How western of you... so do you think we should stop trading with China given their genocide against Uighurs (I do). I opposed genocide when the victims were Muslims in the Balkans. How about the genocide against the Sudanese going on today. I have always advocated America oppose genocide to the point of going to war over it... we should stay out of foreign wars as a general rule, but once a nation commits genocide, we need to act... how about you? Which countries committing genocide today are you prepared for the US to confront?
Every child should learn the history of America in a frank, honest, and unbiased way. That includes the fact that Native Americans were the first to conquer the Americas from the indigenous people living there. When children realize our nation is comprised of waves of immigrants, some came in peace and some came to conquer and some came as slaves, it creates a shared truth... we are all immigrants.
It helps balance the narrative, when children learn the Native Americans were the first conquerors of America and the Europeans were the last wave of foreign conquerors. Let's not be science deniers... rather let's accept the truth... we can't change the past... but we should know it. As an aside, it appears the Native Americans did not kill everyone on their arrival, since nearly all Native Americans carry the DNA of those who were here first.
https://www.livescience.com/archaeology/the-1st-americans-were-not-who-we-thought-they-were
Meanwhile, I also support teaching the full history of slavery. Children should be proud that the United States never legalized slavery, in fact, it abolished slavery when the South seceded, and the North now the votes to amend the Constitution even if some of the remaining states still had legal slavery.
Another truth, that is hard to accept is that fewer white people as a percentage of the US population owned slaves than "free" African Americans. But it does highlight, that slavery no matter how "fucking awful" was not seen that way even by many "free" blacks.
Another reality is that white Americans today are less likely to be descended from American slaveowners than blacks (like Obama whose white mother was descended from slaveowners, so the rape argument while true does not fully explain this truth). And so, children should be taught that slavery is evil, but that slavery was not a "white" institution, that would be a lie.
The fact that blacks today are more likely to be descended from slaveowners than whites does not make them more guilty, because their ancestors were slaveowners. No one is guilty for the sins of their ancestors or by virtue of the color of their skin. Let's agree on that.
With that as a truth, we should study and understand how slavery operated in America and around the world and more importantly, how it operates today. I think we agree in two areas... slavery is a horrible thing, and every child should learn the truth of slavery in the past and its presence today in the world. Where I think we disagree is that slavery was a "white" practice and that somehow people born today are responsible for the acts of others whether they were white or black slaveowners in the past.
