Yes, black history must be taught as unequivocally as it was lived. However, to do that, white history must be taught every bit as unequivocally – especially the relationship between American eugenicists, Adolf Hitler and systemic racism in America.
How can anyone reconcile blatantly false and white-washed white history with honest black-history? Once white people know the history of eugenics, the last 140 years of black history makes sense. Likewise, the relationship between the Holocaust and the rise of White Christian Nationalism in America today.
DeSantis is an ideologue, and his ideology depends on keeping white history out of textbooks. If DeSantis allows black history into classrooms, a whole lot of ugly white history will flood in behind it. The only way Republicans can keep the ugly, filthy, disgusting parts of white history out of textbooks, is to keep the history of every non-white American out.
DeSantis is fighting a losing battle.
Over the last ten years, investigative reporters, historians, academics, and researchers have documented white history at a depth and scope never possible before. This work combined with the Black Lives Matter Movement, serious citizen journalists and pressure from inside the world of philanthropy, is finally bursting America’s institutional bubbles.
In 2020, one-hundred-and-eighteen years after Andrew Carnegie launched the racist eugenics movement, the Carnegie Institution for Science issued a formal apology and I quote:
“There is no excuse, then or now, for our institution’s previous willingness to empower researchers who sought to pervert scientific inquiry to justify their own racist and ableist prejudices. Our support of eugenics made us complicit in driving decades of brutal and unconscionable actions by governments in the United States and around the world. As the President of the Carnegie Institution for Science, I want to express my sincere and profound apologies for this organization’s past involvement in these horrific pseudoscientific activities.”
In 2021, the APA also issued an apology to Black, Indigenous and People of Color for Its Support of Structural Racism – and I quote:
“Today, the American Psychiatric Association (APA), the oldest national physician association in the country, is taking an important step in addressing racism in psychiatry. The APA is beginning the process of making amends for both the direct and indirect acts of racism in psychiatry. The APA Board of Trustees (BOT) apologizes to its members, patients, their families, and the public for enabling discriminatory and prejudicial actions within the APA and racist practices in psychiatric treatment for Black, Indigenous and People of Color (BIPOC).”
There is so much historical documentation being released, DeSantis can’t stop people from hearing about it. If the conservative base believes even a small fraction of this history, the Republican Party is dead. To combat this threat, DeSantis and his ilk are indoctrinating their base, hoping to convince them NOT to believe anything they hear (from anyone but them).
Personally, I think the Republican’s indoctrination scheme is backfiring. Every time the Republicans mention black history, relevant word searches spike or skyrockets.
Republican’s projection strategy is also backfiring. As soon as Republicans accuse some liberal of this or that, people start searching the Republican Party for the real culprit.
In popular culture, Colin Kaepernick went to a place no media company or political party has ever dared to go. Kaepernick’s documentary, “The Killing County,” now on Hulu, is exposing the hideous truth about the congressional district represented by Kevin McCarthy (the current majority leader in the Unites States House of Representatives). McCarthy has so much more to answer for, it would take several documentaries to expose all the racist filth, corruption, and violence in Kern County, California.
Guilty admission. This piece started as a comment to another Medium writer. It got so long, I thought I’d better spare the writer and publish it as a stand-alone piece.
This comment got so long, I cut it down and will publish the full comment as a stand-alone piece instead. Mr. Spivey, if you want me to identify you as my source of inspiration, let me know and I will happily do so (cause its true).
