2.29: History
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- Susan Rahman, Prateek Sunder, and Dahmitra Jackson
- CC ECHO
History is an evolving record of human emotions, aspirations, successes, and failures.Historians deal with the goals, fears, interests, and prejudices of people in the past, and the impact of their thoughts and actions on the people of today and tomorrow. Whether we acknowledge it or not, historical acts are the building blocks of present-day society, and the historian must reckon with the sins of our past when teaching the next generation of students about the events that occurred before them. It has been a great failing of historians who teach in classrooms across this nation, at all grade levels, and those who write history books who tell the story of the United States, to omit critical pieces of history that are painful or embarrassing. Revisionist history is commonplace in most curriculums, especially at the K-12 level. It is often only if a student reaches a college-level history class where the professor is committed to undoing some of these revisions that they will get a more accurate, representative view of the history of the United States.
As the title of this book may suggest, we write this with an acknowledgement to a great historian who did just that. Howard Zinn’s 2005,A People's History of the United States: 1492-Present remains a building block for speaking truth to power. His work spans centuries and tells the side of history Zinn calls a “people’s history”, something that is frank and critical of the status quo as a means of empowering readers with tools to critically evaluate what has been and is being done in the name of freedom in the United States. Zinn spoke of his rationale for writing “people’s history:”
I think that it’s extremely important for young people to learn a different history that will make them skeptical of what they hear from authority. I think if young people knew, for instance, the history of lies and violence that have accompanied American foreign policy, they would not be enticed into joining the armed forces (Zinn, 2005).
It can also be said that it is as much about what is being excluded from history that is problematic. Much of this reader is filled with examples of things many of us just did not know because it was not taught to us at any point in our academic career. As Zinn and so many other historians would point out, history is crafted by the victor and so in the United States, the historical narrative highlights the greatness of European white settlers from a white patriarchal frame. White washing history, as it is perhaps best labeled, allows the development of the United States to appear righteous and divine when in fact it is far more complicated, painful and brutal than that. But omission serves to make historical events invisible, events that many believe need to be visible. While the claim of absolute objectivity is a fallacy, there is a way in which history can be taught as a means for equity and social justice.
But there is no such thing as a pure fact innocent of interpretation. Behind every fact presented to the world-by a teacher, a writer, anyone-is a judgement. The judgement that has been made that this fact is important, and that other facts omitted are not important (Zinn, 1980).
Zinn is not alone by far in his assessment. Historical omissions serve to move forward cultural narratives that serve those in power. By minimizing historical atrocities committed by white colonizers on enslaved Africans, indigenous Indians or other migrants, we lack perspective into the intergenerational trauma that affects families to this day. Understanding the ways in which our history is steeped in structural racism is important for us to understand much of the social ills of the present day. The actual history of African-Americans has been erased from history textbooks. The inefficiency of our educational system to convey an equal representation of history has made it so that Black, Indigenous, people of color, (BIPOC) voices and experiences are not recognized. This fairy tale is exemplified in curricula across the U.S. from very early on:
A Connecticut fourth grade social studies textbook falsely claimed that slaves were treated just like “family.” A Texas geography textbook referred to enslaved Africans as “workers.” In Alabama, up until the 1970s, fourth graders learned in a textbook called "Know Alabama" that slave life on a plantation was "one of the happiest ways of life." In contrast, historians and educators point out, many children in the U.S.education system are not taught about major Black historical events, such as the Tulsa Race Massacre or Juneteenth, the June 19 commemoration of the end of slavery in the United States (Silva, 2020).
The suppression of the complete history of our country has made it easier for systemic racism and white supremacy to reign over the reality of our history. When BIPOC voices and contributions are not acknowledged, it makes that community invisible to the whole of society.There have been many inventors that were BIPOC, yet we do not know their names.“So when people say you can’t erase history, it's like, what are you talking about? If you crack open a textbook from the mid-20th century, there are no minorities in those textbooks”(Silva, 2020). The contributions of BIPOC citizens have been undermined, and educators are now being calledupon to work hard to show these contributions that have remained hidden for a very long time. Sadly, when academics do take on revisionism and attempt to shine a light, it does not always sit well with those in powerful positions.Speaking truth to power, questioning the status quo,and asking for answers can get you in a lot of trouble. There areso many historians who over the years have fearlessly challenged the dominant narrative in efforts to tell a more accurate tale of history and resultant U.S. policy who then are at risk of failed tenure, termination, and threats to their safety just so that the story could remain the same. Muckrakers the likes of Howard Zinn, Cornel West, Steve Salida, Ilan Pappé, and more recently, Nikole Hannah-Jones and Garrett Felber have all felt the wrath of those determined to perpetuate the supremacist patriarchal status quo (Middleton, 2020).Historians today stand on the shoulders of giants.They are charged with telling a more complete story which can help move academia towards greater equity.