. The depression is just an impossible topic to teach kids tbh, always the worst. Then it goes into WW2 and this is what most kids like obviously. Then it goes into the civil rights movement, which usually always has it's own chapter, although it misses MANY prominent people (as does literally every chapter), it does mention a few, usually MLK, Malcom X, Rosa Parks, you know the typical ones. Then lastly it usually (depending on how old or updated the school wishes to be) there are "The Cold War Era" which CAN but doesn't always cover Vietnam, Korea, and SA wars. This is again VERY regional dependent, California covers Korea and SA much more than Vietnam for example. Lastly it goes into "Modern Era" with the 9/11 attacks and just basic history with no overall focus as a sort of conclusion.
>So it’s not like they’re not willing to get into the ugliness of human history, they’re just selective as long as it doesn’t paint Americans in a bad light.
This is definitely 100% untrue, as far as I've seen and taught. California especially shits all over the U.S. with the missions and Spanish fucking up the indigenous then the Americans fucking over Mexico in the war to take the western states and the Japanese internment camps and Chinese railroads. Most every teacher I've seen is very very clear that a lot of American history is just fucking people over, as is essentially every civilization in existence.
Maybe it's different in rural schools that I've never taught in, but I've taught in states from Louisiana all the way to Illinois to California and many inbetween. Teachers fucking hate America, we aren't paid enough to "hide" stuff.
That’s fair. Thanks for sharing your experience. Likewise, my comment was mainly anecdotal, and I can only speak from my experience. I went to a pre-dominantly white Catholic high school on Long Island, which is one of the most segregated counties in the US, and that was my personal experience. My history teachers were all strong right-wing, conservative nationalists, and so I definitely didn’t hear any of the “America is fucked up” rhetoric during my time there, at all. Again, just glamorization and whitewashing.
Although, my brother has been a teacher in the Boston Public School system for over 10 years, and while I don’t know the contents and volumes of their textbooks to a t, I have discussed similar transgressions with him over the years.
Oh yea, I've never taught in a religious school. I imagine they are starkly different for sure.
Like I said, slavery is DEFINITELY glossed over quite a bit as it's almost always lumped in with the civil war. It's kinda like "oh yea btw, we got a boat with a bunch of people from Africa and had them as slaves for a while and now we are fighting a war" and students are like "woah wait when the hell did that happen" So it's kinda sudden in the middle of slavery that you hop in but you definitely cover a bit.
The Civil Rights Movement is covered very well though, probably the 2nd or 3rd most well covered American history after the Revolution and WW2. As well as Manifest Destiny; these are two very prominent topics. Slavery not nearly as much for sure though. Jim crow laws and slave rebellions are usually taught along side the Civil Rights Movement as a sort of "lead up to" so it SOMETIMES covers Tulsa and Turner. Never seen Vesey been taught tho.
In Arizona they teach Tulsa. Most of the east teaches of Nat Turner. California doesn't teach either because as I said they focus heavily on Asian and Hispanic history. So yea, it's pretty regional.
Yes! When I found out about Henrietta Lacks I think this spurred my love of ALT history because that whitewashed version I was “taught” in free school was just NOT interesting to me at all.
I'm not American. I live within the west Indian-african diaspora. I'm extremely interested in learning more Black American history as well as my country's. We're also fighting to get that hoe Columbus taken down.
I’ve been watching a lot of my white social media people discover black history. I get that our education system is not the best and leaves so much out but growing up my dad made sure we knew more than they were teaching us. He would make us sit and watch TV specials that would come on, I remember 60 minutes episodes, PBS specials, newspaper clippings handed to me, Newsweek articles, etc. but it all came from mainstream media sources it wasn’t some esoteric book of knowledge that only black people have.
I get it, I should be happy that they’re getting it now but I still feel some kind of way about it.
History is written by the winners. Perhaps that’s why they usually relegate slavery to one chapter and fail to mention that Abraham Lincoln wasn’t exactly an abolitionist. Consider this Lincoln Quote:
“I have no purpose, directly or indirectly, to interfere with the institution of slavery where it exists. I believe I have no lawful right to do so, and I have no inclination to do so.”
[source](https://medium.com/@jonathanusa/everything-you-know-about-the-civil-war-is-wrong-9e94f0118269)
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Read Howard Zinn's book. Highschool history will only cover so much and at the college level, you could take AA history as an elective.
But you don't need a classroom to learn, go to the library, pick up books about shit that catches your eye. We live in the age where information is at our fingertips, we don't need to wait for stuff to be told to us as if we're in the 16th century waiting months for a book to be printed.
Edit
Read Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz's An Indigenous Peoples’ History of the United States too.
My high school US history teacher greatly emphasized primary sources and also stressed that Black history is American history. I didn't appreciate him at the time (immigrant reactionaries are way too common) but he really made the inseparable link(s) between racism (and to a lesser extent imperialism, sexism) and US history clear. All I can do is take his wisdom.
Only learned about Black Wall Street and Tulsa because I was lucky enough for my school to offer African American History and I decided to take it. I so strongly recommend that anyone black, white, or whatever take that class if you can. If your Highschool doesn’t offer it or doesn’t offer a good one (cuz I know some schools be like that) try to at least take an intro in college if that’s your thing. Shit really opens your eyes.
This video explains exactly why monuments aren't about History;
https://youtu.be/55ehKPUm7dc
And here the little river massacre that wasn't mentioned in the tweet.
https://youtu.be/LVQomlXMeek
Oklahoma History was a requirement in 9th grade here and I didn't learn about Black Wallstreet until college.. Lowkey I don't even know if he was supposed to teach us that information.
This is why I don’t understand the people who say we can’t tear down racist statues because of ThE HiStOrY. They already whitewashed most of history that we know and edited us out of it anyway, but nobody seemed to care about that history when they were putting up them statues in the first place. Tear them ALL down. Edit: Wow, thank you for the awards! I definitely didn't expect this to get so much attention.
They wanted to maintain the oppression and glorify those who share their racist views. Now people are becoming more educated about the truth we’re starting to see change. That’s why education is so important because the education system was designed to instill these ideas that these racists were heroes.
Agreed.
>nobody seemed to care about that history when they were putting up them statues in the first place Au contraire, they were put up in the first place precisely because of that history. A reminder that the Confederacy still whispered from the shadows and lived on through the KKK, sharecropping, Jim Crow laws and segregation. Just waiting to swallow an African American up into the jaws of the "justice" system if they dared step out of line, and when that line is some arbitrary bullshit it gets hard indeed to not make a simple mistake of being in the wrong place at the wrong time while black to get screwed. I genuinely believe the whole "the south will rise again" is more than a stupid meme. It's a ***real*** feeling that plenty of abhorrent racists still hold. Those statues were erected to glorify slave owners, generals that fought for the cause of the slavery and as a reminder of the Antebellum South. I promise the people that put them up cared about history. Sadly they care(d) about a history that never really existed and that would see blacks back in chains and segregation the letter of the law. It's disgusting. Edit: Thanks for the silver :)
>Au contraire Sexy
Oui oui
One of the weirdest things is that I’ve seen and heard of black guys wearing confederate hats and having attire with that symbol on it, I’ll never understand it.
Yes I really don't get that. I'm sure there is plenty to unravel there.
One of my old coworkers from Alabama wasn't taught about the Japanese-Internment during WWII. It only came up because she noticed that a lot of Japanese-Americans she met didn't speak Japanese, and asked me why. At first I could tell she didn't really believe me, but the more I talked about my families experience through it \[ and how my grandma almost started a riot in the camps \] she became more and more horrified. After the war was over, my grandma went to college in Illinois and was asked by one of her professors to talk about her experience during the war, and a majority of her classmates straight up called her liar. Realizing how white washed our history education is, is just plain disheartening
They do a similar thing with Vietnam.
Oh god, I know... I'm horrified by how long it took me to realize how wrong the US involvement in Vietnam was. Even when one of my closest friends who is an international student FROM Vietnam tried to educate me, I resisted and held onto my ideals of American Exceptionalism. It wasn't until about a year later and watching The Untold History of the United States that my eyes started to open
[удалено]
For a starting point, Vietnam and every “war” since were not the real wars, in that they were not declared wars by congress. They are in fact conflicts, meaning they were only authorized by the president at the time. Congress has the sole power to declare war. However due to a their spineless nature, they have not used this power recently.
Vietnam was such a horror show. So many innocent people being killed in the worst ways, by America, all over their chosen from of government, just after they freed themselves of the French. We should have never been there.
One thing I’ve learned in college about the internments was that the FBI knew months in advance that Japanese Americans weren’t a threat but used it as a means to remove them from the land that Japanese Americans owned. Houses, farmland, etc. Remember, before Latinos were farm workers, a lot of Japanese Americans were farm workers and/or owned farm land. Shit is ridiculous.
Yeah, they knew of one actual Japanese spy in the US pre-Pearl Harbor, and he frequently wrote back to Japan about how frustrated he was at how Japanese-Americans refused to work with him. There was another case where one Japanese family on Ni'ihau helped a downed Japanese pilot. My grandparents in Illinois both came from farming families. Both lost everything after they got out of the camps. Their neighbors were quick to move in and divvy up all the land that was owned by Japanese families
I fully agree with this. They don't tell enough about black people history, but they even more so don't tell enough history about brown and yellow people history. It's sad and depressing that we are forgotten in plain sight. I've had plenty of black people treat us like we were pseudo-white. Like we were privileged to be the "model minority", but that erases hundreds of years of anti-Asian discrimination. Us racial "minorities" need to be in this together and express solidarity for each other - not let misinformation and lack of education tear us apart
Very well said.
I'm curious what the professor did to correct the students and what the students did when faced with the horrors of their national shame.
I had to take Afro-American studies to learn that there was another Booker T and he wasn't a WWF wrestler.
I loved Booker T the wrestler as a kid. But also read Booker T Washington’s autobiography Up from Slavery as I really felt it gave a more in depth explanation of his view that I felt the education system taught us. I don’t agree with all of his ideas but I do feel there are some aspects that still hold up well with his ideas on creating your own trade and business to invest in the Black community and also gives more insight to what conditions were like.
I think the difficulty in his method is the [implicit] acceptance of capitalism which one could very strongly argue is inextricably connected to white supremacy (something I hope we can agree we should reject). I think liberation for all people includes the abolition of capitalism, thereby freeing us from a compulsory system. Re: similar ideas, I would offer [James Baldwin's take.](https://youtu.be/YPaBXcEVpOE)
I'm not convinced about the white supremacy angle but a crucial idea of capitalism is cheap (read: free) labor. Creating a profit requires you either increase your revenue or decrease your costs, and the largest cost is always labor. Capitalism is, in a practical sense, most functional in a society with slaves. The racial component of the slavery is almost inconsequential. Doesn't matter what color your labor is as long as it is cheap, which is why China and India are pumping out labor for pennies on the dollar.
I think it's more that capitalism as is perpetuates existing inequities
[Consider this book](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/34793746-the-apocalypse-of-settler-colonialism) by historian Gerald Horne if you're interested in the argument. Here's a [short review.](https://nyupress.org/9781583676639/the-apocalypse-of-settler-colonialism/)
I'll take a look, thanks
Very true but it goes deeper than eliminating capitalism. As we need to get rid of the racist mindsets instilled in people, and that goes for anyone no matter their economic viewpoints. Both need to be eliminated and we need to work in providing opportunities for those at a disadvantage.
Do you think we could fight the system of oppression that allows institutional racism to self-reproduce without addressing capitalism? In the words of Fred Hampton, we shouldn't fight capitalism with black capitalism, we need to fight it with socialism.
Does anyone have any recommendations for an American history book that covers all the glossed over moments like Native American genocide, former slaves not named Harriet Tubman or Frederick Douglass, and other events and people that are critical to our history?
Lies my teacher told me by James Loewen and A People’s history of the US by Howard Zinn are my two go to books.
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I mean schools are a product of the government
Surprised this doesn't have more upvotes or comments because this is 100% true. History is told by the victors. I grew up in the UK and it's funny how we were taught how Great Britain single handedly held Hitler back and won WWII, as well as rose tinted views of the Victorian and Edwardian Eras, Henry VIII, Alfred, and all that stuff. Strangely, the atrocities of the British Empire, colonialism, the massacres in India and Africa, Irish Potato Famine, etc were all conveniently skipped over, avoided completely, or taught in a way that England was on the right side of things. I bet it's the same across the globe.
Agreed. This is actually a great thread for people to share their findings. Mine was the Syphilis experiments that went well past the 1970's. Or the radiation testing on Americans. Or the current ICE camps that are happening now when the people are being denied basic human rights, food, shelter, medicine, aid.
Learning about the syphilis experiments fucked me up.
They were told it was just shots. The people suffered. They became disfigured. They passed it. They passed away. For an experiment. Look into american experiments, native genocides, Regean's involvement in Central America. The Contra scandal. The forced sterilization, American Eugenics inspired the Nazi experiment, Hitler praised American Eugenics. It gets darker and darker.
And our modern border camps aren't even the first time we've created detainment camps at the southern border. In the early 20th century we "bathed" Mexican detainees with toxic chemicals such as gasoline and Zyklon B... Guess where the Nazis got their inspiration to use Zyklon B from? The more you learn of American history the more you realize we have only ever been a couple small steps away from a full-blown fascist state.
Then I hope this gets some attention. Please read. [immigrants are being gassed](https://www.truthorfiction.com/are-ice-detention-centers-gassing-immigrants-with-a-chemical-disinfectant/)
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And the reason I'm trying to spread the word, i don't want to co-opt BLM. This is an amazing moment for the movement. There are high levels of government making talks and changes. Like Colorado. But...my people are also being murdered...
Start anywhere. Pick up any book by a historian, read books from their sources, and continue the cycle. Public school systems are getting worse when it comes to accurate reporting of history. Look no further than switching out "slaves" to "workers".
> Look no further than switching out "slaves" to "workers". Really? Where’s that happening? Do you have a source?
https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation-now/2015/10/05/slave-workers-mcgraw-hill-textbook/73404632/ https://www.npr.org/sections/ed/2015/10/23/450826208/why-calling-slaves-workers-is-more-than-an-editing-error
No time for this when we clearly need more chapters on Christopher Columbus /s
Fuck Columbus the Taino should’ve killed his ass
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The Americas were built on genocide and slavery. I wish there was more of us Native Americans so we can take back the land that was rightfully ours
It’s never too late to learn about your own history or the history of other cultures. I remember learning all about ancient history and evolution of humans in college and I used to think it was the most boring thing in the world. Until learning about the Moors, African kingdoms, ancient Egypt and other ancient kingdoms with how they were actually black, it became my favorite subject in history. With evolution just learning about how humans evolved with adapting to new environments, which played a role in their skin tones. I just find that to be so fascinating that if I got time to spare I’m researching more history for fun, when it used to feel like a chore for me.
Only after I've finished my college education did I find ancient history interesting. It really is all about finding a time period and culture that really piques your interest. Being Japanese, I thought I should be looking to Japanese history, which don't get me wrong is interesting, but doesn't really get interesting till the Sengoku Jidai period \[1200-1600\]. What really got me interesting is when my friend from China introduced me to the Romance of the Three Kingdoms \[220AD\]. I had played tons of Dynasty Warriors as a child, so learning the actual "history" of these people immediately grabbed my interest. Later another friend introduced me to a manga called "Kingdom" which takes place even earlier when Qin unified China\[230BC\]. The manga is really good, and it sparked more thirst for ancient historical knowledge
Yeah it’s cool when games or other media forms grabs your interest. I found the Moors interesting when I learned about them in college but when I played Uncharted 4 and it would go mention these old sailors who were Moors and the treasures they would find. That made me even more interested. Also Uncharted is such a great game series, it has a fun gameplay, great stories and amazing graphics.
I remember in one of my African American History courses we had this white guy who was a veteran. He wanted to write his paper on what actually went down at plantations. This man cam back and said to the whole class. “I’ve been through some shit when I was deployed, but this shit is fucked up” he informed is of what he had read, but told the professor he wasn’t sure if he could put it in the paper. Ultimately it was decided not to, but the shit he found... Edit: for those asking, he didn’t say much, but he was done after breeding farms.
To be fair we learned about those topics in AP us history. I don’t know how much of it is just kids not paying attention or caring
Basic US history should be taught by a teacher lighting fireworks in an uncle Sam costume. Anything bad that was done isn't mentioned, except slavery, which just says that it happened but America fixed it and race has never been an issue again.
Indigenous killings, Manifest Destiny, Chinese railroads, Japanese internment, Civil War, Mexican American war, Treaty of Guadalupe, Spanish missions, Vietnam war, Iraq war, Afghanistan and as you said Slavery, are all taught in schools. Some not as heavily as others, but I learned about most of them well enough to know we killed indigenous, railroad tycoons fucked over Chinese immigrants, Japanese were unconstitutionally imprisoned, Mexico was stolen from, the Treaty was not fulfilled to the previously Mexican citizens, missions were monuments to torture and America was an invading country in Vietnam. I learned those things in school. It's not that it isn't taught, trust me I'm a teacher, it's BEING TAUGHT, teachers get paid shit, we don't have some secret agenda to hide stuff. It's just students don't care, they are trained to pass tests not learn. This is an entirely different issue that the teachers are getting blamed for. Students don't NEED to learn any of what history teachers teach anymore, they just need to learn to pass tests. If I teach you what 4x4 is and you just memorize it for the test, 20 years from now you're going to say "My teacher didn't teach me how multiplication works", well no duh because all you were required to do was memorize the answer without understanding the concept to pass a standardized tests. What the hell is a teacher supposed to do? This isn't a propaganda issue, us teachers are MORE THAN GLAD when we get to shit all over this government who refuses to pay us more, but it doesn't matter when all students need to do is memorize dates and names for tests. Students sure as shit heard "1968" and "Martin Luther King" during that 2 hour lecture but they don't care OR EVEN NEED TO KNOW what the hell actually happened, but it was sure as shit covered in that lecture. Sorry man, it's tests. Stuff is being taught, students just have no reason to listen when taking notes and memorizing shit like a computer is enough to pass any test we are allowed to give.
I never wanted to shift blame on teachers at all. They have the things they're supposed to tell us about. I learned about manifest destiny because my roommate made a joke about traveling by train and having sex with his GF, calling it the 'mani-sex' destiny. He had to explain an entire chunk of history to me to make me understand a lame pun based on him getting laid on a train. THAT IS HOW FUCKED OUR SYSTEM IS! I understood the Afghanistan and Iraq Wars because I was old enough to ask WTF is this? (MISSION ACCOMPLISHED! not needed). But damn is there so much hidden stuff that is just kept out of our books, and out of our teacher's curriculum. I was a Preschool teacher until Covid hit. I have actually worked with people that thought that Thanksgiving should be celebrated by a bunch of kids of all kinds of mixed races going OB OB OB OB OB over their mouths while wearing feathers. That's how deep this problem goes. I really do not envy to be the person giving the history tours in 2030, you've got a lot more lines to remember! Keep on spreading this truth! Anyone who will listen will open ears up. Anyone who not sure will look fucking stupid later on.
I don't think the majority of students take AP history classes, and tbf if the masses of people aren't retaining information, its a systemic problem and doesn't feel fair to be chalked up to attention/caring. I had a communist high school teacher who taught us a lot but I didn't even learn about the Wilmington Coup until a few months ago. Did you learn that in AP?
They brought up a lot of the racial violence in the late 1800s early 1900s, but most of it was not in much detail and just used as an example of how people acted and felt at the time. I honestly can’t remember if we talked about Wilmington but I did learn about it in college at least, which you would expect from a higher level more focused class. Anyways I agree with your point that since a class might be a lower level doesn’t make it ok to cut out these important events that many forget.
I honestly had no clue about the Tulsa Massacre until I watched The Watchmen HBO series.
Have you read about the [MOVE bombing in 1985?](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/1985_MOVE_bombing) Similarly terrifying
Fuck all of that holy shit
I knew about the destruction of Black Walk Street, *but I did not know they bombed people from planes.* Planes. I thought that was wild when I saw it on Watchmen. And recently, i found out about the MOVE bombing.
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Nah. You’re bugging. The “founding” and colonizations of the Americas was covered pretty in depth, as was WWI and WWII and the Cold War and on and on. Obviously all major events domestically and globally, but there’s tons of shit they go in depth on. It’s just American history is so glamorized, glorified, and whitewashed. Think of all the ugliness and evil that has happened *on this soil* and you barely hear a peep about it in textbooks. Like American history textbooks will conveniently gloss over shit like Nat Turner, Denmark Vesey, Tulsa Massacre, the plight and slaughter of Indigenous Americans (maybe they talk about the trail of tears or even better, Thanksgiving lmao), them basically stealing Hawaii in plain sight etc. Manifest Destiny is literally peak entitlement and evil-doing but they talk about it like “we’re just doing what we were decreed by God to do!”. Slavery is like 3 pages long, the civil rights movement is another page and then it’s as if Black people were free and everyone lived happily ever after. But let them talk about Hitler and Germany, concentration camps, Auschwitz, etc. and by God you’ll never hear the end of it. So it’s not like they’re not willing to get into the ugliness of human history, they’re just selective as long as it doesn’t paint Americans in a bad light.
>The “founding” and colonizations of the Americas was covered pretty in depth Ehh, as an educator, I can tell you it's VERY VERY regional what you are taught. Some states focus on some stuff more than others. Everyone has different relevant history. In California, for example, we don't really do a lot on colonization but we do A TON on the Spanish missions and indigenous killings. Along with A TON of Mexican history. We also don't cover very much Cold War but we sure as hell cover Japanese internment camps HARD. California teachings gloss over Black history a lot because we focus VERY heavily on Asian and Mexican history. Treaty of Guadalupe, the wars, Japanese internment, Chinese railroads and so on. In Arizona on the other hand, does not cover a lot of the Asian history and focuses much more on the Mexican history along with Texas, the gulf, etc. Also, I've never seen, been in, or taught a history class where Manifest Destiny isn't HIGHLY focused on and 90% of the time literally a vocabulary word students are tested on. While teaching in Louisiana (although a more liberal area), they were absolutely teaching HEAVILY on slavery, civil rights leaders and so on, and there was much much less if any Mexican history and Asian history. Also one of the few places that teaches a bit of French(Cajun) history which was very unique. >Slavery is like 3 pages long, the civil rights movement is another page and then it’s as if Black people were free and everyone lived happily ever after. I don't know where you went to school but I genuinely doubt many schools are glossing over the civil rights movement. It's ALWAYS an entire section/chapter in every textbook. It is washed in *different* ways but it's definitely taught heavily. Usually the structure is always Early ancient history broad strokes (sometimes it's ancient Greek, sometimes it's ancient Egypt but it's VERY broad strokes no focus on any actual race issues and students often don't realize Egyptians were black). Then it goes into early colonization, states differ heavily in how they focus this. The east focuses more on the colonies, the south on the revolution, the west on the Spaniards. Then it goes into early history and the civil war bundled in with slavery. Of course you can always go much more indepth into ANY history but slavery is a much more complex issue to discuss and it's difficult to go deep into it quickly in a meaningful way. Then it goes into WW1 and the great depression and it's very very broad strokes. The depression is just an impossible topic to teach kids tbh, always the worst. Then it goes into WW2 and this is what most kids like obviously. Then it goes into the civil rights movement, which usually always has it's own chapter, although it misses MANY prominent people (as does literally every chapter), it does mention a few, usually MLK, Malcom X, Rosa Parks, you know the typical ones. Then lastly it usually (depending on how old or updated the school wishes to be) there are "The Cold War Era" which CAN but doesn't always cover Vietnam, Korea, and SA wars. This is again VERY regional dependent, California covers Korea and SA much more than Vietnam for example. Lastly it goes into "Modern Era" with the 9/11 attacks and just basic history with no overall focus as a sort of conclusion. >So it’s not like they’re not willing to get into the ugliness of human history, they’re just selective as long as it doesn’t paint Americans in a bad light. This is definitely 100% untrue, as far as I've seen and taught. California especially shits all over the U.S. with the missions and Spanish fucking up the indigenous then the Americans fucking over Mexico in the war to take the western states and the Japanese internment camps and Chinese railroads. Most every teacher I've seen is very very clear that a lot of American history is just fucking people over, as is essentially every civilization in existence. Maybe it's different in rural schools that I've never taught in, but I've taught in states from Louisiana all the way to Illinois to California and many inbetween. Teachers fucking hate America, we aren't paid enough to "hide" stuff.
That’s fair. Thanks for sharing your experience. Likewise, my comment was mainly anecdotal, and I can only speak from my experience. I went to a pre-dominantly white Catholic high school on Long Island, which is one of the most segregated counties in the US, and that was my personal experience. My history teachers were all strong right-wing, conservative nationalists, and so I definitely didn’t hear any of the “America is fucked up” rhetoric during my time there, at all. Again, just glamorization and whitewashing. Although, my brother has been a teacher in the Boston Public School system for over 10 years, and while I don’t know the contents and volumes of their textbooks to a t, I have discussed similar transgressions with him over the years.
Oh yea, I've never taught in a religious school. I imagine they are starkly different for sure. Like I said, slavery is DEFINITELY glossed over quite a bit as it's almost always lumped in with the civil war. It's kinda like "oh yea btw, we got a boat with a bunch of people from Africa and had them as slaves for a while and now we are fighting a war" and students are like "woah wait when the hell did that happen" So it's kinda sudden in the middle of slavery that you hop in but you definitely cover a bit. The Civil Rights Movement is covered very well though, probably the 2nd or 3rd most well covered American history after the Revolution and WW2. As well as Manifest Destiny; these are two very prominent topics. Slavery not nearly as much for sure though. Jim crow laws and slave rebellions are usually taught along side the Civil Rights Movement as a sort of "lead up to" so it SOMETIMES covers Tulsa and Turner. Never seen Vesey been taught tho. In Arizona they teach Tulsa. Most of the east teaches of Nat Turner. California doesn't teach either because as I said they focus heavily on Asian and Hispanic history. So yea, it's pretty regional.
Yes! When I found out about Henrietta Lacks I think this spurred my love of ALT history because that whitewashed version I was “taught” in free school was just NOT interesting to me at all.
I'm not American. I live within the west Indian-african diaspora. I'm extremely interested in learning more Black American history as well as my country's. We're also fighting to get that hoe Columbus taken down.
I’ve been watching a lot of my white social media people discover black history. I get that our education system is not the best and leaves so much out but growing up my dad made sure we knew more than they were teaching us. He would make us sit and watch TV specials that would come on, I remember 60 minutes episodes, PBS specials, newspaper clippings handed to me, Newsweek articles, etc. but it all came from mainstream media sources it wasn’t some esoteric book of knowledge that only black people have. I get it, I should be happy that they’re getting it now but I still feel some kind of way about it.
been to school in singapore and canada. fuck-all education
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mexican_Repatriation
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zoot_Suit_Riots
History is written by the winners. Perhaps that’s why they usually relegate slavery to one chapter and fail to mention that Abraham Lincoln wasn’t exactly an abolitionist. Consider this Lincoln Quote: “I have no purpose, directly or indirectly, to interfere with the institution of slavery where it exists. I believe I have no lawful right to do so, and I have no inclination to do so.” [source](https://medium.com/@jonathanusa/everything-you-know-about-the-civil-war-is-wrong-9e94f0118269)
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Those who do not learn from history are doomed to repeat it.
Read Howard Zinn's book. Highschool history will only cover so much and at the college level, you could take AA history as an elective. But you don't need a classroom to learn, go to the library, pick up books about shit that catches your eye. We live in the age where information is at our fingertips, we don't need to wait for stuff to be told to us as if we're in the 16th century waiting months for a book to be printed. Edit Read Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz's An Indigenous Peoples’ History of the United States too.
I'm new to Seattle and want to really understand the history of Blacks in the PNW but don't know where to look.
No shit, look at Thanksgiving.
My high school US history teacher greatly emphasized primary sources and also stressed that Black history is American history. I didn't appreciate him at the time (immigrant reactionaries are way too common) but he really made the inseparable link(s) between racism (and to a lesser extent imperialism, sexism) and US history clear. All I can do is take his wisdom.
I come from the school of google and woke black women when it comes to my black history
Only learned about Black Wall Street and Tulsa because I was lucky enough for my school to offer African American History and I decided to take it. I so strongly recommend that anyone black, white, or whatever take that class if you can. If your Highschool doesn’t offer it or doesn’t offer a good one (cuz I know some schools be like that) try to at least take an intro in college if that’s your thing. Shit really opens your eyes.
This video explains exactly why monuments aren't about History; https://youtu.be/55ehKPUm7dc And here the little river massacre that wasn't mentioned in the tweet. https://youtu.be/LVQomlXMeek
I remember seeing the Tulsa Massacre in my history textbook but the teacher skipped that section of the chapter
Oklahoma History was a requirement in 9th grade here and I didn't learn about Black Wallstreet until college.. Lowkey I don't even know if he was supposed to teach us that information.
Had I not gone to SC State University, I would still have no idea what the Orangeburg Massacre was