What Don't We Know About U.S. History?
Image by Jakob Owens (source)
It's LISTEN day!
It has become increasingly clear that my social studies/history education was...incomplete. And I'm guessing that yours might have been, too. We need to fill the gaps, because our country didn't arrive at This Hella Painful 2016 out of the clear blue, on a wave of bittersweet postracial bygones.
Today I recommend reading Mary-Alice Daniel's quick overview, The history white people need to learn, to whet our appetites. If you want more, read The Angry Black Woman's Thank You, White People, a sardonic response to Pat Buchanan's "but white people have done so much for Black people in this country." Bless. His. Heart. [Full southern connotation there, with gritted teeth.]
IF YOU ARE FEELING DEFENSIVE, might I suggest listening with your chest? In my childhood, "revising history" (ie, by listening to the voices of people of color) was considered leftist, "agenda"-driven, and unpatriotic. So...not surprisingly, I've felt ambivalent about reconsidering what I learned. But let's take a form of Pascal's wager here: if even a tenth of this "revision" of the Official 1980s Elementary School Story is true...we have a lot to deal with. We don't need to fear the truth; some even say it sets us free. So: open chest.
What History Do You Want to Know More About?
AND: I intend to devote the next few "Learn" posts to a Brief Timeline of Actual US Racist Policy We White People Might Not Know About. (For instance, not to get all Springer, but: How much do you really know about the Emancipation Proclamation?) If there's something you'd particularly like me to address, would you let me know in the comments?
xo
Further Resources:
- Here's some recent prize-winning poetry by Mary-Alice Daniel, who was "born in Nigeria and raised all over the world."
- The Angry Black Woman, while now defunct, is a hair-raisingly excellent resource. You can follow Mikki Kendall, its founder, at @Karnythia.
- Pascal's Wager (Wikipedia), just because.