Tennessee:
Oklahoma Republican introduces bill to limit how slavery is taught in schools
Republicans’ dishonest war against ‘critical race theory’
Sad (and Scary!)
This has become an astroturf issue thanks to three men
‘Liberal indoctrination’: Donald Trump rails against modern teaching of U.S. history
9/16/2020 – William Barr – Uber Eats = Slavery!
Attorney General William Barr brings up slavery when referring to quarantining during the pandemic
AG Bill Barr Compares COVID Lockdowns to Slavery at Hillsdale College, Criticizes Prosecutors: Transcript
Transcript of Attorney General’s Remarks as Delivered and Q&A at Hillsdale College
We never had a national shutdown!
9/17/2020 Trump wants to rewrite US History!
Donald Trump Speech Transcript September 17: White House History Conference
Key quotes
Vice President Mike Pence: (03:12)
“The character of our people and the principles enshrined there are the reason for our nation’s unparalleled success, and they remain the greatest bulwark against tyranny in history. And the reason is simple: our founders knew history. Sadly, we live in a time when too many are forgetting history. Today, Thomas Jefferson warned that, “if a nation expects to be ignorant and free in a state of civilization, it expects what never was and never will be.” But sadly, we live in a time when some seek to erase our history and deny our nation’s relentless march toward a more perfect union.”
Sadly, the people wanting to erase our US History IS Pence, Trump, Barr and others.
Vice President Mike Pence: (04:06)
“As President Trump has observed, in too many of our schools and universities, millions of young people are educated by those who seek to wipe out our history, defame our heroes, erase our values, and indoctrinate our children. But we gather here today, soon to hear from the President of the United States, as Americans who are committed to affirming the greatness of this nation and the ideals of our founders.”
Sadly, there has been a concerted efforts for years to teach a more ‘positive’ US History.
Texas, Textbooks, and the Politics of History Standards
“These proposed changes included a move to call the United States’ terrible slave trade history the “Atlantic triangular trade,” as well as a proposal that President Obama be referred to as “Barrack Hussain Obama.” Some of the more outrageous proposals were eventually dropped, but major changes were still made, such as listing Moses as one of the Founding Fathers and suggesting McCarthyism and anti-communism was justified.“
How textbooks taught white supremacy
“A historian steps back to the 1700s and shares what’s changed and what needs to change”
The rightwing US textbooks that teach slavery as ‘black immigration’
Removing Slavery from Textbooks
“Earlier this academic year, Roni Dean-Burren, a Houston mother, posted on Facebook in response to a passage in her ninth-grade son’s history book, which referred to slaves—not as slaves—but as “workers” and “immigrants.” The post went viral, influencing the publisher “to apologize, correct the caption and offer — free of charge — either stickers to cover it up or corrected copies of the book to schools that want to replace their old ones.” They did not issue a recall of the misleading, erroneous books.”
American history textbooks can differ across the country, in ways that are shaded by partisan politics.
President Donald Trump: (08:04)
“I’m truly honored to be here at the very first White House Conference on American History. So important. Our mission is to defend the legacy of America’s founding, the virtue of America’s heroes, and the nobility of the American character. We must clear away the twisted web of lies in our schools and classrooms and teach our children the magnificent truth about our country. We want our sons and daughters to know that they are the citizens of the most exceptional nation in the history of the world.”
For 10 years, students in Texas have used a history textbook that says not all slaves were unhappy
Legislative Subcommittee Hears from Parents on Textbook Bias
“Republican Caucus Chairman Glen Casada, one of the prime legislators raising the textbook issue, said he sees increased local control and parental involvement in decision-making as the best solution.
“We have to figure out a way so that the locals can reject curriculum that they find biased or not factual,” the Franklin lawmaker told reporters.”
Teaching Slavery, The Trail of Tears, The Civil War, Jim Crow Laws, Japanese Internment, Civil Rights Movement, Tuskegee Experiment and other historical events is not twisting a web of lies.
Teaching America’s Exceptionalism
“As you might have noticed, the word slavery is not used in these standards. “Marginalized” hardly paints an accurate picture of groups of people who were murdered in the interests of expanding America. Native Americans are only mentioned a few times and in such euphemistic terms that the United States expanding seems natural, neutrally admitting new territories and states. I suppose you could say the United States and Native Americans had a “relationship” although that word doesn’t connote the truth. The “disputes” that arose over the power of the federal government over state governments included legalized lynching and economic discrimination both of which continue today. Those currently in “marginalized” groups may not agree that they have won legal rights, as if it’s a done deal and not ongoing topics in American society.”
President Donald Trump: (10:30)
“The left wing mobs have torn down statues of our founders, desecrated our memorials, and carried out a campaign of violence and anarchy. Far left demonstrators have chanted the words, “America was never great.” The Left has launched a vicious and violent assault on law enforcement, the universal symbol of the rule of law in America. These radicals have been aided and abetted by liberal politicians, establishment, media, and even large corporations. Whether it is the mob on the street or the cancel culture in the boardroom, the goal is the same: to silence dissent, to scare you out of speaking the truth, and to bully Americans into abandoning their values, their heritage, and their very way of life.”
President Donald Trump: (12:18)
“As I said at Mount Rushmore, which they would love to rip down and rip it down fast, that’s never going to happen. Two months ago, the left wing cultural revolution is designed to overthrow the American revolution. As many of you testified today, the left wing rioting and mayhem are the direct result of decades of left wing indoctrination in our schools. It’s gone on far too long. Our children are instructed from propaganda tracks like those of Howard Zinn that try to make students ashamed of their own history. The Left has warped, distorted, and defiled the American story with deceptions, falsehoods, and lies.”
No one wants to tear down Mt Rushmore! Who is Howard Zinn you ask?
HOWARD ZINN 1922–2010
Where did Trump get this name to attack?
Reclaiming History From Howard Zinn
“What gets him most riled up is what he sees as an abdication. “When you teach an introductory course in American history,” he says, “you really have a responsibility . . . to reflect in some way the national story, in a way that is conducive to the development of the outlook and skills of a citizen—of an engaged, patriotic, serious citizen.” Most professional historians don’t “take that mandate very seriously at all,” and instead provide “a basically negative understanding of American history.””
How Texas Inflicts Bad Textbooks on Us
“Ever since the 1960s, the selection of schoolbooks in Texas has been a target for the religious right, which worried that schoolchildren were being indoctrinated in godless secularism, and political conservatives who felt that their kids were being given way too much propaganda about the positive aspects of the federal government. Mel Gabler, an oil company clerk, and his wife, Norma, who began their textbook crusade at their kitchen table, were the leaders of the first wave. They brought their supporters to State Board of Education meetings, unrolling their “scroll of shame,” which listed objections they had to the content of the current reading material. At times, the scroll was fifty-four feet long. Products of the Texas school system have the Gablers to thank for the fact that at one point the New Deal was axed from the timeline of significant events in American history.”
How Textbooks Can Teach Different Versions Of History
President Donald Trump: (13:16)
“There’s no better example than the New York Times totally discredited 1619 Project. This project rewrites American history to teach our children that we were founded on the principle of oppression, not freedom. Nothing could be further from the truth. America’s founding set in motion the unstoppable chain of events that abolished slavery, secured civil rights, defeated communism and fascism, and built the most fair, equal, and prosperous nation in human history.”
What is the 1619 Project?
The 1619 Project
“The 1619 Project began with the publication, in August 2019, of a special issue of The New York Times Magazine containing essays on different aspects of contemporary American life, from mass incarceration to rush-hour traffic, that have their roots in slavery and its aftermath. Each essay takes up a modern phenomenon, familiar to all, and reveals its history. The first, by the staff writer Nikole Hannah-Jones (from whose mind this project sprang), provides the intellectual framework for the project and can be read as an introduction.
Alongside the essays, you will find 17 literary works that bring to life key moments in American history. These works are all original compositions by contemporary black writers who were asked to choose events on a timeline of the past 400 years. The poetry and fiction they created is arranged chronologically throughout the issue, and each work is introduced by the history to which the author is responding.
In addition to these elements, we partnered with the Smithsonian’s National Museum of African-American History and Culture to create a brief visual history of slavery. That is as good a place to start as any.”
Don’t know much about history: A disturbing new report on how poorly schools teach American slavery
“totally discredited”
I Helped Fact-Check the 1619 Project. The Times Ignored Me.
“Both sets of inaccuracies worried me, but the Revolutionary War statement made me especially anxious. Overall, the 1619 Project is a much-needed corrective to the blindly celebratory histories that once dominated our understanding of the past—histories that wrongly suggested racism and slavery were not a central part of U.S. history. I was concerned that critics would use the overstated claim to discredit the entire undertaking. So far, that’s exactly what has happened.”
Why Thomas Jefferson’s Anti-Slavery Passage Was Removed from the Declaration of Independence
“What isn’t widely known, however, is that Founding Father Thomas Jefferson, in an early version of the Declaration, drafted a 168-word passage that condemned slavery as one of the many evils foisted upon the colonies by the British crown. The passage was cut from the final wording.”
“The removal was mostly fueled by political and economic expediencies. While the 13 colonies were already deeply divided on the issue of slavery, both the South and the North had financial stakes in perpetuating it. Southern plantations, a key engine of the colonial economy, needed free labor to produce tobacco, cotton and other cash crops for export back to Europe. Northern shipping merchants, who also played a role in that economy, remained dependent on the triangle trade between Europe, Africa and the Americas that included the traffic in enslaved Africans.”
President Donald Trump: (14:10)
“The narratives about America being pushed by the far left and being chanted in the streets bear a striking resemblance to the anti-American propaganda of our adversaries, because both groups want to see America weakened, derided, and totally diminished. Students in our universities are inundated with Critical Race Theory. This is a Marxist document holding that America is a wicked and racist nation, that even young children are complicit in oppression, and that our entire society must be radically transformed. Critical Race Theory is being forced into our children’s schools, it’s being imposed into workplace trainings, and it’s being deployed to rip apart friends, neighbors, and families.”
What is Critical Race Theory?
Critical Race Theory (1970s-present)
“Closely connected to such fields as philosophy, history, sociology, and law, CRT scholarship traces racism in America through the nation’s legacy of slavery, the Civil Rights Movement, and recent events. In doing so, it draws from work by writers like Sojourner Truth, Frederick Douglass, W.E.B. Du Bois, Martin Luther King, Jr., and others studying law, feminism, and post-structuralism. CRT developed into its current form during the mid-1970s with scholars like Derrick Bell, Alan Freeman, and Richard Delgado, who responded to what they identified as dangerously slow progress following Civil Rights in the 1960s.”
“This is a Marxist document holding that America is a wicked and racist nation, that even young children are complicit in oppression, and that our entire society must be radically transformed”
Huh? Karl Marx was a racist! Google that President Trump!
President Donald Trump: (15:16)
“A perfect example of Critical Race Theory was recently published by the Smithsonian Institution. This document alleged that concepts such as hard work, rational thinking, and the nuclear family, and belief in God were not values that unite all Americans, but we’re instead aspects of whiteness. This is offensive and outrageous to Americans of every ethnicity and it’s especially harmful to children of minority backgrounds who should be uplifted, not disparaged. Teaching this horrible doctrine to our children is a form of child abuse in the truest sense of those words. For many years now, the radicals have mistaken American’s silence for weakness, but they’re wrong. There is no more powerful force than a parent’s love for their children, and patriotic moms and dads are going to demand that their children are no longer fed hateful lies about this country. American parents are not going to accept indoctrination in our schools, cancel culture at our work, or the repression of traditional faith, culture, and values in the public square. Not anymore.”
Smithsonian museum apologizes for saying hard work, rational thought is ‘white culture’
President Donald Trump: (17:30)
“We embrace the vision of Martin Luther King, where children are not judged by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character. The Left is attempting to destroy that beautiful vision and divide Americans by race, in the service of political power. By viewing every issue through the lens of race, they want to impose a new segregation and we must not allow that to happen. Critical Race Theory, the 1619 Project, and the crusade against American history is toxic propaganda. Ideological poison, that if not removed will dissolve the civic bonds that tie us together, will destroy our country. That is why I recently banned trainings in this prejudiced ideology from the federal government and banned it in the strongest manner possible.”
Remind me again who keeps saying “There Goes The Neighborhood?”
Trump Plays on Racist Fears of Terrorized Suburbs to Court White Voters
Just leaving these here:
President Donald Trump: (18:51)
“The only path to national unity is through our shared identity as Americans. That is why it is so urgent that we finally restore patriotic education to our schools. Under our leadership, the National Endowment for the Humanities has awarded a grant to support the development of a pro-American curriculum that celebrates the truth about our nation’s great history.”
Who Should Decide How Students Learn About America’s Past?
“Nowhere is the tension between revision and respect for historical figures and events more apparent than it is in classroom curricula. School boards and state legislatures have great influence over what and how children are taught—as do historians. However, the media and lawmakers often reduce revisionism to two poles: a liberal left that pursues an overly “negative” reinterpretation of U.S. history versus a conservative right that just wants students to memorize a list of names and facts—and “smudge out the ugly parts.”
“Fisher joins a slew of politicians and education policymakers who oppose the current AP U.S.-history guidelines. The Republican National Committee condemned the new framework back in August, criticizing the guidelines for emphasizing negative aspects of U.S. history and minimizing, if not ignoring, the positive. The committee argued, for example, that the College Board presents an inaccurate view of the motivations of 17th- to 19th-century settlers and American involvement in World War II. And last fall, the school board in Jefferson County, Colorado, announced plans for a curriculum-review committee aimed at ensuring AP U.S.-history materials “promote citizenship, patriotism, essentials and benefits of the free enterprise system, respect for authority and respect for individual rights.” Students protested the initiative, walking out of class and forcing four school shutdowns in the Denver area. Similar events also unfolded in Texas around the same time. And lawmakers in Georgia, North Carolina, and South Carolina have also threatened to cut funding for the AP program or otherwise reject the new course materials. For its part, the College Board responded to the criticism in an open letter, apologizing for some of the new framework’s omissions and any confusion it caused; it also clarified that teachers should teach about the country’s founding documents, the Holocaust, and the leaders of the Civil Rights Movement.”
President Donald Trump: (19:30)
“We’re joined by some of the respected scholars involved in this project, including Professor Wilford McClay. Wilford? Please. Thank you very much, Wilford. Thank you.”
Remember that earlier Wall Street Journal article about Zinn? It also contains this passage:
“Historian Wilfred McClay aspires to be the antidote to Zinn, whom he accuses of “greatly oversimplifying the past and turning American history into a comic-book melodrama in which ‘the people’ are constantly being abused by ‘the rulers.’ ” Mr. McClay’s counterpoint, which comes out next week, is titled “Land of Hope: An Invitation to the Great American Story.””
https://www.wsj.com/articles/reclaiming-history-from-howard-zinn-11558126202
President Donald Trump: (19:53)
“Dr. Peter Wood of the National Association of Scholars. Dr. Peter?”
PETER WOOD
I have a degree in History (Graduated Summa Cum Laude). Peter Wood doesn’t!
“He received his Ph.D. in anthropology in 1987 from the University of Rochester. His dissertation, Quoting Heaven, examined the emergence of an American folk religion and pilgrimage center in rural Wisconsin. His undergraduate degree is from Haverford College (1975) and he has a master’s degree in library science from Rutgers University (1977).”
President Donald Trump: (20:04)
And Ted Rebarber. Thank you, Ted. Thank you very much, Ted.
Three white men. Only one with a history degree.
A Tale Of Two Systems: Education Reform In Washington, D.C.
“In 1995, House Speaker Newt Gingrich asked moderate Republican Steve Gunderson to come up with an education reform bill for D.C. Gunderson’s young staff person, Ted Rebarber, concluded that all public schools should be charter schools, or something like them. The congressman was skeptical. Then the two met with Al Shanker, president of the American Federation of Teachers. Gunderson asked
Shanker what he thought of charter schools, unaware that he was a key originator of the idea. “Shanker said, ‘Every school should be a charter school,’” Rebarber recalls. “Gunderson almost fell out of his chair, and he talked about it for days.”
President Donald Trump: (20:13)
“Today, I’m also pleased to announce that I was soon sign an executive order establishing a national commission to promote patriotic education. It will be called the 1776 Commission.”
Patriotism Trumps Facts?
President Donald Trump: (20:45)
“Thank you. It will encourage our educators to teach our children about the miracle of American history and make plans to honor the 250th anniversary of our founding. Think of that, 250 years. Recently, I also signed an executive order to establish the National Garden of American Heroes, a vast outdoor park that will feature the statues of the greatest Americans who have ever lived. Today, I’m announcing a new name for inclusion. One of the 56 signers of the Declaration of Independence was a Patriot from Delaware. In July of 1776, the Continental Congress was deadlocked during the debate over independence. The delegation from Delaware was divided. Caesar Rodney was called upon to break the tie. Even though he was suffering from very advanced cancer, he was deathly ill, Rodney rode 80 miles through the night, through a severe thunderstorm, from Dover to Philadelphia, to cast his vote for independence.”
Wilmington removes Caesar Rodney, Christopher Columbus statues Friday amid calls for change
“Even though he was suffering from very advanced cancer, he was deathly ill, Rodney rode 80 miles through the night, through a severe thunderstorm, from Dover to Philadelphia, to cast his vote for independence.”
Caesar Rodney
” (born October 7, 1728, Dover, Delaware [U.S.]—died June 26, 1784, Dover)”
Not deathly ill in 1776.
President Donald Trump: (22:18)
“For nearly a century, a statue of one of Delaware’s most beloved citizens stood in Rodney Square, right in the heart of Wilmington. But this past June, Caesar Rodney’s statue was ordered removed by the mayor and local politicians as part of a radical purge of America’s founding generation. Today, because of an order I signed, if you demolish a statue without permission, you immediately get 10 years in prison.”
President Donald Trump: (23:12)
“And there have been no statues demolished for the last four months, incredibly, since the time I signed that act. Joe Biden said nothing as to his home state’s history and the fact that it was dismantled, and dismembered, and a founding fathers statue was removed. Today, America will give this founding father, this very brave man who was so horribly treated, the place of honor he deserves. I am announcing that the statue of Caesar Rodney will be added to the National Garden of American Heroes.”
Wilmington’s statues of Columbus and Caesar Rodney coming down — at least for now
NOT ‘Demolished’, Removed
“Wilmington officials are removing two of the city’s most iconic statues – of Declaration of Independence signer Caesar Rodney and explorer Christopher Columbus – to prevent them from potential damage, and to foster what Mayor Mike Purzycki called “an overdue discussion about the public display of historical figures and events.””
President Donald Trump: (24:17)
“From Washington to Lincoln, from Jefferson to King, America has been home to some of the most incredible people who have ever lived. With the help of everyone here today, the legacy of 1776 will never be erased. Our heroes will never be forgotten. Our youth will be taught to love America with all of their heart and all of their soul. We will save this cherished inheritance for our children, for their children, and for every generation to come. This is a very important day. Thank you all once again for being here. Now I will sign the Constitution Day proclamation. God bless you, and God bless America. Thank you very much.”
Just don’t mention the 3/5ths Compromise
The History of the Three-Fifths Compromise
Or the Slave-Trade Commerce Compromise
The Constitution and Slavery
“Following this compromise, another controversy erupted: What should be done about the slave trade, the importing of new slaves into the United States? Ten states had already outlawed it. Many delegates heatedly denounced it. But the three states that allowed it — Georgia and the two Carolinas — threatened to leave the convention if the trade were banned. A special committee worked out another compromise: Congress would have the power to ban the slave trade, but not until 1800. The convention voted to extend the date to 1808.“
Or the Northwest Ordinance?
“A final major issue involving slavery confronted the delegates. Southern states wanted other states to return escaped slaves. The Articles of Confederation had not guaranteed this. But when Congress adopted the Northwest Ordinance, it a clause promising that slaves who escaped to the Northwest Territories would be returned to their owners. The delegates placed a similar fugitive slave clause in the Constitution. This was part of a deal with New England states. In exchange for the fugitive slave clause, the New England states got concessions on shipping and trade.
These compromises on slavery had serious effects on the nation. The fugitive slave clause (enforced through legislation passed in 1793 and 1850) allowed escaped slaves to be chased into the North and caught. It also resulted in the illegal kidnapping and return to slavery of thousands of free blacks. The three-fifths compromise increased the South’s representation in Congress and the Electoral College. In 12 of the first 16 presidential elections, a Southern slave owner won. Extending the slave trade past 1800 brought many slaves to America. South Carolina alone imported 40,000 slaves between 1803 and 1808 (when Congress overwhelmingly voted to end the trade). So many slaves entered that slavery spilled into the Louisiana territory and took root.
Northern states didn’t push too hard on slavery issues. Their main goal was to secure a new government. They feared antagonizing the South. Most of them saw slavery as a dying institution with no economic future. However, in five years the cotton gin would be invented, which made growing cotton on plantations immensely profitable, as well as slavery.
The Declaration of Independence expressed lofty ideals of equality. The framers of the Constitution, intent on making a new government, left important questions of equality and fairness to the future. It would be some time before the great republic that they founded would approach the ideals expressed in the Declaration of Independence.
13th, 14th and 15th Amendments? Following a Civil War?
The 13th, 14th and 15th Amendments
Jim Crow Laws? Red Summers? Lynchings?
Justice System? Imprisonment by Race?
