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Texas Boards of Education publish separate racist history textbooks.

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  • Texas Boards of Education publish separate racist history textbooks.

    History textbooks used in Texas were edited to support a racist antebellum political agenda.

    The following is a classic example. Others are cited in the article cited.

    Source: https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2020/01/12/us/texas-vs-california-history-textbooks.html


    California notes the suburban dream of the 1950s was inaccessible to many African-Americans.

    McGraw-Hill, “United States History Since 1877,” Texas, P. 436

    Texas does not.

    California and Texas textbooks sometimes offer different explanations for white backlash to black advancement after the Civil War, from Reconstruction to housing discrimination in the 20th century.

    Southern whites resisted Reconstruction, according to a McGraw-Hill textbook, because they “did not want African-Americans to have more rights.” But the Texas edition offers an additional reason: Reforms cost money, and that meant higher taxes.

    Whole paragraphs on redlining and restrictive deeds appear only in the California editions of textbooks, partly as a result of different state standards. Texas’ social studies guidelines do not mention housing discrimination at all.

    © Copyright Original Source

    Glendower: I can call spirits from the vasty deep.
    Hotspur: Why, so can I, or so can any man;
    But will they come when you do call for them? Shakespeare’s Henry IV, Part 1, Act III:

    go with the flow the river knows . . .

    Frank

    I do not know, therefore everything is in pencil.

  • #2
    Silence!?!?!?
    Glendower: I can call spirits from the vasty deep.
    Hotspur: Why, so can I, or so can any man;
    But will they come when you do call for them? Shakespeare’s Henry IV, Part 1, Act III:

    go with the flow the river knows . . .

    Frank

    I do not know, therefore everything is in pencil.

    Comment


    • #3
      I think those of conscience agree with you 200% on this.

      Comment


      • #4
        This thread is going to stay away for awhile.
        Glendower: I can call spirits from the vasty deep.
        Hotspur: Why, so can I, or so can any man;
        But will they come when you do call for them? Shakespeare’s Henry IV, Part 1, Act III:

        go with the flow the river knows . . .

        Frank

        I do not know, therefore everything is in pencil.

        Comment


        • #5
          When two or more causes exist for some trend in society, which one gets emphasized?

          White flight to suburbs would not have been possible without the "car culture" of highways, supermarkets, and malls. Some posit that was the root cause, others to the discomfort of having black families move into a neighborhood, racism.

          The Civil War was about a clash of cultures and a way of life, and it was also about slavery. But was slavery some secondary issue? A look at the documents of the founding fathers of the CSA shows that it was an issue of primary importance.

          What was the real cost to southern society for implementing racist policies and rolling back Reconstruction advances? Reducing the issue to one of fiscal conservatism is laughable. That line of thought prepares the ground for another historical view, that the slow economic rise of the south coincided with establishment of Jim Crow (which I agree with, economic growth was flat under Reconstruction and the era which the south elected black legislators).

          But what was the root causes of economic growth in south, racist agendas, or other factors?

          One topic also absent and downplayed in the Teks curricula is the racial dimension to the interactions with Mexicans Americans. Not sure how the California edition handles it.

          Comment


          • #6
            Just one among many examples of how government indoctrinates and manipulates the masses with a particular ideology via the public educational system.

            Comment


            • #7
              Originally posted by simplicio View Post
              When two or more causes exist for some trend in society, which one gets emphasized?

              White flight to suburbs would not have been possible without the "car culture" of highways, supermarkets, and malls. Some posit that was the root cause, others to the discomfort of having black families move into a neighborhood, racism.

              The Civil War was about a clash of cultures and a way of life, and it was also about slavery. But was slavery some secondary issue? A look at the documents of the founding fathers of the CSA shows that it was an issue of primary importance.

              What was the real cost to southern society for implementing racist policies and rolling back Reconstruction advances? Reducing the issue to one of fiscal conservatism is laughable. That line of thought prepares the ground for another historical view, that the slow economic rise of the south coincided with establishment of Jim Crow (which I agree with, economic growth was flat under Reconstruction and the era which the south elected black legislators).

              But what was the root causes of economic growth in south, racist agendas, or other factors?

              One topic also absent and downplayed in the Teks curricula is the racial dimension to the interactions with Mexicans Americans. Not sure how the California edition handles it.
              First point, yes the economy was flat after the Civil War during the Reconstruction period, because the railroads, industry and commerce of the South was destroyed, but penal servitude (prison slavery) provided much of the labor to rebuild the South. In part, because a large portion of male labor force was killed or wounded during the war. Fred slaves were rounded up in large numbers and convicted of trumped up. or minor offences, and convicted for up to life sentences as penal servitude labor.

              Source: https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2018/10/origin-prison-slavery-shane-bauer-american-prison-excerpt.html


              The Origins of Prison Slavery
              How Southern whites found replacements for their emancipated slaves in the prison system.
              By SHANE BAUER

              OCT 02, 20188:00 AM


              The Stories of “Segregation Academies,” as Told by the White Students Who Attended Them When Did the Right Become Unable to Deal With the Complexity of American History?
              Being Right About Reagan’s Racism Was Bad for Jimmy Carter

              In August, an organization called the Incarcerated Workers Organizing Committee announced that prisoners in at least 17 states had pledged to stage a strike to protest prison conditions. It is unclear how many inmates actually took part in the 19-day strike, but organizers said “thousands“ refused to work, staged sit-ins, and turned away meals to demand “an immediate end to prison slavery.” Nationwide, inmates’ labor is essential to running prisons. They cook, clean, do laundry, cut hair, and fulfill numerous administrative tasks for cents on the dollar, if anything, in hourly pay. Prisoners have been used to package Starbucks coffee and make lingerie. In California, inmates volunteer to fight the state’s wildfires for just $1 an hour plus $2 per day.

              The link between prison labor and slavery is not merely rhetorical. At the end of the Civil War, the 13th amendment abolished slavery “except as a punishment for a crime.” This opened the door for more than a century of forced labor that was in many ways identical to, and in some ways worse than, slavery. The following is an excerpt from my new book, American Prison: A Reporter’s Undercover Journey Into the Business of Punishment. The book details my time working undercover as a prison guard in a for-profit prison in Louisiana. It also traces the ways in which our prison system evolved out of the attempt of Southern businessmen to keep slavery alive.

              © Copyright Original Source

              Glendower: I can call spirits from the vasty deep.
              Hotspur: Why, so can I, or so can any man;
              But will they come when you do call for them? Shakespeare’s Henry IV, Part 1, Act III:

              go with the flow the river knows . . .

              Frank

              I do not know, therefore everything is in pencil.

              Comment


              • #8
                Originally posted by shunyadragon View Post
                First point, yes the economy was flat after the Civil War during the Reconstruction period, because the railroads, industry and commerce of the South was destroyed, but penal servitude (prison slavery) provided much of the labor to rebuild the South. In part, because a large portion of male labor force was killed or wounded during the war. Fred slaves were rounded up in large numbers and convicted of trumped up. or minor offences, and convicted for up to life sentences as penal servitude labor.

                Source: https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2018/10/origin-prison-slavery-shane-bauer-american-prison-excerpt.html


                The Origins of Prison Slavery
                How Southern whites found replacements for their emancipated slaves in the prison system.
                By SHANE BAUER

                OCT 02, 20188:00 AM


                The Stories of “Segregation Academies,” as Told by the White Students Who Attended Them When Did the Right Become Unable to Deal With the Complexity of American History?
                Being Right About ReaganÂ’s Racism Was Bad for Jimmy Carter

                In August, an organization called the Incarcerated Workers Organizing Committee announced that prisoners in at least 17 states had pledged to stage a strike to protest prison conditions. It is unclear how many inmates actually took part in the 19-day strike, but organizers said “thousands“ refused to work, staged sit-ins, and turned away meals to demand “an immediate end to prison slavery.” Nationwide, inmates’ labor is essential to running prisons. They cook, clean, do laundry, cut hair, and fulfill numerous administrative tasks for cents on the dollar, if anything, in hourly pay. Prisoners have been used to package Starbucks coffee and make lingerie. In California, inmates volunteer to fight the state’s wildfires for just $1 an hour plus $2 per day.

                The link between prison labor and slavery is not merely rhetorical. At the end of the Civil War, the 13th amendment abolished slavery “except as a punishment for a crime.” This opened the door for more than a century of forced labor that was in many ways identical to, and in some ways worse than, slavery. The following is an excerpt from my new book, American Prison: A Reporter’s Undercover Journey Into the Business of Punishment. The book details my time working undercover as a prison guard in a for-profit prison in Louisiana. It also traces the ways in which our prison system evolved out of the attempt of Southern businessmen to keep slavery alive.

                © Copyright Original Source

                My point was what root causes get distilled down to some minimum, where something gets truncated. So the prison labor system was influenced by racism, yet took on a life of its own in that the economic advantages of using prison slave labor was still perpetuated because so many came to have an economic stake in its existence.

                A poster brought up the costs of integration (an argument which surprised me), but the reaction to federal interference and violation of subsidiarity (the natural ad appropriate of leaving decisions at the lowest levels, local control) was establishing integration academies across the south. Establishing the parallel and segregated system was not cheap.

                And yes, I am Catholic, and recognize that in some cases the parochial school was used as a foil to integration. But that was not common to the parochial school system.

                A truncated history is not accurate, and when it is truncated, one has to wonder at the motivation or reasons the altered picture is preferred.

                Comment


                • #9
                  The movie Giant came out in the fifties, and the studio worried that the reaction to the movie in Texas would Hurt its commercial success. Surprisingly to many, the reaction in Texas was positive. For those not familiar with the film, it deals with racism and intermarriage within a powerful Texas oil family.

                  Are Americans too fragile to confront the past, to examine the high as well as the low points? I don't think so.

                  Comment


                  • #10
                    Originally posted by simplicio View Post
                    The movie Giant came out in the fifties, and the studio worried that the reaction to the movie in Texas would Hurt its commercial success. Surprisingly to many, the reaction in Texas was positive. For those not familiar with the film, it deals with racism and intermarriage within a powerful Texas oil family.

                    Are Americans too fragile to confront the past, to examine the high as well as the low points? I don't think so.
                    What you cited here does not represent the main issues of our racist history excluded from the Texas history that they excluded from the text books. What is your explanation of the exclusion and dishonest statements made in the edits of the Texas textbooks?
                    Glendower: I can call spirits from the vasty deep.
                    Hotspur: Why, so can I, or so can any man;
                    But will they come when you do call for them? Shakespeare’s Henry IV, Part 1, Act III:

                    go with the flow the river knows . . .

                    Frank

                    I do not know, therefore everything is in pencil.

                    Comment


                    • #11
                      Originally posted by shunyadragon View Post
                      What you cited here does not represent the main issues of our racist history excluded from the Texas history that they excluded from the text books. What is your explanation of the exclusion and dishonest statements made in the edits of the Texas textbooks?
                      But the example of Giant is an example of a topic which was ignored, not dealt with in Texas.

                      One of the curious part about America's history of racism and civil rights is that there is documentary evidence, but no living witnesses..... among the group which demanded segregation. No protesters remember protesting the inclusion of black students at Little Rock. A famous reunion of a black student and a white student had the white student not remembering her opposition. And a similar phenomenon existed in Germany after WWII, few living witness recalled supporting Hitler as a fellow traveler, not a party member.

                      The Texas version of history is an attempt to divert blame and guilt. So the specious argument about fiscal responsibility as a cause for denial of rights

                      Comment


                      • #12
                        The exclusion of our racist history from Texas textbooks is equivalent to some trying to remove the Holocaust from the history books.
                        Glendower: I can call spirits from the vasty deep.
                        Hotspur: Why, so can I, or so can any man;
                        But will they come when you do call for them? Shakespeare’s Henry IV, Part 1, Act III:

                        go with the flow the river knows . . .

                        Frank

                        I do not know, therefore everything is in pencil.

                        Comment


                        • #13
                          Originally posted by shunyadragon View Post
                          The exclusion of our racist history from Texas textbooks is equivalent to some trying to remove the Holocaust from the history books.
                          I agree.

                          But I see inclusion into a school textbook only part of the solution. American and European school books have included the Holocaust, yet holocaust denialism is on the increase.

                          When education is equated with indoctrination, then everything becomes suspect, reason and rationality go out the window. Truth, historical truths, become pawns in some game of competing conspiracy theories.

                          How does one pare down the number of historical facts to a practical size to fit into some 180 day sequence of school days?

                          Which of the two views on history are represented in private and Christian schooling? Your link brought in the fact of the white segregation academies, where the historical perspective most certainly was not that of of California's. For the record, I am an enthusiastic supporter of private schools, having chose that for two of my children.

                          Comment


                          • #14
                            Originally posted by shunyadragon View Post
                            The exclusion of our racist history from Texas textbooks is equivalent to some trying to remove the Holocaust from the history books.
                            Why is exclusion of this country's racist history akin to efforts of denialists?

                            Comment


                            • #15
                              Whom do we want writing our textbooks?

                              Atheists? Would an atheist be able write a mathematics textbook which could pass muster for the Christian? If so then it shows an ability to use reason effectively, even if the intellect is not turned toward its proper end (for the Christian, the proper end of the intellect is truth, including truths of the faith and metaphysical things.)

                              What about a history text? If the atheist held repugnant views and allowed the ideas to filter in, then I would object to the books. (what to do with such books is another topic, whether they should be preserved in public libraries, or destroyed, effectively censoring).

                              In the same way, we can go through the sorts of people we encounter, which brings to a related controversy, whether a liberal ought to writing the books which influence our children.

                              At what point does education become indoctrination? Is sending children to the Catholic parochial system indoctrination?

                              Comment

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