Happy #BlackHistoryMonth !
You know the drill by now. I don't like talking about Black history. Americans know Black history. I want to talk about white American history. In other words, racism, and the erasure of both positive achievements of, and injustices suffered by, non-white people. That's what people don't know.
Try this: Ask your white US friends what the statue of liberty celebrates.
Now ask your Black friends. Or French folk of any color.
Hint 1: It's called the statue of *liberty*. Not the statue of immigration or statue of independence.
Hint 2: Broken chains on the feet.
Hint 3: Idea for the statue started in 1865. What else happened in 1865?
Hint 4: What the sculptor said it's for? OK that's not really a hint!
An abolitionist designed the statue. A group of abolitionists paid for the statue. There's a plaque at the feet telling everyone what it's for. They named it the Statue of Liberty. It's arguably the largest anti-racism monument in the US, and the most recognizable anti-racism monument in the world...
Except people don't even know it's an anti-racism monument. They think it celebrates the huge influx of white immigrants from Europe that came to the US.
People that got "As" in AP history, that didn't know this, are running to their favorite search engine right now to try and fact check this. Let's wait for them... ⏳
Why do US people not know their own history?
Before folks ask, "Why was I not taught this in school?!" Look at what DeSantis is doing to AP history in Florida. You know exactly why you weren't taught this in school. Because it's easier to get you to accept mistreatment of Black people, if you don't know white American history.
🧔🏿Is the confederate flag racist? Why did the civil war happen? Where were you born?
🧔🏻Not racist! States' rights. Alabama!
🧔🏻Super racist! Slavery, murder of Black folk. NYC
Can you be mad at Alabama dude when their history textbook (from the same publisher!) lies about this?
The same publisher prints two different versions of the same highschool textbook about the causes of the civil war: one closer to the truth, used in Northern states, and one that lies about the cause, taught in the South🤡
I don't want to talk about Black history yet. I want to talk about why if you grew up in the North or West, your high school history book likely talked about the "Articles of Secession,"
but if you grew up in the South, those parts are removed and lied about.🙂🙃
Disinformation.
You can literally go and read the "Declaration of Causes of Seceding States," primary documents written by confederates themselves, on why they are Seceding.
https://web.archive.org/web/19980128034930/http://sunsite.utk.edu/civil-war/reasons.html
Some schools refuse to teach this.
I used to live in Texas. I would get so mad at dudes I knew that downplayed the confederate flag, until I realized that their textbooks literally lied about the reasons for the civil war!
Showing them the articles of secession blew their mind. Some stopped rocking the flag. 👍🏿
Imagine how much less racist the US would feel if 10% of all confederate flags just disappeared. Disappeared!
@mekkaokereke sorry for spamming "cool stories" from Latvia...
As far as confederacy goes, gladly, I'm aware of the context. Believe it or not, some people in Latvia use this flag 🤢 .
I had a big conversation with a game store about it and had the company who licenses the game tournaments there explicitly state their stance on racism to push a decision to not embarrass the store and the community by letting people with this symbol in. I know it's a very small contribution, but yea...
It's hard to cope with the idea that **textbooks** in **States** don't talk about what was different between the southern states and the northern. I mean, it's like American recent history 101, not even 102 😠 .
@SharonGibson3 @jonn @mekkaokereke At least those folks *know* what the flag stands for 😬
@jonn @mekkaokereke It's not only Latvia. Since the display of the swastika is banned (with penalties for violations) throughout Europe, far-right groups use the Confederate flag as a placeholder. If you look at pictures of Donald Trump's 2017 visit to Poland, you will see Confederate flags swaying in the breeze.