COLUMN: Rewrite the history textbooks, or the white supremacist violence will continue

Authors of history textbooks discussing the stopped working insurrection of Jan. 6, 2021 need to not neglect the events white supremacist underpinnings. The influence of white supremacy on American history has actually mainly been neglected by past and present writers, specifically in accounts of the Civil War. A lot of these books still waffle about the reasons Confederates sought sedition, recommending that “economic factors” or “states rights” were a vital part of the equation– not acknowledging that the driving force of the Confederate disobedience was to preserve slavery and the undemocratic system of white supremacy that specified the South.

The absence of strenuous mentor about white supremacy helped facilitate its expansion today. If we really wish to proceed, let history books prove– as plainly as the high definition footage of the Jan. 6 attack revealed Confederate flags in the Capitol– that bigoted Trump advocates would rather live under white supremacist than in a democracy.

Protesters gather outside the U.S. Capitol Building on January 06, 2021 in Washington, DC. Pro-Trump protesters entered the U.S. Capitol building after mass demonstrations in the countrys capital throughout a joint session of Congress to ratify President-elect Joe Bidens 306-232 Electoral College win over President Donald Trump. Credit: Tasos Katopodis/Getty Images

When President Donald J. Trump leaves office, White supremacy wont disappear. The efforts to suppress Black individuals, immigrants, Jews and members of the LBGTQ neighborhood will not decrease due to the fact that social media business suspend a known bigots accounts. While these actions might quiet their voices, we eventually need to fill the gulf of lack of knowledge about racism and white supremacy with rigorous, fact-based lessons about the harms social and systemic racism wreak on a democracy.

Related: Why trainees are ignorant about the Civil Rights Movement

We ultimately must fill the gulf of ignorance about racism and white supremacy with strenuous, fact-based lessons about the damages social and systemic racism wreak on democracy.

The foundation for the devastating insurrection incited by Trump unfolded over the course of years, as he boldly assaulted our democratic norms and traditions. Remember, Trump recommended we must get rid of due procedure when handling immigrants who cross the border. “When somebody comes in,” Trump tweeted in June of 2018, “we should instantly, with no Judges or Court Cases, bring them back from where they came.” He unleashed the military on peaceful Black Lives Matter protestors in Washington, D.C. in the aftermath of the George Floyd killing. And his absurd attempts to revoke the votes cast last November in Black bulk cities, consisting of Detroit, Atlanta, Milwaukee and Philadelphia, convinced countless Americans that our free and fair governmental election was in some way rigged since he lost it.

These are simply a few of the traitorous, bigoted acts that historians should take into context to combat the harmful narrative that seditious rebels have fed themselves: The twisted notion that white supremacy and bigotry are patriotic and honorable values.

Sadly, but unsurprisingly, history textbooks still provide brief shrift to the Civil Rights Movement in favor of laudatory tales of white supremacist politicians, for example, or are just blatantly racist. One book published by media business Pearson Education, which was out of print by 2007 but still in circulation in some schools as of a few years ago, suggested that lots of enslaved individuals “might not have even been extremely unhappy with their lot, for they understood no other.”

To this day, history books in flow in many private Christian schools blame President Barack Obama for racial unrest; one states that “Americans views of race relations decreased after Obama came into workplace.”

Its a concept that has long been baked into history textbooks and social research studies curricula. Explaining how Black people shown up in the United States, a book from 1903 discussed that, “The settlers bought them … and found them so practical in raising tobacco that more were generated, and slavery entered into our history.” This reads like a romantic Western European immigrant novel instead of a description of an essential act of the nations participation in the hugely immoral transatlantic servant trade.

Related: OPINION: Mobs of white citizens rioting have been commonplace in the United States for centuries

Historians must be equally as encouraged to reword the wrongs of history books past. We need to understand that racist kids become racist adults. Certainly, we cant manage what moms and dads tell their kids, however if teachers supply good, rigorous lessons, we can offer a trainee an F for stopping working to comprehend slavery, Jim Crow racism, systemic real estate discrimination and Trumps stopped working insurrection.

This story about history textbooks was produced by The Hechinger Report, a nonprofit, independent wire service concentrated on inequality and innovation in education. Register for Hechingers newsletter.

Since education is a function of the states and there is no nationwide standard on how to teach slavery and white supremacy, there are widely different curricula across the country. When Trump leaves office, the battles that are still raving in the states around the history curricula wont stop. Trumps defeat has only pushed people who willfully puzzle servants with immigrants and potential dictators with democratic leaders.

Moore directly lost that Senate race to the Democrat, Doug Jones. An uncounted number of politicos who discovered and think a whitewashed variation of American history did get elected or selected to state and regional school boards and no doubt think that white supremacy and oppression were– are– great for the country.

Lessons like these are internalized by the current-day political leaders who have continued to support Trump even after the mobbing of the Capitol. He got 68 percent of the white vote that election.

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White supremacy will not vanish when President Donald J. Trump leaves workplace. Since education is a function of the states and there is no nationwide standard on how to teach slavery and white supremacy, there are extensively various curricula across the country.

Authors of history textbooks composing about the stopped working insurrection of Jan. 6, 2021 need to not overlook the events white supremacist foundations. The impact of white supremacy on American history has mostly been overlooked by past and present authors, especially in accounts of the Civil War. Too many of these books still waffle about the factors Confederates looked for sedition, suggesting that “financial reasons” or “states rights” were a crucial part of the formula– not acknowledging that the driving force of the Confederate disobedience was to protect slavery and the undemocratic system of white supremacy that defined the South.

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