(6) AMERICAN CIVILIZATION: NORMA ADMIRES TREES

I’ve actually been told last line in the comic before. Their logic was that if minorities had contributed more to history, then we would have mentioned them more in our history books. Since we haven’t, it must mean they have not contributed anything else. If this weren’t the case, then I’d have to “prove it” by naming these other minorities. This logic is analogous to me saying that the amount of fish that exists in the sea must be limited to those we’ve discussed in our classes — otherwise we would have mentioned them. And that if this is not the case, then you, the person who hasn’t learned about other fish, must name additional ones. Clearly the “logic” of this analogy is faulty, and I’d hope anyone would assume the same of minorities in history. But still, the challenge left me shaken because I honestly couldn’t think of anyone else — especially compared to how much I’ve learned about White people in history. What if their absence in our history lessons meant that the other races really weren’t as smart? What if we really were inferior…

    I still have those moments in class occasionally when I realize how infrequently people of color are mentioned. And the sad part is that compared to other minorities, as a Black person, I have “wonderful” representation… The truth is that our history is biasedly taught to favor our country’s majority culture. I don’t think it is done intentionally or out of spite. To an extent, it makes sense that the White majority would be more interested in hearing about the history from which they’re descended. And given that we must reference those who have referenced books written by people who we’d now consider racist or sexist in a time when minorities were dismissed, segregated, ignored, had works destroyed, or were considered threats and attacked for showing intelligence, it makes sense that we don’t hear much about the Inca, Native Americans, African Americans, Africans and other racial or ethnic groups.

    But this fact strongly reiterates how the long legacy of White privilege and an ugly history of colonization, genocide, and cultural oversight affects us today. You honestly don’t know how lucky you are to be Carmon as a child in class instead of Juan or Norma. I’m not asking that we completely change our history but simply become more inclusive of non-White peoples, and address the cause of this representational absence — at least when children are older. By doing so, we can stop the thought processes that lead to these feelings of inferiority.