Comments | salsa_maggi: Lies My Teacher Told Me

salsa_maggi

Lies My Teacher Told Me

Mar 14, 2009 16:19

So I've been reading Lies My Teacher Told Me recently. It's kind of like Howard Zinn's A People's History of the United States, revealing the ethnocentric biases and omission of uncomfortable truths in the dominant history curricula in this country ( Read more... )

books, race, racism, history

Comments 16

lethalinjustice March 15 2009, 14:07:31 UTC

"Especially when you're white and you CANNOT speak for people of color, no matter how many "minority friends" you have or how "anti-racist" you are. Period. Yet that's what history textbooks teach us, and what other institutions perpetuate, the white point of view, almost exclusively ( ... )

lethalinjustice March 15 2009, 14:07:55 UTC

gah sorry i ranted a bit...

salsa_maggi March 15 2009, 19:10:45 UTC

No worries. And thanks for pointing out the U.S. exclusive bias in my writing! (ironic, huh)

It's true that people try to cover their own mistakes, but the problem is that such grossly inaccurate accounts of history shape people's thoughts about their government and country, which keeps them blind to what goes on and allows systems of oppression to continue. It is dangerous to have people locked in the mindset that everything their group and/or country is good and justifiable and others are always to blame. And because history tends to repeat itself, when the same shit starts to go down again, people will be oblivious to it. It scares me to think about it.

lethalinjustice March 16 2009, 15:12:27 UTC

Haha. I think one thing that we should just remember is no matter how many perspectives you write from, there is always going to be some form of bias.

I can't blame you for only including the US in your rant, because it's the topic you know. But it's still great that you are open to hearing different point of view and different sides.

I think there is a big difference between writing something like history and knowing you don't have all the facts, but writing what you know and accepting any changes that may exist. Compared to writing only what you find and shutting out everything else. Both types exist in this world, and I think the latter is the one you are really against. But sadly, their voice is just as strong as the former's.

Thread 12

ukaliq March 15 2009, 17:23:24 UTC

Right. Now that colonialism is over and the government isnt constantly trying to take MORE of their land and put nuclear/petrochemical plants by their homes; they should totally pull themselves up by their bootstraps and pay taxes *rolls eyes*. Besides, First Nations are sovereign nations, and therefore wouldnt pay taxes to US (or Canada) in the first place.

I have nothing to add, besides that you need to write college level essays about feminism and white privledge, because you put it in terms where it should make logical sense to anyone with cognition.

I also love dealing with the privledged "WHY ARE YOU TAKING MY SLICE OF THE PIE!!HIWIUQ@$!@!!" Its great, really.

If you havent seen either movie, you should rent "Jungle Fever" or "Do the Right Thing". I love Spike Lee joints. :)
<3

ecto_plasm March 15 2009, 18:56:55 UTC

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ecto_plasm March 15 2009, 19:04:46 UTC

Racism against white people would be if everybody took the Appalachian hillbilly cousin-fucker redneck bathtub-moonshine-makin' I-am-my-own-grandpa stereotype and made it into a universal image for all white people everywhere and for all time.

also:

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lazarus141 June 17 2009, 19:09:24 UTC

I remember reading this book in high school. We had a great school librarian who made sure we always had a derth of reading material to pull from for our assignments. Actually that's part of the reason I went into this profession in the first place.