Black Americans’ disbelief in national myths yields clearer knowledge of white America

Evidence

The American Negro has the great advantage of having never believed that collection of myths to which white Americans cling: that their ancestors were all freedom-loving heroes, that they were born in the greatest country the world has ever seen, or that Americans are invincible in battle and wise in peace, that Americans have always dealt honorably with Mexicans and Indians and all other neighbors or inferiors, that American men are the world’s most direct and virile, that American women are pure. Negroes know far more about white Americans than that. — Eddie S. Glaude Jr., Democracy in Black, 100

Categorization

• XREF: Echoes the ‘epistemic advantage of the oppressed’ theme found in standpoint theory (W.E.B. Du Bois’s double consciousness) already in play in the Frankfurt School reading. — connects to: Denial of racial history erodes white Americans’ grasp of reality — Eddie S. Glaude Jr., Begin Again: James Baldwin’s America…, 183; National mythologies depend on suppressing contrary histories — Sherene Razack, Casting Out: The Eviction of Muslims…, 284; Early Black historiography negated national myths while mirroring their form (+1 more)
• yield-rescued: below the book’s yield-target cutoff, included anyway for connecting to: Denial of racial history erodes white Americans’ grasp of reality — Eddie S. Glaude Jr., Begin Again: James Baldwin’s America…, 183; National mythologies depend on suppressing contrary histories — Sherene Razack, Casting Out: The Eviction of Muslims…, 284; Early Black historiography negated national myths while mirroring their form (+1 more)