With the rise of political correct culture in the United States in the past decade or so , we have seen much of it affect our everyday lives. From what people are allowed to say or what topics are deemed too triggering for the general public, even if you weren’t paying close attention to the debates you can see that things are changing. What was mostly started by people who probably had a few decent ideas, has transitioned into a group of social justice warriors who make ridiculous attacks on people who try to reason with them. Well the politically correct agenda in the United States is pushing into places that make it very dangerous, specifically in regards to states changing history textbooks.
In order to make textbooks more politically correct and avoid offending anyone, the corporations who create them are changing the content within them to offer a “safer alternative” to learning history. In the case of Texas, this includes removing any mention of the KKK, removing Swastikas and playing down the bloodshed of groups like the American Indians. Removing them from the Textbooks is almost as bad as saying that this part of our past never happened. Not only is this ridiculous, but we are doing our children, the future leaders of our country, a disservice by offering them a watered down version of history.
Our history is bloody, filled with death destruction, killing and it is important that we pass this on to the next generation of leaders. If we do not teach them the truth about how these terrible events in history happened, we risk forgetting and repeating the same tragedy. History is not a safe space and that is because sometimes the truth is painful, but it doesn’t mean we should turn a blind eye to it. Doing so not only does a disservice to the learners, but also to the people who suffered through various events in question. We dishonor the bravery and resilience of millions of people who fought back against those who tried to suppress them, many choosing death rather than a loss of their freedoms.
The stories of how the states’ borders were formed or the rise of steamboats in the United States are nice and happy fillers, but they are not the most important part of history that is useful to today’s generation. The censorship and suppression of certain groups in the past and the similarities we see today, genocide of people for their beliefs, this is what we have to teach them. History repeats itself because eventually people disassociate themselves with the past as if we have evolved greatly in 100 years. We may have a whole new world of technology, but we still have the same biological structures as before and we are just as vulnerable to let hate and anger consume us.
If we don’t push back out of fear that we will be called dangerous and backwards thinking people, we will slowly let ourselves become completely silenced. The people who stand back and do nothing are just as bad as those who are looking to suppress people in the first place. The dark history of our countries and our world needs to be told, even if it helps stop one tragedy from reoccurring. History, like the world we live in everyday, is not a safe space.