Exploring the legacy of slavery

The Times defends Nikole Hannah-Jones’s work again.

I don’t actually agree with the principle as they state it. I don’t think schools should be free to teach, say, that Emmett Till deserved what he got. Is the 1619 Project the obverse of that? I don’t think so.

Comments

7 responses to “Exploring the legacy of slavery”

  1. iknklast Avatar

    In addition, there needs to be a set of standards they do teach, so students learn what they need to know. That’s why we have a set curriculum. Again, that doesn’t include removing CRT; in fact, the curriculum should include information on America’s past as slave holders, Jim Crow enforcers, and misogynists. That’s vital information.

  2. Omar Avatar

    I don’t think schools should be free to teach, say, that Emmett Till deserved what he got.

    Quite right. Educators and their institutions have no business telling students what to think. Encouraging them to come to their own conclusions is another matter, and is not without its own traps.

    The institution of black slavery, in all its ‘peculiarity’, gave the United States one hell of a start in its life as a nation. Canada is one portrait of what the US could have been without it.

    I have visited the US twice, but will probably never do so again. After my last visit to North America, I concluded that I could live in Canada quite easily, but not so the US. The Gini rankings of the US (41) and Canada (117) tell a lot, and not just the higher the better.

    https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/rankorder/2172rank.html

  3. tigger_the_wing Avatar
    tigger_the_wing

    Omar, clicking on that link took me to a 404 error page.

  4. Freemage Avatar

    Yeah, the creationists will love a simplistic, unmodified statement that says that the law can/should not restrict what is taught in the classroom. There’s clearly a secondary criteria there that absolutely needs to be stated: “The law must not restrict truth from being taught in the classroom, no matter how unwelcome it may be to the students and their parents.”

  5. Omar Avatar

    tigger:

    Search for:

    COUNTRY COMPARISON :: DISTRIBUTION OF FAMILY INCOME – GINI INDEX

    It will take you to a CIA (!) site that will deliver the goods.

  6. Brian M Avatar

    The GINI index is an interesting thing. Some poor countries do well, they are “equal” in their relative poverty. A legacy of oppression is also visible-South Africa is the absolute worst. Some countries are surprising-Costa Rica is always held up as a relatively successful, peaceful place, but its GINI coefficient is one of the worst.