Thad wrote:The Root:
We Found the Textbooks of Senators Who Oppose The 1619 Project and Suddenly Everything Makes SenseIn case you haven't heard of it, here's a description of the
1619 Project:
The 1619 Project is an ongoing initiative from The New York Times Magazine that began in August 2019, the 400th anniversary of the beginning of American slavery. It aims to reframe the country’s history by placing the consequences of slavery and the contributions of black Americans at the very center of our national narrative.
Republicans hate it, of course.
The piece at the Root highlights a number of prominent Republicans who have criticized the 1619 Project, and digs up the history books they studied in grade school and high school.
It's an edifying conceit. Obviously shitty high school textbooks aren't the reason Mitch McConnell and John Kennedy are ignorant racists, but it's worth remembering how white supremacists have sustained their narrative through the generations by teaching it in school.
I wanted to reply to this yesterday but was too angry about it to do so coherently; I wrote out a long angry rant but then deleted it as it wouldn't be constructive.
So something has been going on recently with me. I joked a few weeks ago in #finalfight that I should change my nick to Cassandra, because all my truths I uttered in the mid 2000s and 2010s have now been coming true but nobody believed me at the time and even ridiculed me for being a doomer edgelord. I don't mean here, so much as real life friends and family. I did get a little bit of that here though:
Again, I'll bring up the conversation Arc and I had waaaaay back on fucking pyoko (two board iterations ago) where I basically said "the cops are worthless fascist murder bullies" and Arc said "lol no my cousin is a cop" or when I said "the world is getting worse as time goes on" and Arc said "no it's just Bush also divorce rates are down."
Trump and Covid have accelerated a lot of shit that was always going on behind the scenes and brought it to the forefront. I said in 2015 that Facebook was a misinformation murder cancer that was killing people and my irl friends and family thought I was being silly. Here, I remember a thread where it was discussed and yyler said that it's "just a tool I use it to keep in touch with my friends stop flipping out."
Now, I don't mean to slight Arc or yyler. I love those two guys to death, and god fucking knows I'm wrong about shit all the fucking time. But now we've got a literal fucking whistleblower who worked for Facebook saying in front of Congress "Facebook kills people, on purpose, to make money" and I'm just sitting here, like.
So I bring all this up because textbooks are another one of my Cassandra Truths. I've been on them for longer than cops, even. Since about 1997. In high school. Because I read insane shit in my history textbook about slavery and thought "holy fuck, if California textbooks are this bad, imagine how bad southern textbooks must be."
I also have been on and on about nature vs nurture, or how impactful the formative years are on people, for forever. I tend to extend the definition beyond the consensus to about 14 or 15 years old. What you learn during this time defines you. It informs who you become. Yes, people can change. But it's hard and rare. Usually instead of changing they "put on more coats" so to speak. Your core remains more or less the same as you age.
Obviously shitty high school textbooks aren't the reason Mitch McConnell and John Kennedy are ignorant racists
See, here's the thing. In my view, this is both true... and not true. You are who you are taught to be. Yes, some people break out of religious cults they were raised in. But those are generally... small. You can look out the farm window of your "southern baptist gays are going to hell and women are inferior" cult and see the rest of the world, even if your father tries his best to stop you. But when the "cult" is the entire society around you, like it is in the South in regards to racism and slavery, well. It's a lot harder to see all the way to New York or the west coast. Not that they don't have more than their fair share of racists anyway. I don't want to overly pick on the South here, but on the flipside, I think pretending the South isn't measurably worse when it comes to racism is naive.
I digress. What I want to impress upon you and the point of this post is this: When you see misinformation on a platform that reaches millions of people (school textbooks, facebook, fox news, whatever) do not dismiss it as "crackpot bullshit that nobody will listen to."
I mean, I know you guys won't. Not anymore. I think most people have learned that now. But that type of thinking WAS rampant even 10 years ago. It was stupid to think that then and it's REALLY FUCKING STUPID to think it now. Misinformation kills. Period. Misinformation creates and contributes to systemic racism. Period. Lies and whitewashing are not "crackpot funny nonsense." They are an integral part of how our society continues to be shit, as Thad goes on to point out here:
it's worth remembering how white supremacists have sustained their narrative through the generations by teaching it in school.
I am often wrong. I am often overly cynical. It's important to challenge me as it is important to challenge everyone. It's how we all learn and grow. But I'm not wrong about this. I wasn't wrong about cops, and jesus christ I wasn't wrong about fucking Facebook.
I was wrong about Trump though. I mean in that I thought he couldn't win a general. Sigh. Why can't I be wrong about my pessimistic shit? I try one little optimistic "no way people are stupid enough to elect this incredibly obvious tyrant conman fuck" and it blows up in my face.