Censorship in Media and Schools

The history taught in American schools is heavily censored, omitting crucial information that leads to a distorted and inaccurate understanding of the past. For example, George Washington's story of chopping down a cherry tree is emphasized, but not the fact that he owned 18 slaves before he turned 18 and used his slave's teeth as his replacements. Similarly, Abraham Lincoln's famous speech at Gettysburg is well-known, but not his statement that he was opposed to social and political equality between white and black people. If there was a "white history month"- it should be focused on educating young people about the genuine version of history. History months should not be limited to mere reciting names and dates. They must provide the context necessary to understand current events. Without acknowledging the country's true history that upheld inequality, how can we comprehend Harriet Tubman, Rosa Parks, and Martin Luther King Jr.'s fight against injustice?

As an example, conventional history teaches us that the Second Amendment was created to safeguard against tyranny, but the reality is that it was added to the Constitution to enable white men to control their slaves; bet you didn't know that. During the time of the Constitution's drafting, most states required every able-bodied man to serve on a slave patrol, where they controlled black people. Since slaves did not wear name tags back then, the patrollers stopped every black person they encountered. As time passed, these slave patrols evolved into militias, and during the Revolutionary War, they became the American Army. After the war, the US had a group of armed men they put in charge of suppressing slave rebellions, and eventually, they became the enforcers of all laws - or as it was known back then, policing. 

When Southern states preferred to own human beings rather than stay united with America, the militias that evolved from slave patrols became the Confederate Army. Following the Civil War, these militias returned home with no purpose, and some formed a super cool frat named "The Circle of Brothers." They referred to themselves as "Kuklos" (meaning "circle" in Greek) and "Klan" (meaning "family"), which later became known as the Ku Klux Klan (KKK). The KKK was responsible for enforcing racial terrorism during Reconstruction and using violence to enforce Jim Crow laws. They were also the perpetrators of the lynchings during the Red Summer of 1919. Even today, they are still stopping and frisking black people at a rate ten times higher than that of white people, as well as shooting and killing unarmed black citizens at a rate three and a half times higher than that of white people. For most of America's history, there was no distinction between the KKK, the police, and ordinary racists.

Why is this information not widely known? While white southern men were creating the KKK, southern women were establishing a social club called "The United Daughters of the Confederacy". The members of this club joined school boards and formed lobbying groups to make sure that textbooks were more sympathetic to confederate beliefs. The United Daughters were so powerful that textbook publishers needed their approval before school boards purchased social studies books, guaranteeing that their version of history was the one taught in schools. So now you have to learn these facts from a high school student who learned all of this outside a textbook. 

Learning the history of this country is essential to understanding politics, the Black community's relationship with the police, and why we need to say Black Lives Matter. If a "white history month" is pushed, it should be centered around learning the true information about our own country. Such as the fact that slave patrols evolved into militias, which later became the revolutionary army, and eventually transformed into the police force. The police then became the Confederate army and the KKK. Unfortunately, schools often do not teach this critical history, but that should not stop us from seeking out this information and educating ourselves. By acknowledging the accurate version of America's history, we can foster greater empathy and concern for one another and build a safer world for all that is not doomed to repeat the past.

Displayed on the lower page is a juxtaposition between the actual history of our nation and the common misconceptions regarding its foundation. Each of the comparisons presented originates from the aforementioned section titled "What Censorship in Media and Schools is Present Today? How does this Affect Modern History?" located directly above this one.