American History: Hidden for a Purpose

By: Austen Wyche

November 16, 2020

When I go into history classes in Alabama, I expect the same thing. A version of history that the United States government has framed to rewrite history. We are taught events that just “suddenly” ended undemocratic practices, while we ignore major continuations of injustices in history. This “history” that we learn completely covers up America’s dark past; one that we must be informed of. There is no way to look back (and currently) for that matter and state that American exceptionalism is the best way to view history. Yes, this nation has granted women the right to vote, ended the practice of slavery, granted Native Americans the right of American Citizens, and repealed our discriminatory immigration laws; but there is a lot more to the story. There are events in American history that we are not taught due to fears it will “indoctrinate” or ruin the idea that America is the land of the free and always has been. Events such as the Texas Revolution, the Civil Rights Movement, the Civil War, and even the heinous acts of the lynching of African Americans has been hidden. In Texas, a textbook pushed the narrative that African slaves were paid and “immigrants” that willfully came to the United States.

We are taught in schools that racism just magically disappeared at the signing of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, but that is just simply untrue. We have learned well enough from the recent protests in the United States and around the world that racism is alive and strong. To read more about the current state of racism in the United States, read the column at this link. Additionally, the education system continuously downplays the violence that occurred during the fight for civil rights and liberation. We do not acknowledge the 16,000-60,000 estimated African Americans that were lynched from 1877-1968. The utter miseducation in the United States led to a Pew Poll, released in 2011, stating that a plurality of Americans believed that the civil war was solely based on states’ rights, with only 38% believing it was fought about slavery. States’ rights to…. slavery. In some schools, the administrators and students even believe that it is appropriate to have black students play slaves with their white counterparts as masters. It should not take a man getting brutally murdered just for the United States to have an awakening on why we should celebrate Juneteenth, the day that the enslaved Americans in Texas were given the news that they had been freed. Our education system must do better.

Second, we must address the blatant Eurocentrism that is present when we learn United States history. In courses that are taught such as United States History and state curriculums, it is entirely focused on the viewpoints of the majority rather than the experiences of Native Americans and other ethnic groups that were persecuted. There are systemic legacies of events that happened in our history, but our education system does not recognize that. We do not recognize the disastrous events of “Operation Wetback”, the inhumane mass deportations under the Eisenhower Administration, the racist oppressive War on Drugs under the Reagan Administration, the Southern Strategy used by Richard Nixon, and many more events in our history that have long term ramifications. In College Board classes, specifically history, there is no mention of redlining, the War on Drugs, or mass incarceration, as if they do not have effects on marginalized communities today.

In many classes around the United States, the racial oppression that has occurred is not the only thing missing. In the states of Texas, Oklahoma, Louisiana, Mississippi, and my home state of Alabama, there are state laws known as “no promo homo” laws often that prevent teachers from even mentioning LGBTQ+ rights in the classroom. Regardless of your beliefs regarding the subject, the rights gained by the LGBTQ+ community is American history. From the events of Stonewall to Obergefell v. Hodges, these are landmark events that should not be hidden from students. The history of Americans has not been thoroughly represented, and there must be an overhaul in our system to reveal the latent history. There has been a movement in recent years to cover up the truth about American history for the sake of comfort. The truth supersedes comfort of inevitable truths.

To help inform the United States about the horrible institution of slavery, Nikole Hannah- Jones and The New York Times founded the 1619 Project, which commemorates the lasting consequences of slavery, and how America has changed since the date of the first Africans brought to present day America. Due to the newfound reveal of American history, backlash and criticism ensued. Prominent Republican politicians such as Tom Cotton, Newt Gingrich, Ted Cruz, and President Trump attacked the project as a “rewrite of history”. Many politicians even introduced legislation to block federal funds from being used to teach the project in American schools. Since the project shined light on many practices these politicians use today to oppress minorities, such as mass incarceration, environmental racism, gerrymandering, redlining, they were vehemently opposed to the project. We learn in school that Brown v. Board of Education ended segregation in our schools, but this is simply untrue. School segregation still occurs today due to a large number of factors that keep people in the same areas permanently. Economic inequities keep people in the same situations, the main reason why there are so called “inner cities.” We must be taught about the institutions and practices that resulted in the legacies that exist today. Diversity efforts often fail, as parents of wealthy children such as at Thomas Jefferson High School in Virginia believe that increasing diversity in admissions hurt their children. The opposition of desegregation and diversity efforts are another example of history that it not taught in our schools despite their importance.

In our schools, one of the most common groups that are overlooked in American history are Native Americans. Native Americans were the first group of Americans to reside on our continent until they were violently pushed off of their land. We do not concentrate on the extreme tactics that colonists used when they came to the New World to control Native Americans, which include the Declaration of Independence that declared Natives “savages”. The overall nation that we live in today was built on the backs of immigrants, enslaved Africans, and Native Americans. We must stress the need for Black History Month, Asian Pacific American Heritage Month, Hispanic Heritage Month, and Arab American History months as these demographics are underrepresented in American history. These months are not for us, they are for you to understand the monumental impact we have made on this nation. There should not be a Black History Month where we only talk about Martin Luther King Jr. and Rosa Parks. Hispanic Heritage should not only be Cesar Chavez. We must learn about leaders such as the great African American Mary McLeod Bethune, a civil rights leader, feminist, and philanthropist; Daniel K. Inouye, the highest-ranking Asian American in United States history; Sonia Sotomayor, the first Hispanic Supreme Court Justice; and Dina Habib Powell, the Arab American Economic Advisor under the Trump Administration.

Overall, I would like to leave with one message. Our history in the United States needs serious reform. We hide the negative parts of our history under the view of exceptionalism. The 19th Amendment did not end sexism, and the Civil Rights Act did not end institutional racism. We must acknowledge these wrongs that our nation has made in the past and seek to reform and become a better country.

Edited by: Khushi Patel

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