Context matters. America was not the only nation to engage in slavery. Slavery existed long before the United States and persists today in other countries. It is a humanitarian abomination wherever and whenever it is practiced. But it is interesting to see how aggressively some folks only want to teach about America’s sins.
A Sequoyah County lawmaker has filed a bill that would outlaw the teaching that America was unique in its use of slavery and takes aim at a New York Times’ project that sought to highlight the role slavery played in America’s founding.
House Bill 2988, authored by Rep. Jim Olsen, R-Roland, would prevent the teaching that one race is the unique oppressor in the institution of slavery, that another race is the unique victim in the institution of slavery, or that America had slavery more extensively and for a later period of time than other nations.
“It is important that it be taught that we had slavery as a nation and it was evil, but it would not be proper to teach it that we were the only ones that had it,” Olsen said during a Wednesday interview. “It is the agenda of the far left, they want our young people to hate America.”
The bill also would outlaw the use of the 1619 Project, which is a series produced by The New York Times Magazine that argued there is not enough understanding on how slavery shaped the nation and how it continues to impact society today. Spearheaded by journalist Nikole Hannah-Jones, the series drew scorn from some conservatives who believed it detracted from American exceptionalism, the belief that the United States is better than other nations.
I wonder if they will teach about the Democrat party is a racist party and liberals are guilty of systemic racism?
This legislation only makes sense in a totalitarian society that is trying to become a more free society. in our society, it just proves the lie that we are free.
Or, Tuerqas, the legislation seeks to have the actual facts told. The New York Times report was debunked. And the white US people was not the only people slaves. For instance, Native Americans owned slaves. How often is that mentioned in textbooks? That should be taught in Oklahoma, especially since they have a high Native American history and population.
That was not ever common anywhere among any of the Indian nations in the US, though it was popular among several Central and South American nations. The relatively few tribes that had an institution of slavery used them as replacements from the natural attrition of their tribe. Most of the time they were adopted into the tribe, and never kept in generational slavery.
The part that absolutely should be taught is that over 95% of all African slaves brought over were already enslaved by black Africans and sold to Europeans and Americans. Abject slavery and casual killings of slaves has been part of African tradition for literally thousands of years and still goes on today throughout West, East and Central Africa. It has never stopped. That kind of information changes the whole narrative in my opinion. i am not going to say that slaves sold to the US were better off, but I can prove that life expectancy was longer for black slaves in the US than in the tribes they were sold from, and their descendants are highly likely to be much better off (as in Africa slaves were commonly not allowed to breed, it is very highly likely).
Well, I found this little tidbit interesting: https://www.npr.org/2011/09/20/140630565/americas-2nd-largest-indian-tribe-expels-blacks.
I am.not positive, but this is probably not taught in most history classes