GOVERNOR ABBOTT WANTS TEACHERS TO LIE ABOUT HISTORY

 

The proposed book ban by so-called conservatives like Governor Greg Abbott is simply dumb.

Republicans are making the foolish claim that teaching "critical race theory" paints all whites as racists, traumatizing them to the point their psyche suffers permanent, irrevocable damage.  

It's a cowardly, unmanly, juvenile way to deal with our history.

It will actually backfire.  If school curricula whitewashes history, committed teachers will find a way to lead their students, not only to the truth, but reveal why and by whom it was being sanitized.

Black Africans sold other Black Africans who were brought to the western hemisphere on boats and in chains.

Should that fact of history be hidden from students?

White Americans of means, including many of our founding fathers, purchased both Black men and women to be used as slaves.

George Washington, Thomas Jefferson and James Madison all owned slaves.

Our country's economy, especially in the South, was produced on the backs of Black slaves, who planted and picked the cotton, cooked the meals, did the housework of huge plantations.

What purpose is served by not teaching students the truth?

Should teachers also bite their tongues about indigenous people, frequently called Indians, being moved from their fertile, well-watered farm lands to scrub land on so-called reservations?

How can we learn from the mistakes of our ancestors if that history is falsified, whitewashed, sanitized?

The Bible, both in its old and new testaments, allows for and promotes slavery.

The Apostle Paul told slaves "to be obedient to their human masters" and not to seek freedom.  

The Apostle Peter said much the same, but added that slaves should be obedient, not only to good masters, but "also to those who are perverse."

Slavery was promoted heavily in the Old Testament with many of the OT patriarchs owning slaves, even women as concubines or sex slaves.

Should the Bible's pro-slavery content be hidden or covered up?

If education does not give students the historical truth, it's not education.  It's propaganda.

Governor Abbott and his ideological counterparts want a whitewashed version of history taught, not the truth.  

Concealing truth is lying.