It's no accident...

[CousinIT]

Women and their achievements and struggles were often written out of history as well - or the credit for them given to men instead. When white guys wrote the history books, they glorified themselves and wrote everyone else out, whilst also hiding all the hideous abuses against those unlike them, including women and native Americans as well as black people.

[Walleye]

1. It continues even ask me sit here and read about it

The right wing has gotten so quick to revise history, the lies get out before the truth ever does

[malaise]

2. Rec

The truth

[Docreed2003]

3. K&R

If you need any confirmation of continued hiding and "whitewashing" of the abuses, check out Mount Vernon's explanation on their website for the documented purchase of "Negro Teeth" by Washington. They literally minimize it by saying "It was common practice in that age for poor people to sell their teeth for money".

[Wounded Bear]

5. American history has been largely white washed...literally...nt

[TheBlackAdder]

6. W. E. B. Du Bois does a good job dismantling Booker T. Washington.

.

W. E. B. Du Bois’s select essays from “The Souls of Black Folk” introduces the concept that African-Americans need to present two faces to survive in America, along with a rebuttal of Booker T. Washington’s claim that the Negro can survive though submission. It was Du Bois position that an African-American needs to present their own image at a person, and another image for white society to see. Additionally, he felt that Washington sold out the black race by sacrificing many of the rights inherent to a human. While white society gladly received Washington’s position, it seemed to lead to the stagnation of the black race in America. Du Bois wrote this collection of essays to highlight the travesty that occurred and to call for these rights to be restored, it blacks were to achieve respect in society.

Although one could second-guess, whether Du Bois’s position could have obtained enough traction to pass in that era, America was in a more receptive state to have made that change. After several decades, since Washington’s paper, the country had solidified its views and radical change would not occur until the late 1960’s, and even then, riots and bloodshed occurred. If Du Bois had lived in that era, perhaps the black race would have thrived, though he probably would not have been Harvard educated either.

.

[rubbersole]

7. And for more...

Howard Zinn's - "A People's History of the United States."
Great post Cuz'.

[burrowowl]

28. Yes! A must read!

[niyad]

35. Also Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz' "An Indigenous Peoples' History of the United States".

[republianmushroom]

8. like it

[PoindexterOglethorpe]

9. I well recall the Civil War Centennial starting in 1961.

I lived in northern New York State at the time, hardly a hot bed of the Confederacy. and I recall quite clearly at that time being told by history teachers that the Civil War was not about slavery, but about then ambiguous "states' rights". I thought it was bullshit at the time, but at age 12 or 13 couldn't begin to challenge the teachers.

[CTyankee]

11. Yeah, I "learned" that in my lily white segregated school in segregated Texas pre-Brown v. Board of

Ed.

[ShazzieB]

17. I attended elementary school in Chattanooga, TN, where my family lived till I was 12.

They taught us that "states' rights" crap, too, but never really explained what that meant. I accepted it because I didn't know any better.

What's really weird, though, is they didn't call it the "Civil War." It was referred to as "The War Between the States." I don't think I ever heard it called anything else until after we moved to Illinois. What makes this doubly weird is that Chattanooga was the site of some major Civil War Battles, and the area is peppered with related historic sites. I was well aware of this and had visited some of those sites, but I did not know what the Civil War was, because it was never referred to by that name.

[Waterguy]

24. I grew up in the North in the 1960's near Detroit - they taught partial history, at best

yes, where I grew up it was states rights, over a war over slavery

in an all white school, to me that didn''t make much sense.
I was a kid reading about malcolm x, his autobiography written by him and Alex Haley.
racism was all around my neighborhood back then too.

They took the fire hose to black folks standing up to their rights, it was on television.
What did Dr King Jr. say that wasn't true, that did not point to a better world?

Why did we know immediately in our stomachs that when these two leaders were executed
Or when a great civil rights leader like Medgar Evers was gunned down in front of his house
in front of his wife and children in 63

The history, the truth is supposed to be there for a good reason,
to teach us all who we should be,
the bad things that did happen cannot be glossed over, if they are we
all fail.

We fail our people, all people, the gifts of people.

This is true in art, in economics, in civic leadership, any innovation,
towards equality, environmental policy, dealing with matters of foreign policy and decency
etc...

[underpants]

27. The Daughters of the Confederacy had a huge influence on education

They didn’t just put up monuments.


The United Daughters of the Confederacy (UDC) spent decades shaping and reshaping textbooks to put a strong emphasis on Lost Cause views of the Civil War and Reconstruction, which glorified the white supremacist foundations of the Confederacy and was used to justify segregation and authoritarian Jim Crow governance.Dec 3, 2020

https://www.google.com/search?q=udc+influence+on+education&client=safari&channel=ipad_bm&source=hp&ei=AneqY7y4Efix5NoPiq2kmA0&oq=udc+influence+on+ed&gs_lcp=ChFtb2JpbGUtZ3dzLXdpei1ocBABGAAyBQghEKABMgUIIRCgATIFCCEQoAEyBQghEKsCMgUIIRCrAjoKCCkQsQMQgAQQCjoCCCk6BQgpEIAEOgQIKRADOg4IABCPARDqAhCMAxDlAjoLCAAQgAQQsQMQgwE6EQguEIAEELEDEIMBEMcBENEDOgQILhBDOggIABCABBCxAzoOCC4QgAQQsQMQxwEQ0QM6BQguEJECOgQIABBDOgYILhAKEEM6CwguEIMBELEDEIAEOg0ILhCxAxDHARDRAxBDOhEILhCABBCxAxCDARDHARCvAToICC4QgAQQ1AI6CwguEIAEEMcBEK8BOgUIABCABDoFCC4QgAQ6BwgAEIAEEAo6CAgAEIAEEMkDOgYIABAWEB5QlQhYzUpgr1VoAnAAeACAAbgCiAG-DpIBCDE3LjIuMC4xmAEAoAEBsAEe&sclient=mobile-gws-wiz-hp

[electric_blue68]

30. Well it Was in a manner of speaking "States Rights". The Rght of States to...

own slaves.
South Carolina was the first State to secede.
They sure say it right up front.

(my underlines)
From Wiki...

Secession of South Carolina from the Federal Union, was a proclamation issued on December 24, 1860, by the government of South Carolina to explain its reasons for seceding from the United States. It followed the brief Ordinance of Secession that had been issued on December 20.[1] The declaration is a product of a convention organized by the state's government in the month following the election of Abraham Lincoln as U.S. President, where it was drafted in a committee headed by Christopher Memminger. The declaration stated the primary reasoning behind South Carolina's declaring of secession from the U.S., which was described as "increasing hostility on the part of the non-slaveholding States to the Institution of Slavery".[2] The Declaration states, in part, "A geographical line has been drawn across the Union, and all the States north of that line have united in the election of a man to the high office of President of the United States, whose opinions and purposes are hostile to slavery."

[chriscan64]

33. I was lucky not to have been taught that garbage.

But it is not hard to figure out. States rights to do what?

[DallasNE]

10. But That Would Make You Woke

And there is nothing worse than being Woke. Just ask the Trump minions,

[Waterguy]

19. what is woke-ism, someone parsed that meaning somehow

I don't know what the message is -
it's unreality they say about being woke -
like they woked, And oh yes now they want you to woke too


you gonna turn that little girl into a boy
when she's only ten, push it on her and pass laws
to physically change that little girl to a boy...

they woked, now you got to have no police,
and crime, oh those criminals get that message right quick.
they woked, and now you got to watch your back cause
those criminals are all free

they woked it, like woke = yoke

You're working plowing the fields with a small horse, steering with the yoke

The control panel on an F18 fighter jet

The Yoke - Jesus referenced the use of the yoke regarding animal husbandry

And the woke

Using your mind to see the truth in how human beings are being manipulated
how the environment is being polluted

And to simply state the truth to hopefully remedy these fundamental issues
that face the entire human race as well as our planet

In the hopes of creating more equality and sustainability for the future

[lees1975]

12. Exactly. Well stated.

https://signalpress.blogspot.com/2022/12/american-democracy-is-on-brink-and.html

[Waterguy]

14. without question it's no accident

this post, incidentally speaking, where-ever there resides,
any authoritarian state,
any Eurocentric imperialistic expansion
any religious zealotry (professed in ultra-authoritarian ideology, to heavily include, (the Patriarchy))

The truth about true history, something that was and is true and should be known to improve the lives of all people ---

something that becomes hidden

creates much chaos - is what we are living.

Peace!

[calimary]

25. Welcome to DU, Waterguy!

A lot to think about, and a lot MORE about which to correct the record.

[elias7]

13. Whitewashed, not rewritten

Privilege is about controlling what we learn about, about defining which facts are taught and which are ignored

[Waterguy]

16. People should not allow privilege to decide what we learn about - but sadly many do

I think small groups control a lot
and it is directed on certain groups
with the use of propaganda
to pit the small oppressed against
other small and oppressed people

I guess it starts with media
and then it filters down to state legislators
history in general terms cannot offend
a small group that protests too much

Then, there's also the history behind why.
Look at Woodrow Wilson
- in some ways a superior statesman and
true democratic who worked towards equality
- in many ways a real racist.

Way before that, the real tragedy of slavery and racism.


This is basic history. James Baldwin wasn't just a good writer.

[soldierant]

15. You probably didn't learn that much about Helen Keller actually.

She was such a flaming liberal that her life has been majorly underreported. I won't say she made duBois look like Newt Gingrich, because he was better than that, but that's how far left she was.

[ShazzieB]

18. This is so true, and I didn't become aware of this side of her until relatively recently.

[gratuitous]

20. Yes, the Helen Keller story was basically The Miracle Worker script

And leaves off before they get to the more inconvenient details of Keller's life.

[Waterguy]

21. Helen Keller was woke - she knew something true even though born blind and deaf

Not only was Helen Keller woke

she was a natural stateswoman
a link to people who needed direction

an honest and true message came about
whenever she expressed her view

human beings somehow have not only survived
but have succeeded in incredible ways through
the horrible tragedy of slavery

I'm still wondering what could be

[Genki Hikari]

22. She was a founding member of the ACLU

As only one of her leftie achievements.

As I told my mom once, it's like Helen Keller's life story ends in the American consciousness when her autobiography does. She's forever stuck in 1902, despite the full, vibrant life she lived after that.

[WhiskeyGrinder]

36. She wasn't a liberal. She was a socialist.

[FakeNoose]

47. Well yes, but that's what we called liberals in those days

As a matter of fact, a hundred years ago they were called "anarchists." However the word "anarchist" means something entirely different nowadays, so I'm happy to call them "socialists" instead.

The autobiography of Emma Goldman is a perfect example. She lays out her beliefs how a progressive society should protect the workers who are doing dangerous work, the mothers who can't work while tending their children, the people who have been injured on the job (such as the early steelworkers), and so on. The things that Emma Goldman stood for in 1900 would make her sound like a modern liberal/progressive today. But she was labeled an "anarchist" and later she chose to leave the country.

Americans have been brainwashed into believing that socialism is bad, therefore socialists must be criminals. No they aren't criminals, they are liberals. Or maybe they're liberal/progressives.

[WhiskeyGrinder]

48. What? No.

Helen Keller was a socialist. She was a member of the Socialist Party and a leader in the movement, and eventually leaned toward the IWW because socialism wasn't radical enough and was devolving into reformism. She was also actively anti-racist within a Socialist movement that was willing to tolerate racism in its ranks. At one point she called for revolution over education.

The things that Emma Goldman stood for in 1900 would make her sound like a modern liberal/progressive today.

Lol I don't hear a lot of liberals/progressives calling for violence to reach their ends.

But she was labeled an "anarchist" and later she chose to leave the country.

She called herself an anarchist. She believed the state should be abolished because all it does is oppress and control. This is the very foundation of anarchism. Goldman a liberal? I am laughing so hard I'm coughing.

ETA: There are certainly liberals, progressives and Democrats who support the ends Keller and Goldman called for. The difference, of course, is how to reach those ends. The former want to do so incrementally, through reform and electoral politics. The latter, through different means. That difference -- how to get there -- is the difference in labels.

[Permanut]

23. And no mention of Tuskegee. n/t

[Waterguy]

26. the tuskegee experiments are known about because they happened

just like a lot of things are somehow known,
because, in fact, they actually transpired.

this stuff went down from 1932 to 1972, so people who
went through it, or know a loved one who did, still remember
it like it was yesterday.

But somehow people do not reference truth that actually went down
two years ago, somehow it becomes almost instantaneously spun
in a misinformation or disinformation direction

And I'm not a conspiracy theorist.
I'm not perfect, I don't know all the answers.
But something is obviously amiss.

[Earth-shine]

29. I was in elementary school in the 1970s in New York City.

My teacher said it was "states' rights" and "not being allowed to secede" -- and not slavery per se -- that was the cause of the civil war.

The Occam's Razor (simplest and most obvious) explanation is slavery.

[live love laugh]

31. They really needed to "feel better" about themselves didn't they?

[Joinfortmill]

32. Yeah, it sucks.

[intheflow]

34. Overall agree with this, but why the Helen Keller slam?

I didn't learn she was a socialist until I was in my 30s, but of course what really made her so remarkable was her ability to transcend being a deaf and blind girl child in Alabama at the turn of the last century to a woman who attended and graduated from college when that was still unusual for women. I mean, what good does it do for any liberation movement to slam a disabled person as a poster child for our racist society? Is Black liberation so overriding that it overrides disability? The answer is no: oppression is not a competition. Eugene Debs would have been a better comparison to DuBois because literally his only claim to fame is that he was a socialist.

[WhiskeyGrinder]

37. What's the slam?

[niyad]

38. Disgusted, completely unsurprised KNR.

[twodogsbarking]

39. I went to Catholic School. We learned we were all going to hell.

I was told I was first in line. First place.

[TigressDem]

41. Those NUNS!!

I got to Catholic Church AFTER Vatican II and in California.

My experience was different.

When I moved from Cali to MN, I saw a big difference.

When John Paul decided to turn back the clock and go back to "only Catholics go to Heaven" and blame it all on the gays came out on PTL, I questioned the Church.

Course, I was raised by parents that were different faiths, Dad was Methodist and Mom was the Catholic.

They let me choose initially. Mom liked to go to Church and Dad didn't attend, so eventually that's where I landed. I think he knew it was REALLY important to her so he "let her win". He was like that.

[twodogsbarking]

42. The Catholic Church has nice buildings.

[TigressDem]

43. Yeah.

And they do have some good people there too.

My home parish was SO different from others I have gone to since I moved out of Cali.

The priest who baptized me, Father O'Gorman, was a small Irish fellow. He sat next to me one day and while he was talking to all us kids, he put on my knit gloves. Our hands were the same size. Granted I have piano fingers...

Our Monsenior was open minded and told me I could go to Melody Land and be baptized with my Dad and just view it as an additional "blessing" and show of solidarity.

The other priest actually had a degree in counseling and told me that all kids, especially girls, go through a period of hating their Mom because at that time I felt awful that we weren't close. But he said it was a process of finding out what we wanted to keep and what we wanted to change about how our parents parented us.

It led to me being able to talk to my Mom and eventually connecting. I did not see it at the time, but my Sister said that NO ONE got Mom to talk and share as much as I did.

The little old ladies that came EARLY to 6am Mass on weekdays so they could say the Rosary first.... salt of the Earth.

BUT OMG did those little old ladies have HEAVY furniture.

My Mom used to volunteer my Dad to help move them and when I was in my teens, I helped.

Mahogany dressers. Drawers packed FULL. Each drawer 20-40 pounds depending on what was in it; clothes, books or dishes.



But yeah, the stained glass windows, the statues, the high ceilings and acoustics that made us sound so good singing (even if half were about tone deaf).

[TigressDem]

40. Nice list. Fortunately DU has corrected some of these "oversights" for me.

I was fairly lucky. I grew up in California BEFORE RayGun was GOV and wrecked a lot of the progressive aspects of education there.

IE It was clear that slavery was the reason for Civil War. We learned about Harriet Tubman and the Underground Railroad as comparable to those who helped get Jewish people out of Germany or hid them. Although those people were "unnamed" to me until Schindler's List movie was made.

In California I was raised with the idea the White Crime is NOT victimless. White Collar Criminals just get away with it, but it is NOT JUST that they do.

But it seems I have more I can learn even now.

I have heard of W.E.B DuBois.... but as I see his book list, WHY haven't I read them?
The Souls of Black Folk
The Talented Tenth
Black Reconstruction in America
The Negro (1915)
The Philadelphia Negro (1899 hmm?)
The Comet
Of Our Spiritual Strivings
Darkwater: Voices from Within the Veil
AND many more.
DUDE was PROLIFIC!!

https://naacp.org/find-resources/history-explained/civil-rights-leaders/web-du-bois

Editor of The Crisis, NAACP's monthly journal
Du Bois became the editor of the organization's monthly magazine, The Crisis, using his perch to draw attention to the still widespread practice of lynching, pushing for nationwide legislation that would outlaw the cruel extrajudicial killings. A 1915 article in the journal gave a year-by-year list of more than 2,700 lynchings over the previous three decades.

TULSA
https://www.tulsahistory.org/exhibit/1921-tulsa-race-massacre/

Wilmington
https://www.ncdcr.gov/1898-wilmington-coup

WASHINGTON's choppers...

https://www.mountvernon.org/george-washington/health/teeth/

There are four dentures belonging to George Washington preserved in museum collections. The only surviving complete set is on display at Mount Vernon, and a fifth set is believed to have been entombed with Washington’s body. Each of the four known dentures is constructed differently and of different materials, as though the dentist(s) who made them were continually experimenting.

Collectively, these four dentures include: hippopotamus, walrus, and probably elephant ivory; cow, horse, and human teeth; lead, brass, silver, gold, and tiny wood pegs. Only two of the dentures (including the set at Mount Vernon) contain human teeth, for the incisors on the lower jaw.

Dentists advertised in newspapers to purchase human teeth, and these ads indicate that there was an active “tooth trade,” particularly in urban areas – gruesome as that is. Through this trade, poor individuals – enslaved or free, black or white – could sell their teeth to dentists for the benefit of wealthy clients. Teeth could also be taken from dead people.


Learned about Black Wall Street and Red Lining here on DU

Links for curious:

https://www.history.com/topics/roaring-twenties/tulsa-race-massacre
By 1921, fueled by oil money, Tulsa was a growing, prosperous city with a population of more than 100,000 people. But crime rates were high, and vigilante justice of all kinds wasn’t uncommon.

Tulsa was also a highly segregated city: Most of the city’s 10,000 Black residents lived in a neighborhood called Greenwood, which included a thriving business district sometimes referred to as the Black Wall Street.


RED LINING
https://www.npr.org/2017/05/03/526655831/a-forgotten-history-of-how-the-u-s-government-segregated-america

Rothstein's new book, The Color of Law, examines the local, state and federal housing policies that mandated segregation. He notes that the Federal Housing Administration, which was established in 1934, furthered the segregation efforts by refusing to insure mortgages in and near African-American neighborhoods — a policy known as "redlining." At the same time, the FHA was subsidizing builders who were mass-producing entire subdivisions for whites — with the requirement that none of the homes be sold to African-Americans.


Tommie Smith? Not much of a sports person ...

I heard about Jesse Owens https://www.history.com/news/10-things-you-may-not-know-about-jesse-owens
Owens captured four gold medals at a single Olympiad. 1936

And Jackie Robbinson https://www.history.com/topics/black-history/jackie-robinson

But Tommie Smith? https://www.history.com/news/black-athletes-raise-fists-1968-olympics

Ahhhhhh.




DON'T forget Juan Carlos
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2012/mar/30/black-power-salute-1968-olympics

[CousinIT]

44. Bookmarking your post.

Thank you.

[TigressDem]

45. Awww. Cool.

SO now I need to keep reporting as I get the books read.... LOL

Accountability is a good thing.


Makes me think, though.

CRT has a bad rap because the REICH is saying it will make little kids feel bad about who they are.
White kids could think they are evil and black kids could feel like victims, both powerless because of the past.

BUT just like "defund the Police" was bad wording but actually good policy to cleave the Union that was protecting the bad cops from prosecution.... CRT a college level discussion is bad wording for what young people should learn about our history.

I like REFORM the Police better and PEACE Officer not POLICE Officer. Keeping the Peace may entail many of the same functions but it's more community centric.



I think the best way to deal with young kids and racism is to TELL THE TRUTH and help them understand what kind of progress we have made to CHANGE those things. And what progress STILL needs to be made.


Little kids learning about HOW "silly" some aspects of slavery were.

In a group of kids with several races represented or pictures...
Look at this kid. Does he look like 3/5ths of a person to you? NO Of course not.
But a long time ago, people thought that was a real thing.
Some people still treat others as "less than" and that is part of why.

WE can do better.
WE can treat each other as good people first.
Even if we play a game with our friends and we are really good at it, that doesn't make our friends "bad" people. It means that whatever that game is, it's something we do well.
NO ONE is good at ALL things.
Everyone is good at SOMETHING.

Teaching kids from a young age that humans are different now because we know more, is a good thing.

Teaching kids to look at each others as equals first, then go from there, is also good.

And when people make mistakes or do mean things, they need to learn to be better and do better.


TELL THE TRUTH

BE BETTER

DO BETTER

Those aren't too big for kids to learn.

[treestar]

46. I did not learn that state rights was the cause

I learned that slavery was the cause. I was never taught anything about "black crime" as the meme says.

A lot of the things on the list I know about. How do I know if I was deliberately not told? Though I do read, maybe someone who doesn't is limited to school.

It was not nearly as bad as this meme states.

[whathehell]

49. Neither did I..I was taught that Slavery was the cause..

and, on my own, took a book out of the library on Harriet Turbman and read it at age 11. I certainly knew about "redlining" even though it wasn't taught in school.

Being from the North and going to school there,
I can't help but wonder if a number if these claims aren't descriptive of the South rather than the North.

[chia]

50. I believe the OP is from this poem by Michael Hall:

No Accident
The Miseducation of America

https://mdshall.medium.com/no-accident-9535f82117d7

[CousinIT]

51. THANK YOU. I will share this on Post where I found it.

Nice to be able to give credit to the one who created it.

[chia]

52. You're welcome! I'm not 100% sure, so if you find out anything to the contrary, please let me know!

I'm on Post too, I'll look you up if you're under the same name. (I have a different username there, myself.)

[jimgolden]

53. It was me :-)

I wrote the post "It's No Accident..." after seeing the abhorrent reactions of folks on FB after the murder of George Floyd. I was trying to express my anger and frustration with the manner in which the U.S. has socialized white people to be callously indifferent to the suffering of others, particularly Black people.

My friend asked me to make it public so she could share it on FB and a few days later it started to be "shared" quite a bit (and was read at the Washington National Cathedral on Father's Day). To date, it's been shared over 500,000 in various forms and with various attributions. Contrary to one version, I am not an "AP History Teacher," though I always wanted to teach history.

Based on what seemed to be an interest in the miseducation of Americans regarding race, I started a FB page (@thesystemisracist) that focuses on institutional racism (with a particular focus on criminal justice/law enforcement). The goal is to use data to deconstruct and/or dispel racist stereotypes, though there's also a lot of commentary as well.

Glad y'all enjoyed the post.

[KS Toronado]

54. Welcome to DU, Michael or Jim.

[gopiscrap]

55. welcome to DU