Originally published at: How one family illustrates the legacy of slavery | Boing Boing
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This seems like a fantastic book… I’ll have to check it out!
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The idea that this kind of story could only be told in America is underestimating how bad the history of other places was. Our legacy of discrimination is horrific both in terms of direct harm and in terms of systemic harm, but America is not alone in such behaviors.
Expanding our understanding of people and their actions in the past leads to better appreciation of how much we need to be aware of and change in our own times.
I don’t think that the point is that only the US has a dark history, but that this particular history is very American. Which I think is largely true. You can certainly do a comparative history of white abolitionists in other places, but part of that is going to be highlighting the differences as well as commonalities.
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It isn’t a contest. Pretty much everywhere has a history of exploitation, war, tyranny, slavery, conquest, oppression, etc etc.
And America isn’t even unique in the mythology it tells about itself to make it feel like a “good person”.
But for what too long we have ignored our real history. What is taught in K-12 school is glossed over, white washed, and in the case of elementary school, sometimes made up.
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Elias’s posts are always quality BoingBoing IMO.
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