The history of the experiences of every ethnic and racial group in America helps define America today. I remember how interesting a course was on the history of Jewish migrations to America. Clearly, Jews as a religious group have made a huge impact on America and yet we don't teach Jewish American history. Similarly, Germans have come to America in many waves often fleeing religious and political persecution and have collectively made the biggest impact on Americans by sheer weight of numbers. Certainly, we should study the various Asian migrations to America and the events that triggered them and their integration into America society. I took a course on Latin American history, and it made me realize how little our schools teach about the impact of Hispanics on America. Our schools tend to teach Native American history from the perspective that they were our adversaries, but the history of Native Americans is far more diverse than that. Little known facts like Native Americans having been instrumental in WW2 is often overlooked. Black history is also diverse. Most people equate black history with studying slavery and Jim Crow laws, but that is simply a "part" of African American history. My one black granddaughter's African American history has little to do with slavery in America and instead is linked much more closely with the history of Haiti and the migration of Haitians to America. My four black grandchildren from my son have studies the "black" history of their mother, which ties back to the decolonization of African that led to many civil wars and dictatorships resulting in more Africans migrating to America in just the last 50 years, then were brought to America as slaves during the entire period of slavery (African Americans descended from slaves remain the largest black identity group among African Americans by virtue of their centuries of presence in America, not by virtue of the number of Africans that first set foot in America as slaves). The history of Irish migrations is something every American regardless of skin color should know.
Perhaps far more important than a narrowly focused course on the history of one subset of Americans would be a high school history course that stresses how Americans "got here" and why they came. Such a course would highlight the good, bad, and ugly.
I recently was reading about the Scottish migration to America following the border wars in between England and Scotland and came across the names of several of my high school friends from 50 years ago. I emailed one of them and asked was his family part of that... and to my surprise he said "yes"! His family was outlawed and fled Scotland to Ireland where they were not welcome and so moved on to America almost 400 years ago!
We need to all learn about where the other person's ancestors came from. Rather than focusing on our own unique histories tied to our own ethnicity, we begin to realize every American has a story that reaches back to somewhere else. Whites are not "white", blacks are not "black", those terms define skin colors, but the experiences of people are far more diverse than their skin colors.
The goal of history should be to teach "history" as in what happened and when. But also, to help build a common identity out of a diverse history.
A bit of black history...
Eisenhower became a big advocate of equal rights for African Americans, not because he felt bad about their experiences in the past (I wonder how much he actually knew about those experiences), but because he witnessed first-hand the sacrifices to the point of death that African Americans made for "their country" during WW2.
In many ways, the "blood" of unknown African Americans shed for this country more than any Civil Rights leader, helped blacks achieve the civil rights they deserved but had not been granted until the 50s and 60s. When I took black history, it did not really focus on these events, it tended to focus far more on slavery and Jim Crow laws, perhaps it is different today.
In spite of all the racism and segregation, the Jim Crow laws and abuses, African Americans identified as "Americans", not freed slaves living in America. When called upon to fight and possibly die for their country, they responded. Why?
Understanding why Americans of all races, religions, and ethnicities have responded to the call to fight in WW2 and at other times in American history, might be the most powerful history course, that every American child should take. Turns out for all the tension between us, when an outside force threatens us, we come to realize we are on the "same side".
