Why We're Fighting About Teaching Racism

 

Why We’re Fighting About Teaching Racism

June 27, 2021

 

I put a post on Facebook yesterday, June 26, 2021, in which I explained that we are fighting about teachers telling the truth in class [about the history and reality of American racism] because so many Americans bear allegiance not to this country as it really is but to our national myth. I’ve printed that post below.

 

I've seen a post here that says something like I can't believe we're arguing about whether teachers can tell the truth in class. The post has a graphic with it that depicts slavery. Here's why we're arguing about that. A great many Americans bear allegiance not to this country as it is but to this country's national myth. That myth functions to connect people with the country albeit through duplicity. The reality is that this country is racist to the core and always has been. The national myth says maybe we used to have a problem with racism, but we're over it and should stop bringing it up. A great many people turn to a comforting national myth when reality is too unpleasant. Then when someone challenges the national myth the people who live by that myth fight back. They cling to the myth and try to stop people from telling the truth. That's the dynamic behind laws like the one just enacted in Texas against teaching the truth about slavery. I write not to defend the American national myth but to point out that those of us who prefer reality to lies will never make progress in telling the truth until we understand why so many people cling to the duplicitous myth of a peaceful, egalitarian, non-racist America in which everyone has an equal opportunity to succeed. None of that is true. All of it is part of the American national myth. That's why we're fighting about teachers telling the truth.