American school curricula systematically erased imperialist, genocidal, and capitalist dimensions of national history

Evidence

No history books used in public schools informed us about racial imperialism. Instead we were given romantic notions of the “new world,” the “American dream,” America as the great melting pot where all races come together as one. We were taught that Columbus discovered America; that “Indians” were scalphunters, killers of innocent women and children; that black people were enslaved because of the biblical curse of Ham, that God “himself” had decreed they would be hewers of wood, tillers of the field, and bringers of water. No one talked of Africa as the cradle of civilization, of the African and Asian people who came to America before Columbus. No one mentioned mass murders of Native Americans as genocide, or the rape of Native American and African women as terrorism. No one discussed slavery as a foundation for the growth of capitalism. No one described the forced breeding of white wives to increase the white population as sexist oppression. — bell hooks, Ain’t I a Woman_ Black Women and…, 352

Categorization

• XREF: Parallels the silencing-of-history theme in hooks’s argument about how oppressed groups are taught to admire their oppressors. — connects to: Capitalism requires continuous re-education of the popular classes through cultural struggle; The California mission system was colonialism’s most severe Catholic pedagogy — , The Rod and the Child: A Global History…, 4963; The Negro construct erased African history, space, and humanity itself — Cedric J. Robinson, Black Marxism_ The Making of the Black…, 428 (+16 more)

Related

• Heroic national history curricula erase the categories needed to claim racial redress (similarity 0.80)
• Capitalism requires continuous re-education of the popular classes through cultural struggle (similarity 0.80)

Broader Connections

• Colonial curricula taught the effects of French power rather than French history proper #exemplifies (0.80)
• Reconstruction historiography erased Black agency and labor exploitation #exemplifies (0.75)
• Colonial schooling creates the dependence complex it then blames on the Negro #exemplifies (0.70)
• So-called universal scholarship actually reflects imperial national biases #expands (0.70) — James W. Carey, Communication as Culture- Essays on…, 592
• The Negro construct erased African history, space, and humanity itself #exemplifies (0.60) — Cedric J. Robinson, Black Marxism_ The Making of the Black…, 428