Yesterday, I had a White person, who has a PhD in history accuse me of asserting that All White People are bad or evil.
I responded that I’m not the one who promotes the notion that All White
People are bad or evil; I informed her that White people, especially
White historians are the ones who promote and sustain the idea that All
White People are evil.
She looked confused.
I proceeded to tell her that the enslaving rapist George Washinton is the father of their nation. I told her that they put the genocidal maniac President Andrew Jackson on their currency. They have a holiday and parades in celebration of Christopher Columbus. I told her that every time I head downtown I see tours celebrating the actions and life of Al Capone. I informed her that virtually every celebrated historical figure in their culture is a villain.
I then asked her if she ever heard of Smedley Butler;
who was the greatest solider ever produced by the US armed forces? She
said she never heard of him. He saved the US from a military coup; but
he’s been erased from White History. I asked her why there are no
parades or nationwide celebrations of William Lloyd Garrison, she had no answer. I asked her why Eugene V. Debs is not taught about in their history or even in political science courses. She had on answer.
I informed her that the best way for a White historical figure to be
ignored or suppressed in White History is to stand for justice or human
liberation. It’s OK for a White History Hero to give lip service to
freedom and equality; like Thomas Jefferson, but they better not dare try to make it a reality.
So, when I, a product of Western Education tend to focus on the
villains of White History, it’s because that’s who I see in all of the
monuments, on the money, an in the folklore of this nation.
If
Whites want to be viewed in a different light, why don’t they simply
begin to not only celebrate their true historical heroes; why don’t they
begin to live up to the teachings and examples of their true heroes?
But I guess it’s easier and more profitable for them to ask, or demand
that non-Whites accept the historical propaganda, and accept the
villains they sell us as heroes.
(Sorry for dealing with White
History outside of February yall, but that conversation was an
interesting one for me. The White Historian concluded that we shouldn’t
teach that there are any heroes or villains, or evil people in history.
I didn’t have a response for that.)
