Whitewashing History is Nothing New: Now It’s Mandatory

I may not be the ideal person to talk about this. I have a white skin that would incite jealousy in most ghosts. Skincare brands don’t sell colors light enough for me. If it weren’t for the flush in my face, I’d look constantly like I was dying of consumption. There are so many people more qualified to talk about the Whitewashing of our history. I will list a bunch of books at the end that shed more light on the issue as it has stood in America for, well, all of America’s existence. But. I still want to talk about it. We shouldn’t ignore this blatant attack on education and reality. We certainly shouldn’t ignore it when it paints our ancestors in a better light. I don’t know when all of my family came to the USA, but let me take a moment to say, if any of them took part in the subjugation, enslavement, or otherwise stripping of civil rights of any people group, you are trash. You will always be trash and I, as your descendant, will never defend your actions. Every family tree has a few diseased branches. Cut those bitches out.

So to the horrific topic of the day! An Executive Order (I already shiver when I hear these words) entitled Ending Radical Indoctrination in K-12 Schooling. Ugh. Some of us, and I’m not naming names, really need to snag ourselves a dictionary because we don’t know what indoctrination means and I really think we need another word for radical. Cause I’ve seen and heard that too many times. That will link you back to the Whitehouse website. For now. Every time I check it out, it seems to leak webpages faster than Facebook leaks everything Zuck says. (As of this writing, you literally cannot use the website to apply for a passport! FUN!) So what indoctrination does this order claim to be ending?

I’m gonna start by tackling the slightly weird but ultimately super concerning one first. There are two sections about PATRIOTISM. Like schools don’t instill it enough. And the document claims parents expect that. Anecdotal, but I’ve not really heard anyone say their issue with the school system is that it isn’t patriotic enough. Like, not enough kids have bald eagle pets and flag tattoos? It’s strange on its face. It’s scary because this type of patriotism is a mainstay in fascism. There’s being proud of where you come from and then there is believing your country is infallible and near godlike in its superiority. Guess which one is being peddled here?

There are lots of words used to discuss celebrating America’s greatness. About how we are so admirably advancing toward our, perfect from the outset, ideals. We can never talk about America’s history in a way that suggests that it was somehow ignoble. We cannot discuss how anyone has any privileged based on who they were born. Obviously, in America, it isn’t like that and never has been. (Hard sarcasm). They refer to that as discriminatory equality ideology. Ridiculous. We should all be born equal. That would be fantastic. You’d have to be an idiot to suggest that was true. Or….A white, male, heterosexual, billionaire, who inherited his wealth and has never had to make anything of himself because you were FUCKING BORN PRIVILEGED AS HELL YOU MORONIC ICE CUBE.

Finally, a ton of wasted time and space is spent on parents’ rights to not have their children be someone they don’t want them to be. But only the RIGHT parents’ rights. Parents who are supportive of their LGBTQ children have no rights. It’s kind of like during the Civil War. The south was all STATES RIGHTS BITCHES. Until the north had laws like, we do not return run-away slaves. And then the south wanted it to be all FEDERAL LAWS FOR YOU YANKIES! So yeah. Rights, but only for the right people. This is a regular issue with this particular group.

If you are a parent especially, but also if you are just a person. Now is the time to get educated on the things we may not be allowed to know. I know that some of this is boring information. I prefer to read more interesting stuff like about the monsters under the bed. The ones in the White House are way scarier. But! Punch through it and at least you won’t be some idiot trying to claim that there has never been any racial tension in the US. Or that like Native Americans are immigrants. God.

Both A People’s History and First Principles are available on Kindle Unlimited.

I know a lot of us are trying to get away from using Amazon. Myself included. I still have Kindle Unlimited and am using that at least until it runs out.

For anyone who wants a different option, these links will take you to bookshop.org.

• How the Word is Passed
• Stony the Road
• First Principles
• The Other Slavery
• An African American and Latinx History of the United States
• A People’s History of the United States