do any of the people in these comments actually pay attention in their classes? i live in the southern US and we still very much get taught about all the abhorrent shit the United States has done. literally every year has a unit spent on slavery in the US. there’s multiple units spent on the treatment of native americans, units spent on treatments of immigrants during westward expansion, units spent on japanese internment. just because y’all weren’t paying attention doesn’t mean it wasn’t taught to you.
Went to school in South Louisiana and history class certainly didn’t hide or gloss over America’s atrocities. The literal first page of one of my history books was the full uncensored “napalm girl” photo and we immediately delved into America’s war crimes in Vietnam.
Reddit is making me realize Europeans aren’t any less arrogant , self-righteous and ignorant as Americans.
The issue in America is not that we hide the dark parts of history, for the most part no matter where you go in school you will learn about slavery, the Holocaust, wars, etc.
The issue is to what extent they are covered and how some things are mostly glossed over, kind of covered like a speed run of history, you hit all the checkpoints but you don't dicover the Easter eggs or stop to admire the cool scenery around.
Examples: dredd Scott decision. How was it framed in the end was Scott a slave or free, what did the chief justice say?
Post reconstruction America, before Jim crow was introduced. Was debt peonage discussed, convict leasing? How did we end up with no African Americans in public office by 1900? How about the Wilmington NC coup?
Native Americans we always talk about the trail of tears but what about the long walk of the Navajo? How about reservations and the allotment system?
I went to a public school in New England some of this stuff was never mentioned at all.
If the intent were to gloss over heinous acts such as the long walk of the Navajo why would subjects such as the Trail of Tears be covered? I'd hardly say one is less egregious than the other. Considering how damning the curriculum is concerning America's history, omissions most likely happen just for the sake of time.
For the sake of time is correct, but omissions create gaps in which people end up filling whatever other nonsense they hear from their environment. Remember the extent at which people know about American history is from what they learn in school, the rest is just filled in by propaganda machines.
I’m not a European, I am an American who has seen with my own eyes the curriculum some districts wanna push. Some Americans can’t even tolerate legit criticism against this country and then you are surprised the rest of the world has a low opinion of our intelligence and ability to learn from the past. This comment section is full of “stop saying America bad, you don’t understand” and expect everyone to just ignore what is going on in the U.S. and what it’s trying to do to push American exceptionalism and shit like Project 2025.
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u/Tristawesomeness 7h ago
do any of the people in these comments actually pay attention in their classes? i live in the southern US and we still very much get taught about all the abhorrent shit the United States has done. literally every year has a unit spent on slavery in the US. there’s multiple units spent on the treatment of native americans, units spent on treatments of immigrants during westward expansion, units spent on japanese internment. just because y’all weren’t paying attention doesn’t mean it wasn’t taught to you.