To save our country, a revamp must be in order. The time has come to set the record straight and replace fiction with fact. Like the many waves of the feminist movement and the Me-Too movement, the untold stories of the centuries-long marginalized Black Americans need telling. American History, the nation’s most dangerous class, has spread a poison so thick that individuals are at each other’s throats over preserving what is often closer to mythology or fantasy than history.
Much like Greek mythology, maybe had American history received a more fitting name like American mythology or a disclaimer that the events are loosely based on fact, society would not be at such an impasse. People are resharing millions of posts on social media, arguing against the removal of statues that memorialize alleged great American heroes. These arguers claim it is their heritage, and if those who oppose knew their history, they would take no offense to monuments that honor those like George Washington and Teddy Roosevelt.
The fundamental flaw in continuing to honor the founding fathers and many more alleged American heroes is that what people have learned about many of them is incomplete at best and an outright lie at worst. The American education system has purposely miseducated the youth by omitting the full accounts of the founding fathers’ impact on American culture. The possession, experimentation, and overall maltreatment of slaves are often a footnote in the lives of some of America’s most notable historical figures.
The experiences of slaves tend to be overlooked and usually require a separate class, generally at the college level, dedicated solely to Black studies to learn about the slaves’ lives. If one can stomach the morbid practices of Whites and make it to the end of the course, it becomes clear that there exists an inconsistency between what teachers teach in grade school and the newly learned material that is a more accurate depiction of American history. Miseducation in grade school leads Blacks and Whites to debate over differing accounts of history.
Although Whites are the dominant group in society and make up the largest group of decision-makers, Whites are generally the least informed about the experiences and history of other groups. The privilege of primarily only having to learn one’s history renders the average White person ill-equipped to debate someone of color about Black history. However, this has not stopped individuals from trying, but if it is indeed supposed to be one nation for all, it only makes sense then that the history of all is a part of the curriculum.
If school boards required a review of all the available history and replaced the nonfactual parts with updated information that gave fuller accounts of the character and actions of the nation’s most prominent historical figures, there would be less to argue over. Of course, some of the nation’s heroes would then become recognized as terrorists. From a more objective point of view, it would be difficult to spin stealing land from natives, capturing and enslaving people from Africa, influencing the creation of hate and White supremacist groups to terrorize Blacks and Jews, and following it up with the active maintenance of a system that marginalizes people of color.
The favorite argument to absolve historical American terrorists of their deeds is to argue that is how life was back then; this argument is so flawed it is incredible it has lasted this long. The following list of questions need to be answered if historical figures are absolved from their possession and handling of slaves because that is how life was back then:
· Why were not all people pro-slavery?
· Does opposition to the ownership of slaves indicate that there were moral differences in how an individual could live (e.g., Blue pill vs. Red pill)
· Why were slaves learning how to read such a threat?
· Does fear of the benefits of slaves learning how to read suggest that there was potentially an alternative way of life (e.g., escape)?
· Why were there ways for slaves to obtain their freedom?
· Would it make more sense to have no means for slaves to gain their freedom if it was the way of life?
· If Whites who freed their slaves upon their deaths felt like doing so was a good deed, does that mean possessing slaves during their lives was evil?
· Lastly, although the Bible contains instances of slavery, would God’s law that states “if you kidnapped someone and made them a slave, you would be put to death” have stopped Western slavery before it ever began?
To answer these questions is to accept that slavery was not the causal way of life but was the result of substantial efforts by some Whites to live an advantaged life. It was the society they constructed and worked like hell to maintain. To suggest that society is different because people have evolved is a misuse of the intended meaning of the word evolve and a suspect recollection of the history/heritage racist individuals are fighting hard to protect. The term evolve is often used in the sciences to refer to something that changes over time slowly. An essential aspect of the change is that it is assumed to occur “naturally” (e.g., evolution).
Going to war and killing each mainly other over the possession of slaves is not an evolution. Generally, one side prevails in war, and their ideology takes over. Whites let go of their slaves by way of force, not evolution. The idea that the current mentality of Whites towards Blacks is indicative of evolved mindsets is overzealous. Only God knows what society would look like today had the confederates reigned victorious, which seems to go over the heads of those who still fly the confederate flag, or does it?
The idea that children are presently allowed to grow up in environments where past American slaveowners receive praise because they won a war or passed a bill while having the genocide and destruction they have caused to Native and Black Americans overlooked is why every monument needs to come down. The country needs to follow in the footsteps of Germany’s removal of Hitler from open sight. For every individual that pridefully utters the words, “but this is my heritage,” your heritage included the enslavement of Blacks and consisted of a belief system that suggests Blacks are not equal to Whites.
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