The White House has taken control of cultural institutions like the Kennedy Center (and now the Smithsonian) in an attempt to correct what Trump, in one of his executive orders, describes as “a concerted and widespread effort to rewrite our Nation’s history, replacing objective facts with a distorted narrative driven by ideology rather than truth”. He’s talking about attempts to show history from more than the white hegemonic perspective. He has reversed the narrative. United States history has long been one of hegemonic ideology over fact. Manifest Destiny was one of the greatest policies underpinning fundamental U.S. ideology demanding that European Christian values spread from Plymouth Rock to the Pacific Ocean, buying Louisiana from the French and fighting Mexico for Texas along the way, convincing settlers that they had a God-given right and even a duty to forcibly take land from the Indigenous people living on it. This land was made for you and me as long and “you” and “me” are Anglo-Saxon Christian men.
I don’t understand the fear that the truth of our nation’s history seems to instill in some white people. Is it shame or guilt over the misdeeds of our ancestors? I think it’s often something more insidious than that - the fear that to build a society built on equality will mean less for “me”. Republican politicians have been preying upon white fear since Goldwater employed the “Southern Strategy” by arguing against the Civil Rights Act of 1964. In the case of our nation’s history, fear creates ignorance. Our history is presented to us as one of heroes and villains designed to justify unspeakable acts of human cruelty. Our history wrapped up in the tidy packaging of a John Wayne western is Trump’s idea of truth. Truth is not so black and white or so brilliantly technicolor as a Hollywood movie.
People and nations alike must acknowledge problems in order to grow. Ignorance of self and ignorance of history allow the individual and the nation to make the same mistakes over and over again. We have been stuck in a perpetual cycle where progress toward equality receives a strong backlash. We saw this during Reconstruction, during the Civil Rights movement, the whole 1980s was a backlash against the counterculture of the previous two decades, and most critically post-Obama. History is cyclical, much like the karmic hamster wheels of our individual lives. We think we are moving forward, when suddenly we realize we are exactly where we started.
In our field of social work, I suppose we ought to have a perspective on arts and culture as well. It seems to me that our ethical stress on client autonomy and self-determination goes along with an expectation that the government will not be significantly involved in pushing for any particular artistic or historical narratives, nor should the government be opposing any reasonable artistic or historical movements or interpretations. I suppose that our emphasis on the dignity of the individual and human rights would make most social workers prefer art and culture and history that highlights the struggles of people who moved our society toward one in which more people could enjoy human rights and social justice. We probably like human-affirming art and literature.
The curious thing about history is that it is a field of inquiry that tries to understand past realities, and there are thousands of millions of facts concerning almost any event or trend in history, and the historian must decide which facts will give us the best understanding of the historical issue they want to study. They must also consider how their study of history can help us today in understanding who we are, how we got to where we are, and what sort of decisions and actions people made in the past that could help us make better decisions and actions today. Given the many possible facts to use, and the many possible ways to use those facts to create narratives and explanations and generate insights, historical work exists along a continuum in degrees of accuracy, usefulness, insight, and fairness. Some people especially want to use history to create a sense of common identity and pride in our groups, and they wish to use history to create a sense of loyalty to our ideologies, faiths, traditions, ancestors, or country. Others especially like to use history to point out injustices, bad decisions, ignoble actions, and evils that have been committed by people of the past, and use this to help us criticize whatever we think is wrong in the society we live in today. Both of these uses of history seem reasonable approaches to me, and I hope that everyone is exposed to both of these types of history. There are some movements and people we ought to admire, at least in the context of the good they did and the wise decisions or brave and effective actions they took. There are also occasions of shameful actions, atrocities, and injustices, and we should be aware of those so that we share a sense of condemnation and a dedication to avoiding repeating similar inequities today.
It seems to me that some people are not taking the broad view of culture and history. They have a narrow conception of what history should be doing for us, and the sort of history that doesn’t fit with their narrow definition seems like an abomination to them. They are also fearful that critical history or social criticism will undermine our shared commitment to our traditions, our country, or the positive and beneficial aspects of our culture. If some Americans have done terrible things, then maybe America is a bad country, and we should not respect the American system or the authorities within our society. These people are unable to grasp the fact that nations and history are composed of thousands or even millions of people and billions of actions and decisions. Everyone ought to have some patriotism or civic spirit that compels them to engage in civics, ethical behavior, and make constructive contributions to their communities and nations. Everyone ought to have some understanding of the errors of their society or government, and be able to point these out, criticize them, and suggest ways to improve a community or society.
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