Educational Institutes Leave American Citizens UnEducated

I watched a video today that made me have the ugliest epiphany.

I remember my history teacher in middle school getting irate with me. Because I corrected him. I remember an argument where several people of color called me a 'fucking white lying racist bitch,' and verbally assaulted me because I corrected them too. Because they were wrong. I knew they were wrong. But I didn't understand that I was the only one in a sea of people where only a handful of us knew the truth.

For a long time, I have been convinced I live in a world where people will disregard history for the sake of their own victimization. And I was left astounded and confused. And quite frankly I was more than a little disgusted and crass and insensitive to people's pain because I felt ignored, disrespected and unheard. There are still people out there who I have seen blatantly disregard science and history - facts and truth. Hate and anger attracts more hate and anger. So I try to leave topics like this alone.

But...today I realized the truth.

And the truth is that the truth is hidden in our educational systems at school. History is not taught - but rather manipulated. I knew this as a child because I had a childhood of sitting at my elder's feet, listening to stories passed down through our family. Stories of my grandfather's ancestors. Some of them came with hair burning fire red and skin pale as the light of the moon. They were from far away places, in the hulls of ships suffering from illness and starvation but ANYTHING was better than where they were.

They came to a new land to find themselves enslaved, this time along people with skin the color of clay and earth and hair as dark as the sky the moon shines in. My maternal family comes from a long line of Irish-Cherokee mixture, both of whom were enslaved to the Europeans in the making of our... 'amazing' country.

Today I've come to the realization, however, that if I did not have a family of people who kept the family history close to heart... I would probably be wrong too.

This reaction video by Sarah Dengler caught my personal YouTube channel's attention. I don't generally watch reaction videos, I don't have the energy for pop culture but this one caught my eye because of the caption: My first time EVER Hearing the Truth about WHITE Slave Trade - Reaction

When I tapped it, it was a very quick introduction and it jumped straight into the video. It was of her watching a historical documentary, declaring it to be "Forgotten History." In it, you learn about how North Africa was responsible for a huge active slavery network, and how they were using the barbary pirates to bring in these slaves. Many of these slaves were actually American, and their biggest targets were white women. It's easy to follow - and even though the audio gets messed up for a minute or two in the video you get a very intriguing history lesson. It's worth a watch - which is why I provided it above.

I learned some new things - but what I was most shocked to learn was the woman in the video expressed that she had never ever heard of white people being enslaved.

My thought process when she said this went something like this:

"What do you mean you never knew that white people were enslaved? Every race has been a slave. You simply have to pay attention in history cl- wait a minute... No. I didn't learn about this in school. I learned about this from family stories. Now that I think about it..."

At the end of the video, Miss Bengler says: "Why do black people get so offended when the topic of slavery comes up? This proves that every race has been a slave."

From what I understand, she'd been making it her mission to learn about historical slavery, and facts of it for a while, and she's gotten hate from a lot of people, accusing her of lying in her videos talking and learning with her viewers about slavery.

But by the time she asked that, the world had fallen into place for me.

The video is a year old, so I assume by now she has figured out that there is no other way for Black Americans to feel. Thinking back to history class of my youth, knowing MUCH more about actual world history today than I did in high school - I understand how an entire ethnic-similar group of human beings could feel the way that they feel about slavery and racism, and why it has caused such a terrible scar on our society.

Our schools tell the story of how Native American tribes were exterminated by European colonists. But just barely. They just barely talk about how many of these Native Americans converted to Christianity and they ALMOST talk about how they were FORCED to do it. But they never quite paint that picture, do they?

I remember reading a whole chapter how Native Americans would live in churches and missionaries would come from fara away to give them English names and 'save' them and baptise them. There was only like... a half of a sentence that implicated these people may have been enslaved and forced to live in the Missions until they accepted the religion and english name, and were integrated (as household servants and such to white people but that wasn't talked about in the book) into "civilized society." They just barely talk about how terrible the Trail of Tears was. They just barely cover the basics of the extermination of American indigenous people. Oh- And the ENTIRE time they talk about my people, they talk about 'them' like they don't fucking exist anymore?!

But they do still exist.

...in little isolated boxes of land all over the continent where America 'lets them have their way' but also refuses to protect them legally and lawfully.

The American Indigenous Extermination and Enslavement is barely brushed over, and then it's scooted under the rug. The French-Indian war is taught with such manipulative omission that it makes me want to vomit.

Then the history teacher talks about slavery.

Just like with the Native Americans, they just barely talk about how white people brought black people on ships to America. They just barely talked about how people owned them and used them to pick cotton. They mentioned a lot of times how they were treated badly.

Then they GO ON AND ON AND ON AND ON AND ON about the Civil War and the Civil Rights movement. And that's all very important to learn. But I never realized the subtle manipulative racism that is in the way we teach American history either, until I watched this and went down a brain rabbit hole. In particular, we teach slavery with such a delicate racism that I didn't realize it was there until I realized this.

Because the way we teach American history has painted people with black skin as "The Slave."

When we think about slavery - we IMMEDIATELY - even those of us who come from a lineage where our white ancestors were enslaved - envision and assume we are speaking of those with black-skinned ancestry. I can't recall a single image of a Native American slave, or an Irishman slave. When the American History teacher just barely talks about the Aztecs and Incas - they don't mention how those kingdoms were HUGE profiteers of the slave trade themselves, using those who committed crimes or enemy tribes as slaves for labor and religious sacrifices.

We have martyred Black Americans out to be the physical representation of historical slavery - just by the way we teach our history. Because our history classes don't talk about how there was a white slave trade in which many Americans and Europeans were captured, murdered, raped, and enslaved. Why don't they teach it? Because most high schools teach American history. They certainly do not ever expose American children to the moments in history when America was weak. If the Civil War could be covered up, I'm certain the American Government would have American History teachers skip the American Indigenous Extermination and American Slave Trade segments COMPLETELY.

It's really HARD to paint America as the land of the free, the land of the brave and heroic if you taught REAL history...

Our children are indoctrinated to the idea that every war America fought, was heroic and with purpose- And they shine the spotlight on their dark stain in history with several filters and lenses.

Americans, Swedish, Irish, and even women of Iceland who were the prized slaves of the Islams. When the leaders would ransom back American slaves or otherwise, it would only be for the men. Women were very rarely ransomed back - and many white women during the time were never seen or heard from again after capture by the Barbary pirates.

It's not American History that teaches that many of the slaves sold from Africa to the European ships were sold to them by powerful business African men.

There are huge holes and gaps in American education about slave history and that's a HUGE problem with fighting against racism in today's world.

Adaobi Tricia Nwaubani, a Nigerean journalist shares her family story here, how one of her ancestors was a successful, wealthy businessman who sold tobacco, palm, and slaves to European traders.

My great-grandfather, Nwaubani Ogogo Oriaku, was what I prefer to call a businessman, from the Igbo ethnic group of south-eastern Nigeria. He dealt in a number of goods, including tobacco and palm produce. He also sold human beings.

Igbo slave traders like my great-grandfather did not suffer any crisis of social acceptance or legality. They did not need any religious or scientific justifications for their actions. They were simply living the life into which they were raised. That was all they knew.

American classrooms also make no mention of how African businessmen and politicians profited off of the slave trade almost as much/if not more than the Europeans. And some of the arguments I've been in have been very embarrassing for the other people.

I admire Adaobi's perspective of her great-grandfather, because it's frank, it's honest, and it's sincere. It's not a beautiful fact, but the fact remains that her grandfather did come from a different time - and he was a product of how he was raised, and selling human beings was 'just a business venture.' He didn't care that he was black and they were black - it was nothing of consequence. It wasn't about race. It was about money.

And that's another truth that American schools don't really teach our children: Slavery had a lot more to do with greed than it did racism.

I think honestly, the slaves could have had green and purple skin or rainbow skin, and it still would have been more about the endless supply of money that came with selling human beings as products.

And you can't argue with how an entire population feels about the topic of slavery and racism when the country and its educational system have molded them to feel stigmatized.

My heart and mind hurt from coming to understand this.

I have never understood racism. I wasn't born or raised with the notion that people who look different must be different. I've always had the idea that we are ALL different - and we are all the same. As a child, I wasn't raised in a household that talked about ethnicities or race. My mother had a career in the trucking industry, and I had more "tios" than a little girl whose mother had seven brothers and I was the tomato yard Princesa.

I never once knew I was different from everyone I loved, respected, and adored...until a mean old white dude told me about it. So naturally, as a concerned person, I have some questions, Murcia.

Why isn't slave history properly taught to American children? Are we the only country with this HUGE gap in education? And is it intentional? Is American History taught the way it's taught to keep the anger and division going?

I can't help but feel a little paranoid now. I'm a parent - and I homeschool my eldest daughter. She's only 6 now, but even last year she began to learn about slavery in school.

I need to be concerned about this. I think EVERY parent should start being concerned about this - and we need to do something about it. Because her education is important. Her education impacts her future and the person she chooses to become.

Her education is going to be a part of where some of her core values and beliefs stem from. So I want her education to be complete - and not manipulated through omission. I hate that children are being taught to immediately envision a 'black person' when they think about slavery. Because while black slaves did indeed suffer the most and the longest - they are not singled out. But the way slave history is taught, how are they supposed to feel? How is EVERYONE supposed to feel? This is a disgusting misrepresentation of a great evil done, in which one group in particular suffered the MOST. And now you are instilling the notion that they are the physical representation of ALL slaves.

I would be angry too. In fact. I AM angry. I'm angry for everyone everywhere, including my OWN ancestors.

I have white ancestors who were tortured, maimed, and treated like beasts. And their pain is disregarded because there is an entire continent of people who feel like they didn't or don't exist. And also, it feels like only black people deserve to feel indignant about their predecessor's enslavement. But that's now how some of us feel.

I remember being a child in school and being sent to the principal's office because I called my history teacher ignorant. I got off easy I think, because when I explained to the principal what happened, I had tears in my eyes:

"He might as well say the Disney movie Pocahontas is the REAL historical version of her story. He IS ignorant! He's telling LIES about the things that my people went through. He's LYING!"

The principal of my school was a Mexican woman, and I remember her expression, her pursed lips, and the way her eyes avoided mine when I glared at her, daring her to suspend me silently. I didn't get in trouble. They didn't even call my parents. She simply said something along the lines of: "He has to stick to the lesson plans. And while you are right, that there is much more to the story, there's only so much he can teach you in 8 weeks, and he has to make sure you can pass your exams. If you have something to say, then use your essay project as a productive way to say it."

I was sent back to class with a cease and desist and shut the fuck up threat.

My message about my own family's enslavement was muted and ignored. Because there wasn't room for that much truth in the classroom.

Slavery has been around since the dawn of time. And people have covered up the truth about how far and wide that spider web was cast.

Slavery has taken many forms and has been everywhere that humans have existed, since the very beginning. Just because we focus on that specific point in history when we speak about slavery, does not make it an isolated incident.

Slavery needs to be better represented in our educational institutions. They paint it as an isolated incident, and it leads to a lot of misconceptions. The gaps in our education lead to generational ignorance which has led to division and hate. It needs to be better taught. American History needs to start being more honest about its 'humble' and 'great' beginnings.

If we could start teaching more world history in American classrooms, it may help our goals for a better tomorrow. America isn't the oldest nor is it the most culturally rich. If we cultivated a country where history is taught more sincerely and honestly, we could lead the way to a kinder and more inclusive future. One where an entire population of humans doesn't feel singled out and misrepresented. If we focused on teaching children about different cultures and heritages, and how the beauty of all these things can bring us together the world can slowly turn into a more beautiful place.

If we want to stop racism, we need to take racism out of the way we teach our children in school.

It may mean not painting our country to be the hero we've always pretended to be - but wouldn't that be far more heroic than the omission lies we spread in our classrooms?

We need more education. We need better education. Because knowledge is one of the most important factors of social progress. And it's disgusting that our educational institutes work so hard to keep us uneducated.

Find my fictional fantasy book "Memoirs of the In-Between" on Amazon in paperback, eBook, and hardback.

You can also find it in the Apple Store.

Use the code J3F-HK4-I0K for a 20% discount on your purchase of my book on the Campfire Reading app.

And if you like pretty things - check out the author's merch store - where all money goes right back into advertising.

Like and Follow the Memoirs Facebook age here!