Sometimes when I read the news I become very angry. It astounds me at times just how stupid, venal, and uncaring some of our fellow humans can be.
I know that the things that upset me won’t necessarily make others feel the same, but there are things that happen that might seem inconsequential on the surface, but if you stop and think carefully about them you just might see how important and consequential they really are and then you just might be as angry and frustrated as I am.
Recently I read an article about the Department of Education of one of our states approving a new Black History Standards for the state’s schools that contains wording that among other things suggests that some people of color who were enslaved ‘benefited from slavery because it taught them some useful skills.’
I had to read that passage a couple of times to make sure I read it right, and when I was convinced that I had, indeed, read it correctly, I exploded. Well, not loudly, but inside my head, as I tried to imagine what kind of callous idiot thinks that’s an appropriate thing to teach students about our nation’s history.
The reason for such a stupid statement is even more ire-provoking. It’s part of this particular state’s desire not to include anything in the curriculum that might make a student feel guilty or uncomfortable because of his or her race. Huh? This misinformed statement doesn’t make students of African descent feel uncomfortable? Correct me if I’m wrong, but the statement seems to be saying to them, stop whining about your ancestors being enslaved. They benefited from it.
Really? Really? Let me think about that. These were people who had no rights that the majority needed to respect. They were considered and treated as property. They were not allowed to learn to read or right, could be whipped for the smallest infraction, sold or have their children sold at the whim of their owner, and received no salary for their labor.
They were even at one point in U.S. history considered only three-fifths a person, and that only to enable the slave-holding south to have more equal representation in the U.S. Congress to put it on a more equal footing with the more populated industrial north.
There are many other things of this nature in this state’s standards, and other states are also trying to whitewash history to remove anything that is negative or reflects the unjust and often evil actions of a certain group’s ancestors so their descendants aren’t made to feel bad. No thought seems to be given to how the descendants of those who were the victims of this behavior might feel about this action.
And this is the problem with trying to edit out the parts of your history you don’t like. On the one hand, when we don’t learn the mistakes that were made in the past, we set ourselves up to make them again.
On the other, when we try to pretend that certain things didn’t happen by ignoring them, we forget that we were not the only witnesses. Others remember and they are likely not to forget or forgive those who try to airbrush it away. | NWI
