Textbooks Failed People of Color AND White Population Too

I recently did a little informal poll on Facebook, and asked how many people age 40 or older remember being taught about Juneteenth, or the slaughter of the black residents of Tulsa 98 years ago, or that Mississippi still included a confederate flag on THEIR STATE Flag. I asked if anyone knew that many of our military bases were named after confederate leaders or military, and if anyone realized how many statues across the nation there were of confederate leaders. How textbooks "omitted" details like Juneteenth--or Tulsa, is simply mind-numbing.

What I learned, ( and truth be told wasn't surprised to learn ) is that not one person over 40 had learned anything of these events or situations. One younger woman indicated she had learned about many of this at college when she took a black studies course, but no one else in a fairly representative sampling had ever learned these things--until the past month or so.

It might be useful for people of color, and for the white population, to understand that we were ALL taught a "version" of U.S. History that was NOT accurate--was very incomplete in the omission of almost any real background about populations of color, and was a version that was written, and re-written--and re-presented--year after year after year--probably for 40 or 50 years. White people like me learned very little about populations of color--of the terrible injustices done to populations from the Native Americans ( who--in some reading somewhere --I believe I read probably migrated to North America via Asia before the land mass of Asia was broken away from what is now Alaska --by climate change and seismic activity --a change of the earth's crust ) who suffered, and still suffer from American genocide to the terrors experienced by blacks captured, made prisoners ( now we call it human trafficking ) and sold as slaves. We weren't told much about Harriet Tubman or that the Underground Railroad was actually an effort to get to freedom--in Canada--not the northern states. Harriet Tubman was merely mentioned--not highlighted as the brave, heroic black woman she apparently was.

Unless you've recently read Bryan Stevenson's recent book "Just Mercy" --you'd have come to believe that all is now well with our criminal just system as regards to justice for people of color.

We were never taught about the often uneasy attitudes of military leaders toward people of color through WWI and WWII. Unless former Vice President and U.S. Senator Hubert Humphrey as a personal hero, as he was to me, you wouldn't have learned about how Humphrey confronted a very angry southern Senator and Democratic presidential candidate Strom Thurmond about race in an impassioned speech to the national Democratic Party convention in the 1950's, missed learning about just how overtly racist the Democratic Party was until the 1960's--although it took into the 60's to make any substantive progress in Civil Rights. Even then, it was pressure on Kennedy and Johnson and other leaders by the movement led by Dr. Martin Luther King and other clergy, primarily black clergy but also clergy and others living, and in some cases dying for, their lives for God, that led to change.

The list of "historical omissions" is way, way too long to list here. But, whites had NO OPPORTUNITY to learn about the history of people of color in school, at least through high school, where many of us never went beyond in terms of formal learning. Women are barely mentioned, and there have been so many truly important females that played key roles in U.S. History! The LGBTQ community is hardly ever mentioned either.

We were taught that Columbus was a terrific guy and great explorer, neglecting to be told that other explorers ( and to be fair--some of the discoveries of artifacts have come since my days in high school--Framingham North High School, Class of 1971 --had not happened at that point--but some had ) had already "found" ( for the Europeans ) North America. Much has been learned about Columbus and the Vikings who probably beat him here by decades--and the Templars who probably preceded the Vikings. And, of course, we never learned about just where -or when --North America's first inhabitants arrived here.

Andrew Jackson was pictured as a war hero, with no mention of his genocide of native Americans except for a brief paragraph or two--with no explanation offered about what constitutes a genocide---after all--he just made them move, right?

All our founders--and most our presidents, as is the case in every country by the way---had positive elements to their lives--and in many case--many deep and serious flaws that have made me uneasy about making most any of them personal heroes. Maybe John Adams, who I have always respected--and Ben Franklin --but most had good and bad qualities. It's surprising that we became independent--and have survived as a nation for this long.

And while I never was interested in statues of "leaders" or personalities--and wouldn't want a dime invested in any of them--it's easy for me to say it's ok to get rid of most of them, replace them with fountains or flower beds.

This wasn't the fault of teachers. They had to use the textbooks, and to be very fair, had used, and been taught from, essentially the same textbooks or information in those textbooks.

So, was this an "historical omission" on the part of well meaning but uninformed historians or textbook authors? Or--was there a perceived interest on the part of government and other influential white leaders to omit that information? Would many white people have been more vocal through the years in demanding changes that would have honestly benefited people of color more--but also would have benefited those of us who are white in living in peace and concert with all the residents of the country? I can't help believing that more of the political leaders I supported before becoming cynical -- and feeling that there was little hope for change--might have been elected. From Hubert Humphrey to Senator George McGovern --who might have won if he felt that he could have asked Congresswoman Shirley Chisholm ( the other prominent anti-Vietnam War candidate and a terrific black congresswoman from New York if memory serves ) to run as his Vice-Presidential candidate as some of his long time supporters like me were clamoring for, to Walter Mondale. More people of color would vote!!! More people of color would run for office! But, I cannot help but to believe that the omission of so much was a deliberate --and up to now--effective strategy by a select group in power to maintain power.

One of the key elements in bringing people together now and for the future is to spotlight these and other events in the media. For the future to hold any promise, every school committee and teaching staff needs to review every text book, and I'd suggest including very easy to follow videos like those I've learned so much from on the History Channel and America's Heroes Channels.

But schools, from this point forward, have to develop curriculum that "breaks the pattern of omission." This would give children and young adults --white as well as people of color--a chance to really learn--and make better choices--develop better attitudes.