That's GOOD!
posted by madjack at 03:04 P.M. EST on Tue Feb 07, 2006 #
I am ok with Black history month, BUT, they should also have an Asian History month, a Native American history month, an Hispanic history month, a European-American history month, etc., etc. And when they teach Black History, I think they should stop with the guilt trip on the currently living Americans over slavery. When they discuss slavery, they need to all the way back, before it hit our shores. And some blacks owned slaves as well, they never seem to point that out. I think all slavery was horrific and degrading, but I think it is wrong to expect people living now to make public apologies for something they had no hand in. How can they apologise for something they didn't do? Or for people long dead? I have been reading an old book "Goodbye Uncle Tom", a very factual, documented book on how Harriet Beecher Stowe caused more damage than good with her book; even Abe Lincoln blamed her for the war between the states - she never saw slavery first hand, it was fiction, she spent 3 days in Kentucky. Fiction is fine, but she claimed it was based on reality. Granted it was pretty on target. But her only solution for the blacks were to shuffle them off to Canada.
posted by starling02 at 01:48 A.M. EST on Wed Feb 08, 2006 #
Samuel L. Jackson, no less, said he felt insulted by it. Said "why can't we just be proud of our heritage all year 'round without this"?
posted by Foolkiller at 10:50 A.M. EST on Wed Feb 08, 2006 #
I'd like to see Southpaw History month added to honor all the achievements made by left-handers who have had to suffer through a right-handed world.
How many left-handers are out there who when playing sports as a kid had a coach who tried to stop you from throwing with your left hand or batting left-handed even though it felt natural to you?
posted by jr at 11:01 A.M. EST on Wed Feb 08, 2006 #
Samuel L. Jackson nailed it.
Good thing we don't have a Native American history month, we'd be reminded of all the human rights violations our government has been guilty of throughout our early history.
posted by JeepMaker at 10:34 A.M. EST on Sat Feb 11, 2006 #
They were not human rights violations. They had land and we wanted it. We took it. If they wanted it bad enough, they'd have kept it.
Their culture could not keep up with ours technologically, therefore, they got beat. That is the course of history.
The only reason their culture even exists today is because we were civil enough to leave them reservations. Wonder how many cultures the Indians wiped out before we almost wiped out theirs.
What happened to the Indians is just nature.
posted by MemyselfandI at 11:02 A.M. EST on Sat Feb 11, 2006 #
Ahh, I guess Tiananmen Square was nature too huh?, the natural result when tanks run over people.
I love my country, and there's no going back now, but we should face the facts. Throughout our history we've been guilty of many disgustingly horrible acts against the Native Americans.
Because their culture was not as technologically "advanced" as ours, it should be destroyed? Damn I hope some other culture more technologically advanced than ours doesn't come along.
The Indians culture didn't do it's best to destroy nature. They lived in harmony with it.
We were "civil" enough to leave them reservations? Now that is amusing. Steal their land, tell them, you can live over there, and kill them if they don't.
Did you know the Black Hills was once indisputably "Indian" land, we signed a treaty saying so, then they found gold.
The reason that the bison was nearly made extinct was simply to try and starve the indian.
During the Indian wars of the late 1700's early 1800's the Indians had surrounded a wilderness fort in what is now upstate New York. The fort was commanded by a general Shuyler. It was a common pratctice to give gifts to the indians when treating with them. The soldiers of General Shuyler were in a bad predicament, out in the middle of nowhere and surrounded. There had been a recent bout of smallpox at the fort. So the General, in what could arguably be the first instance of germ warfare, had the blankets of soldiers who had died from the smallpox folded up and given to the indians.
The indians having no immunity to the disease whatsoever, were decimated.
Look up Sand Creek, Washita Creek, Wounded Knee.
We are far from innocent.
posted by JeepMaker at 11:41 A.M. EST on Sat Feb 11, 2006 #
memyselfandi said: "They were not human rights violations. They had land and we wanted it. We took it. If they wanted it bad enough, they'd have kept it."
wow. We robbed the land from the Indians, forced them onto reservations. Most people think that when we herded the Japanese Americans into camps during WW2, it was wrong. How is our treatment of the Indians different? Only we did worse by the Indians. How would they have 'kept it'? I think it's horrible how we treated the Indians, and we should have a 'Native American" history month.
posted by starling02 at 11:12 P.M. EST on Sat Feb 11, 2006 #
How about a Woman's History Month? My daughter did not know who Betty Friedan was. That made me sad because she has heard me talk this stuff. (she is 23). Seems they got taught nothing about all that, once the women got the vote, that was it for history of it in school.
posted by starling02 at 10:35 P.M. EST on Sun Feb 12, 2006 #
Syndicate ToledoTalk
