Has anyone run this idea past the NAAWP in Louisiana?
‘white’ isn’t a meaningful identity. Russian culture has less than nothing to do with English culture, American culture, Lebanese culture or Argentinian culture, albeit they’re all white.
Having said that, American culture is mostly rooted in England, more than the rest of the world combined, so a British history month might be a good idea.
I’m as Eurocentric and contemptuous of multiculturalism as the next man, but the Incas, for examples, were a very impressive civilization. Even the contemporary Spanish conquerors were impressed by the nutritional status, cultural level and General
Standard of living of the average 16th century Peruvian.
The whole concept of who history “belongs” to is nebulous.
Personally, I’m a native-born white American. So it would seem that the story of the American Revolution, for example, is part of my history.
But is it? I obviously wasn’t around at the time. And none of my ancestors were living in the America when the Revolution was fought. So the American Revolution isn’t part of “my” history any more than the Russian Revolution is.
Except in the sense that the American Revolution is part of the history of everyone born in the United States - even if they live in California and their name is Garcia or Chang.
I think the whole thing of BLANK history month really causes more problems than it solves. I’ve seen Black history month start a race riot in a high school where the previously the students had gotten along well and in another, white teachers and students walking out of Black History events when black racist speakers are allowed in.
Actually kids from my view, do a pretty good job at getting along by themselves.
Grotonian has a point. America and Africa obviously do have history - there were people living in those places and they had kings and wars and countries and all of the same stuff that makes up European and Asian history.
But the reality is American and African classical history is a dead end. Those places were conquered by Europeans and the local history was overwritten by Europeans. If you go back to 1300 in France or China or Persia, you can follow historical events that trace up to the modern day. But if you go back to 1300 in America or Africa, there’s no historical continuity from then to now. At least not at the level that you’re going to teach in a public school curriculum. A high school graduate should know who Augustus Caesar is and what he did - but he really doesn’t need to know who Manco Capac or Sundiata is.
Everything’s nice and peaceful as long as those people stay in their place and don’t get any uppity notions.
That’s fine. Great Zimbabwe did pretty well for itself, too. But I was talking about the movers and shakers: those whose contributions changed the way men live. Projecting power over a region and building complex cities is a great start, so is having a written language and extensive trade routes.
But designing ocean-going vessels and devising ways to accurately navigate them is an achievement that far surpasses extensive roads. Building massive domes exceeds step pyramids. Writing symphonies exceeds banging on drums. Choreographing a ballet exceeds devising a rain dance. “Romeo and Juliet” exceeds an oral fable. Air travel exceeds paddling a canoe. Modern medicine exceeds voodoo. Not because I prefer one over the other, but because the knowledge, study, expertise, technology, and technical execution required are far greater.
Mankind has come a long way since the Middle Ages, thanks to the Europeans. Acknowledging that should not be viewed as offensive. (That doesn’t mean I support White History month; I think it’s a bad idea. I’m just defending the current focus on European achievement. It’s a focus on excellence, not a racial preference.)
I don’t disagree with most of that, and as I said, I take a contemptuous attitude ton multiculturalism. That having been said, I didn’t mention roads or cities, I mentioned<I>standard of living of the average person</I>, which was pretty good in 16th century Peru compared to 16th century Spain. I don’t believe standards of living were that impressive in 19th century Zimbabwe compared to 19th century England. Standards of living ultimately matter more than that other stuff.
Also, while scientific medicine is immeasurably superior to homeopathy, acupuncture, Ayurveda or whatever other junk practice, that doesn’t mean the same standards of value apply to the arts.
Except the US system of government was in part based on the Iroquois Confederacy, which (IME) tends to barely get mentioned in favor of blathering on about enlightenment thinkers. And, I mean, Enlightenment philosophy is important and all, but I don’t think I learned much about the Iroquois confederacy except perhaps that there was something called the Iroquois confederacy. Maybe with a tiny bit of expansion in my AP classes.
I do think a sticker about a lot of African history is that a lot isn’t necessarily written down. That said, there should be more than enough for a full course, let alone a month. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jvnU0v6hcUo
According to the video I linked, we think it’s possible, but not proven, that some West African empires may have traded with the Americas.
It’s a big, huge world out there and I really dont think its possible to cover all the depth of every countries history. For example how much of Korean, Filipino, Thia, Burmese, or Finnish history is taught? Yet those cultures descendents can be found in American schools.
The best one can do is cover a little bit of everything.
Which parts of our gov’t are based on the Iroquois Confederacy? I’ve heard that before, in Govt and History textbooks, I just never found it convincing.
I’ll concede West African empires traded with the Americas, not because I believe it, but because it doesn’t alter the larger point. If they did have trans-Atlantic trade, while a huge technological achievement, they did not convert that accomplishment into an advancement for the planet. The Vikings came to N America, too, and did nothing with their new knowledge. Christopher Columbus changed the world. The effects of the Columbian Exchange are still going strong. If Africans were here first, that certainly is an accomplishment they never got credit for, but it didn’t usher in a new age in travel, trade, and exploration; the Europeans did.
OK, I sort of misunderstood you. So by standard of living you’re considering mostly food security, right? Or food, housing, and health? If those were higher in the Americas, on average, then I’m in no position to argue it and I assume you have sources that you’re relying on.
That’s evidence of an advanced and complex civilization. That’s not evidence that they had anything that other societies deemed worthy of adopting. Their achievements didn’t change the world or improve the lives of others.
It may not be exclusively racist, but it’s absolutely exclusively stupid.
Cite that Black History Month has ever caused a riot. Name the school, its location, and the date, please.
I’d think it was a little stupider than all the other “X Heritage Month” things, but not by much. The way to address this is to makes sure we integrate (no pun intended) the histories of all the folks relevant to the US into our standard curriculum. Which I think the schools are at least attempting to do these days. When I was growing up during the 60s, there was a fad of having “Black News” for a few minutes at the end of the evening news cast for awhile. I’m sure the intentions were good, but it was a stupid idea. Same with “X Heritage” month.
I dont know the exact date and I cannot give a cite but it was around 1992 at Turner High School in Kansas City, Kansas. The school had just started a black history month and (this was SOO stupid) they were going to have an assembly and (again SOOO stupid) only the black students were going to be able to get out of class to go to it.
Well you guessed it. This pissed all the white (and hispanic) kids off so what happened was some black kids started saying “black power” and some white kids threw back “white power” and a fight started.
All because some idiot administrators decided to let the black kids go to hear a speaker for black history month and exclude the others. Heck what kid doesnt want to get out of math for a day? Just show that someone with a PhD isnt always so smart.
Thing was the kids had actually been getting along just fine before that.
As for other incidents, it only takes a speaker who’s listened to a little too much Malcolm X and who has racist intentions to start insulting the white teachers and students and you can have a problem.
I said unnecessary, but I’m pretty sure anybody who proposed such a thing would be doing so for racist reasons.
I’d be fine with Irish Heritage Month, Italian heritage month, Jewish heritage month, Swedish heritage month, whatever… but what do the Irish, the Italians, the Jews and the Swedes have in common with each other that they wouldn’t ALSO have in common with darker skinned neighbors?
What is “white” culture, anyway? I know what Irish music is, I know what Italian music, is, but what’s “white” music?
That’s easy: music from primarily a western European tradition, e.g. “diatonic” harmony based on an asymmetrical seven-note scale, a 12-tone chromatic scale, conventional ideas about key signatures, tonality, meter, and rhythm, prevailing harmony based on triads, concepts of progression based on specific sequence of triads, etc.
Nowadays, as with clothing and a host of other cultural European concepts and ideas, music whose roots are from western and central Europe has come to dominate the globe, and is taken as normative by many people, especially people of European heritage.
But it is worth noting that there is A LOT of music around the world, from every continent except Antarctica, whose idioms, sounds, and structures are different from what is normative in European traditions, which, after all, really are only a few hundred years old. These traditions, some of which are older than European music, are also sometimes WILDLY different, to the point of sounding very weird to ears used to music from western Europe.
That could be a little difficult when your ancestors were forcibly removed and pressed into slavery for a few hundred years all whilst trying to erase their culture as well. Things like which country you hail from tend to disappear.