From the TPM Muckraker blog, I see that the Tennessee branch of the tea party has joined in the conservative tradition of complaining about history textbooks. They want to pass a policy with the following line:
No portrayal of minority experience in the history which actually occurred shall obscure the experience or contributions of the Founding Fathers, or the majority of citizens, including those who reached positions of leadership.
What they actually want to say is, “Teach us about dead white men. None of that black history, and don’t try telling us about important women.” Of course, they can’t say those exact words, so they fall back on the language of majority and minority. And that leaves them open … well, I can’t put it any better than Slacktivist did:
So, OK, then. No more looking at history through the lens of “minority experience.” Time to focus on “the majority.”
No more of this obsession with kings and nobles — put the focus where it belongs, on the serfs and the peasants who made up the vast and overwhelming majority of the population.
Set aside the generals and conquerors and put the focus on their victims — the foot soldiers and the civilians who make up the majority in any war.
Forget this preoccupation with the minority experience of the wealthy plantation owners. History should be taught with an emphasis on the much larger number of people who were treated as non-people and — thanks to minority-rule in the Involuntary Volunteer State — were raped, beaten, kidnapped and tortured with impunity.
Who knew the tea partiers were such big fans of Howard Zinn?
The funny part is, the modern textbooks are a lot closer to their ideal than they’re willing to admit. But, hey, if it’s social history they want …
I think you may have mentioned this before, but Vorjack are you a historian or something? Just wondering.
“or something” I guess. If you’re not in the history field, then I’ll call myself a historian. If you are, then I’m more precise: I’m a public historian and an archivist.
Those are some great statements you made about teaching from the “silent majority” viewpoint. May I quote you?
“The funny part is, the modern textbooks are a lot closer to their ideal than they’re willing to admit. But, hey, if it’s social history they want …”
Seriously. I don’t know about any other fields, but up until about the 1980s, Musicology textbooks were almost 100% about dead white guys.
Similar mentality to the five states which require that public schools present Intelligent Design as well as Evolution. How come it’s always southern/red states that try to take us back to the middle ages in terms of education? I truly don’t know how enlightened parents can bear to raise their children in these states . . .
We are incredibly loud and annoying. =)
I hope you’re not referring to Texas. I was raised in Texas… then I went on to do a graduate degree in molecular bio/neuroscience at Columbia.
:D
Should be good to teach them MORE about what Jefferson, Paine and the other founding fathers thought of their dangerous religion and oppressive retardation of the nation. That would be a laugh actually, see their mouths fall open and pronounce them heretics and traitors to be erased from history! Haha!
Bill Maher just had a great piece on why the founding fathers would hate the Tea Party (and reverse) like nothing else: http://bit.ly/hgpB8Q
Haha! They don’t seem to realize that Black people WERE the majority in the south prior the the Civil War. Guess we’ll have to teach more Black history! OH! An women have ALWAYS been the majority (%51 percent on a good day and more than that during a war). Guess we’ll just have to teach more women’s history!
Hahahahahaha!!!!! These people are SO dumb!
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