snip ...

"If there is a Black History Month, why isn't there a White History Month?"

My usual response? Because every month is White History Month. History is written by the victors - and colonizers. Much of the American history and literature we learned for generations erased the contributions of marginalized groups.

A strange fact is that much of the history and literature I learned in the South was written by the losers, not the victors. I learned an entirely incorrect version of history because my textbooks and curriculum were shaped by The Daughters of the Confederacy - I didn't understand that until college.

That was purposeful.

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For a few decades, we have made a conscious effort to highlight the experiences of minority groups in curriculum - no such effort is required for the majority because their experience is always present.

I think it is incredibly important to teach rural kids the literature and history of marginalized groups. Many of my former students lived in White spaces with limited travel experiences.

So, I applied for scholarships to learn what I had not been taught, and I traveled the country every summer to learn to be a better teacher. I studied slavery in New York and Mount Vernon and Atlanta and Charleston.

My students had the advantage of learning the history I had never learned. I had the confidence to teach the hard truth.

Now this quote, from the junior Senator from Missouri, should tickle Major DEI Boaz:

America is not "a proposition" or a shared set of values, rather it is a country for White people descended from European settlers, whose accomplishments should not be diminished by acknowledging the people that some of them enslaved, the Native Americans they killed, or anyone else denied equal rights at the founding.

And continues by the author of the article:

Schmitt went on to say that the real Americans are those who settled the country, denying both the people who lived here centuries before colonization and the Black people who were forced here on slave ships.

I am horrified by the speech - Schmitt references Missouri so many times that I want to scream. He is reinforcing the White supremacy that I specifically taught my students to watch for ... to listen for. To speak out against.

Senator Schmitt even went so far as to make light of George Floyd's killing. The entire speech had a "blood and soil" feel. It makes me sick. I am embarrassed to be his constituent.

Schmitt is Major DEI Boazo's kind of white guy.

Just like the white guy who boaz thinks are his friends, when the reality is that they treat him as if he's their favorite house N****.