Slavery / Racism

Race is an extremely controversial issue throughout the country. In fact, the domination of "Black" America by "white" America is perhaps the most pervasive theme in our history. Books, television, and even radio shows portray Black people as incompetent and unintelligent. For example, a popular radio show called "Amos ‘n’ Andy," was based on two white men posing as humorously incompetent Black men. This portion of the project will focus on the underrepresentation of Black names and faces in history, and will discuss how the accomplishments of Black people are minimized.

Textbooks and history classes have the opportunity to dispel many of the myths believed true of Black individuals and communities. Unfortunately, they fail to capitalize on such a potentially positive possibility. It is true that texts show a more accurate portrayal of the horrors of slavery and its impact on Black America, and how it was intolerable to the slave. However, the authors fail to present any new perspectives. For example, if it weren’t for slavery, there might never have existed African-American people; this classification of people are the result of masters raping their Black slave women whom were taken unwillingly from their homes, and the consequent children they bear. If slavery hadn’t existed, the chances of an African woman being raped by a white American would have dramatically decreased. Instead, the method used to discuss slavery is as "progress as usual." In this scenario, the United States is always intrinsically and increasingly democratic, "and slaveholding is merely a temporary aberration, not part of the big picture" (Lies My Teacher Told Me, 1997). This implies that the problems of the Black - white race relations have been solved.

Furthermore, the books basically remain silent regarding the impact of slavery on white America, failing to recognize that anything might be wrong with white Americans, or with the United States as a whole. The textbooks also fail to recognize the impact slavery had on race relations. It conferred upon the Black community social and economic inferiority, and it instilled cultural racism in the white community. Therefore, slavery is a controversial issue, because unlike slavery, racism is not yet over.

Over and over again, children of color are shown, through history, that their Black ancestors were inferior and that their accomplishments were ridiculous in comparison. For example, Reconstruction in the South, after the Civil War, was a failure. Instead of explaining the failure as a result of a lack of compliance, an increase in violence towards the Black community, or with any truth, the failure of Reconstruction is explained by claiming that Black people "messed up." Textbooks make it seem as though, "African Americans rather than whites [are] the "problem" and assumes that the major issue of Reconstruction was how to integrate African Americans into the system, economically and politically."

Furthermore, history portrays Black accomplishments as unimportant and white accomplishments as imperative to know. For example, we are told in texts that Vasco da Gama was the first person to sail around Africa. In reality, however, Afro-Phoenicians circumnavigated this route nearly 2,000 years before da Gama. The reason da Gama is credited is merely because he was the first white person to accomplish the journey, and it is claimed that his "discovery" was a benefit to trading, while the prior journey by the Afro-Phoenicians accomplished nothing. As seen once again, the historical truth is ignored and covered up, which results in a failure to recognize great Black accomplishment, and consistently paints a picture of white men as the only people capable of creating change and making progress.

There are several ways textbooks could improve the conditions of race relations in the United States. For example, texts fail to discuss, to any extent, famous or important Black individuals. In fact, even when a Black person is discussed, it is a brief and incomplete account of the person’s greatness. A "Blackless history" is problematic because it causes a lack of self-confidence in young children of color. An expanded curriculum, covering Black history in-depth, is necessary in order to accommodate a large percentage of the population, and to teach to all people, "who we are and where we came from."