There has been an unfortunate movement in this country to ‘protect’ white children from their history. Politicians and parents don’t want children to be taught about the realities of slavery, or the refusal to extend civil rights to millions of citizens, or anything that might make them feel ‘bad.’ Lucky for you, I have two thoughts. 🙂
- You may be able to keep your children in some sort of ‘safe’ bubble while they are young, but when they leave you to go out into the world, imagine their sense of betrayal when they learn—-and they will learn—-that you have handicapped them. They will struggle to interact with and work with people who weren’t kept inside that bubble, and they will learn that our history is complicated and hard and very unfair to many people. Sending your children out into the world ignorant is not protecting them.
- The second thought is not my own, but comes from Brink Lindsey, who wrote two challenging articles about civic virtue called “In Search of Civic Virtue.” He suggests that both the right and left get this history thing wrong: “When we regard our complex, contradictory past, we must avoid the errors that the right and left, respectively, are prey to. Loving the past uncritically is wrong, but criticizing it unlovingly is no improvement. If we truly want to make a better America, we must first make peace with it as it is. We cannot hide from its ugliness, nor can we let that ugliness dim our gratitude for its blessings.”
Read that last quote several times. I think it’s brilliant, and excellent food for thought.
3 Responses
I sure look forward to your thought provoking posts!
When facing a countries history I look to Germany and how they have handled their recent white supremacy history. They have faced it, accepted it and have plans on how NOT to repeat it. We should learn from them.
This is how it should be done. The final quote is awesome.