We’ve seen a lot of what could be called attempts to revise
history lately. They take various forms such as tearing down statures &
cancelling old TV programs, & to purge certain writers from our
cultural/national memory. One of the faulty ideas behind this move is that we
must see historical events, process, or people thru the lens of current political
correctness. That’s a sure recipe for setting off lots of “righteous
indignation” among the political Left.
I recently saw this extended quote from Frederick Douglass
which was treated in somewhat the same way, except that it was used apparently
in hopes of shaming Americans who celebrate Independence Day. Check out his quote: https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/aia/part4/4h2927.html
I commented with
questions about where slavery took place, what economic & political systems
were in place to perpetuate slavery, & what has changed since he said this in
1852. The answers to my questions were that slavery was taking place all over
the US (wrong!); capitalism & white supremacy were the basis for it
(wrong!); & that it is still happening (wrong!).
Wow! What do you do with this kind of thinking? My emotional
response ranged from surprise to wanting to laugh (surely this was satire wasn’t
it?) to anger at the educational malpractice that was committed on the person
who gave such answers.
What is the answer? It’s spiritual (America desperately
needs revival). It’s also institutional ((followers of Christ need to step up &
take their rightful place in education, media, etc).
As a nation, we can’t afford to flunk history.
No comments:
Post a Comment