Thank you for this excellent post. I have always thought that MAGA is an ultra right reaction to Obama being elected president.
We are becoming a majority/minority country and angry white men and women are afraid of losing their privileges and position -- and they continue to vote against their own self-interests.
Can you think of one thing the orange maniac will do that will help any rural person?
It's not just white men and women who voted for Trump. Think of the young Latinos who couldn't imagine a woman as capable as Kamala Harris being able to lead the nation. I'm tired of being outraged and appalled. My friends just told me about the turd sculptures dedicated to Donald Trump that are mysteriously appearing around the country. I'm an artist, and I'm looking for a way to fight back against MAGA and the billionaires. We have to figure this out.
Good points. It occurred to me that many women do not believe Kamala Harris could handle the job. It seems to be primarily women who are not educated. I'm not saying that educated women are smarter, but I keep seeing this as an issue. I was questioned, "What has she done?... What experience does she have?" Or, she slept her way to "the top."
I am in a red state and I hear this a lot. It is my unscientific conclusion that the women who say this are petrified of losing the status that they have as wives and mothers through their white husbands. That status is superior to self-made woman’s status because as wives they were chosen by men. These women are completely unaware of their bias, however. This is my perspective as a self-made woman. I am hoping that someone does their dissertation on this.
Good point. Many women are proud to be wives and might "look down" on women who are not married. Not judging either preference, but thank you for this perspective.
RBS your thoughts match mine. Trump's history was him going maga because a black man was running for and became our President. So Donald invented a lie that Obama wasn't really an America born person but some kind of trash immigrant. And in the 2024 campaign he broadens his animus against anyone who isn't white as snow by saying all immigrants from South America, Asia, Africa are undesirable . Totally disgusting and false.
Here in Missouri the rural chicken processing plants employ immigrants just as in other southern states like Georgia, Alabama, Louisiana, Florida. Empty those fields and plants of immigrants and there will be shortages of everyday items from produce to broilers.
I live in St. Louis County in a municipality that isn't in anyway part of rural Missouri or a MAGA area. But certainly in neighboring St. Charles County which has grown into a mainly residential collection of communities we see the MAGA influence with book banning, racial issues and more Republican state representatives than in St. Louis Co. I live in a retirement community that I know includes Trump supporters who are very nice individuals.
Absolutely it was a total racist reaction to Obama. As was the rise of the Tea Party. I don’t care what words or concepts they use to obfuscate their agenda…it was racism plain and simple. I say this as a white 73 yo bleeding heart liberal from PA. I taught Sped in VA and AZ from 1978 until 2013. Even in the 11 years since I’ve been retired, I am very aware that racism is alive and well in the USA.
Another spot on, powerful post, Jess. I knew the murderer’s name, but, I am ashamed to admit I could not name any of the victims. That seems wrong. Thank you for posting their names. Clementa C. Pinckney, Cynthia Graham Hurd, Susie Jackson, Ethel Lee Lance, Depayne Middleton-Doctor, Tywanza Sanders, Daniel L. Simmons, Sharonda Coleman-Singleton, Myra Thompson deserve to be remembered.
We need to remember all the names hate and ignorance have caused, including the White House guards and the millions of folks who died of misinformation during COVID. We need to remember the cost in human terms of miseducation.
Thank you for this. I retired from history education (junior high through university adjunct) just in time (2018). In poverty-stricken rural Indiana, my principal had my back (I created a straightforward truthful lesson on the Charlottesville weekend for the week after it happened--no one opposed me), but he would not be able to save me today. God help us. I often pondered the "complete southernization" of the US. We're almost there. A few states remain strong. Lord, have mercy.
The current push for "school choice" seems to be an effort to endorse and codify such miseducation in many cases. Some days it feels like we are characters in a bad cartoon from a Mad Magazine drawn in the 60's, or something like that.
I grew up in deeply red south Texas, where we were taught that Reconstruction was worse than slavery. My hometown still has Confederate memorials in the town square. The ingrained racism is sad and horrifying at the same time.
I think it is long past time that the federal government states that the Confederacy was an enemy of the states, believed in slavery and misogyny which goes against the Comstitution, Therefore any symbols, statues, false stories, or groups celebrating this dark part of our history is not allowed. If Germany could do this after WWII, why can’t we?
This story of Dylan Roofs education has done nothing to dissuade me from my opinion that the South will always be some of the most poorly educated in the US!
Really well done Jess, and a great argument for the teaching of complete history. In elementary school in North Carolina, I was taught a similar version of U.S. history and the only change when we moved to California was that the benevolent slavemasters were replaced by benevolent Catholic priests who had only the best interests of the native population at heart. Having now read in close order Born in Blackness by Howard French, Before the Mayflower by Lerone Bennett, and being in the midst of White Trash by Nancy Isenberg, I have a bit more rounded view now and am amazed at the depth of history of racism toward non-whites regardless of economic class and the classism toward poor people regardless of race. I don't know that any of those books would be welcome in a public school library, but the historical citations and writing are outstanding and all read very easily. That said, I don't know what the solution is, because the problem has been with us since before there was a United States or even white people on these shores. You've certainly started one path toward change and hopefully we'll see it grow into an effective tool that will see us remove the fist raiser who later fled the House chamber with a human being.
And what of Project 2025? Methinks there is a purposely quiet group of insurrectionists working madly along with ‘where the hell did he go?’Vance to strategize implementation of their nefarious plans. I shudder.
A person I was talking politics said that there were 36 FBI Agents in the crowd at the Capital. I googled it. There were 36 FBI Informants there. Quite a difference!!!! And so it goes.
When I started teaching in Fairfax county in 1964, a northern Virginia county next to DC, the 4th grade textbook said the south won the war. It was 3 or 4 years later that it was replaced.
I taught 5th grade. So, believe it or not, I covered slavery. I taught them the truth. We were an integrated county and school. We did lots of activities that went to the struggle of being a slave. There was a great book, To Be A Slave, that I read to the students and we talked about what they heard from the reading and talked about how they saw it in their community and lives.
Yes, I did not know that connection between Dylan Roof’s miseducation-radicalization-terrorism.
I’m in a book club with people that say Americans fought on both sides of the civil war. I always correct them. It was a war between 2 countries, the USA and the CSA. The CSA is the historical enemy of the USA, and their flag is the enemy’s flag.
This "Americans on both sides" interpretation is fueled by fact-gathering institutions. Best example is the universally accepted "fact" that the Civil War was the cause of the greatest number of American casualties than any other war in which we've been involved, because all sources for this question combine the fatalities. Some directly give the data with this explanation "...as Americans were fighting on both sides..." Your point is accurate and interesting and complicated by the fact that the names of both countries ended with "of America." So, correct education on this issue? America is the name of the land mass, not the name of the government.
Thank you. I’ve heard that “fact,” also, and didn’t make the connection. The fact that the CSA was an enemy country fighting against the USA, and the people living there were not US citizens, is a new revelation to me. I’m still in the process of wrapping my head around it.
It’s like a lightbulb went off, and now whenever it comes up, I’m sharing it with everyone.
Of course, you are correct, (North) America is the continent. We are all (North) Americans: Mexico, USA, Canada.
Thank you, again, for your excellent points. I love learning from each other.
Thank you. I came to the US as a 10 year old and had lived in London England. The English referred to our Revolution as a civil war. You are so right to remind us of the confederate story.
Wow, despite many conversations with English friends I had not heard that! Not surprising, I suppose. Russians will no doubt say or teach the same about Ukraine for years to come. Our human ability to understand our conflicts isn't getting better, and the closer the combatants the worse it is.
Wonderful writing, Jess! In my entire educational life, I was NEVER taught black history. This includes my 4 undergraduate years as a history major and my 1 full year of grad school in history! I didn't learn any black history until my son was in junior high and high school (I helped him study). I live in a southern red state and I am sure that had something to do with it. I really hope education doesn't backslide to that point, but I suspect it will here in the south. Very sad.
Oh. Jess- a thousand thank-yous for writing this piece and sharing it today. This old Canuck had back-to-back meetings yesterday- one with the youth symphony board and the other with our Health Coalition group waging a battle to protect our Canadian public health care system. As you probably know, our conservative provincial government is itching for an election- and our PM has stepped down with the Conservatives' populist pit bull just tugging at his leash for a federal election as soon as possible.
Then I clicked on Breitbart last night to find a wave of exactly what you have written about today - a tsunami of comments telling me to "get over 'my side' losing and once again repeating with dogged assurance the lies that so many brilliant US fact-checkers have tried to dispel. Offering my counter-arguments (with sources cited) I was told that my "arrogant hubris" (pat me on the back for NOT pointing out the tautology) was exactly the reason Democrats like me were defeated. I'll share a few more mood-brighteners:
-The "committee report" was a partisan clown show. They selectively presented evidence to sell a particular narrative, designed to impress people like yourself.
- We paid attention to the terabyte of evidence Nanzi's Inquisition destroyed...
- What a dope you are. Sucker and loser. HBO Films for God’s sake
_ Just think, none of this would’ve happened if thousands of Democrat operatives didn’t load up unguarded ballot boxes with false ballots, when thousands and thousands of operatives didn’t go into nursing homes, homeless shelters and homeless areas and get ballots none of this would’ve happened. What happened to the 17 million voters of 2020 that didn’t vote in 2024?The gig is up.People are going to prison. The amount of people arrested on January 6, 2021 will look like a flea on a frog on a log in a hole at the bottom of the sea compared to J-6.
Jess, even 35 years of teaching high school did not prepare me for ingrained idiocy and meanness like this. It's spreading around the world. How do we talk to these people?
As Jess recently noted (I can't remember the date of the post), farm equipment only has AM radio. Time for some liberal AM stations in rural communities!
Having grown up on a farm (ranch) where no equipment had ever heard of a radio 😏, I hadn't thought of that! It would no doubt be a real influence. Same with non-field work environments where radios are probably often on all day.
Good one! No, only Latvian and German. My parents were the victims of both Nazi and Soviet invasions of World War II. They left everything they had built behind to live in refugee camps and then Canada. They were grateful to America throughout their lives, but also adamant that their children learn history and critical thinking.
Thanks Jess for speaking the truth. I’m 82 years old and can’t believe my eyes of the ignorance that seems to be getting worse. We all must keep speaking up.
I grew up and went to school in the 40s - 50s in a small West Texas farming community and then graduated from a nearby Southern Baptist college. I’ve always loved history but I can’t remember ever studying the civil war in any detail. Most of my history knowledge has been gained by reading. Our little community only had two Blacks, a husband and wife who worked on a nearby ranch. Her name was Mary and she was the cook and housekeeper for the owners and his name was Jim, (he was the ranch hand) but everyone called him “N****r Jim…to his face.
I was born on June 18th and when I was six and was with my dad at the local grocery store, when a neighbor farmer said to me, “Jerry Mack. It’s a good thing that you weren’t born a day later (Juneteenth) because if you had, you would have been born a N****r!” Even at my young age, I knew that was wrong. When I was about twelve I asked my dad why the Black kids who lived across the street from the school at our county seat had to ride the Hamlin Colored Consolidated School twenty-five miles away. I said that seemed wrong to me. My dad responded and said “you are right son. But that’s just the way it is.” I have fought against bias, bigotry and hate for all of my life and my success rate in changing people’s minds has been too low (IMHO) but nevertheless continue to try.
Thank you Jess for continuing to fight the good fight.
Thank you for this excellent post. I have always thought that MAGA is an ultra right reaction to Obama being elected president.
We are becoming a majority/minority country and angry white men and women are afraid of losing their privileges and position -- and they continue to vote against their own self-interests.
Can you think of one thing the orange maniac will do that will help any rural person?
It's not just white men and women who voted for Trump. Think of the young Latinos who couldn't imagine a woman as capable as Kamala Harris being able to lead the nation. I'm tired of being outraged and appalled. My friends just told me about the turd sculptures dedicated to Donald Trump that are mysteriously appearing around the country. I'm an artist, and I'm looking for a way to fight back against MAGA and the billionaires. We have to figure this out.
Good points. It occurred to me that many women do not believe Kamala Harris could handle the job. It seems to be primarily women who are not educated. I'm not saying that educated women are smarter, but I keep seeing this as an issue. I was questioned, "What has she done?... What experience does she have?" Or, she slept her way to "the top."
Religious women are taught to NOT think, NOT question. Be obedient. These women home school their children. It’s the perfect set-up for tyranny.
I am in a red state and I hear this a lot. It is my unscientific conclusion that the women who say this are petrified of losing the status that they have as wives and mothers through their white husbands. That status is superior to self-made woman’s status because as wives they were chosen by men. These women are completely unaware of their bias, however. This is my perspective as a self-made woman. I am hoping that someone does their dissertation on this.
Good point. Many women are proud to be wives and might "look down" on women who are not married. Not judging either preference, but thank you for this perspective.
RBS your thoughts match mine. Trump's history was him going maga because a black man was running for and became our President. So Donald invented a lie that Obama wasn't really an America born person but some kind of trash immigrant. And in the 2024 campaign he broadens his animus against anyone who isn't white as snow by saying all immigrants from South America, Asia, Africa are undesirable . Totally disgusting and false.
Here in Missouri the rural chicken processing plants employ immigrants just as in other southern states like Georgia, Alabama, Louisiana, Florida. Empty those fields and plants of immigrants and there will be shortages of everyday items from produce to broilers.
They will put school children in the processing plants.
I think that's the intent. They didn't change child labor laws in those states without reason.
Or prisoners — who can be treated as slaves under the 13th Amendment.
I’m glad to see that you live in Missouri — I’m wondering how safe you feel expressing your intelligent opinions there.
I live in St. Louis County in a municipality that isn't in anyway part of rural Missouri or a MAGA area. But certainly in neighboring St. Charles County which has grown into a mainly residential collection of communities we see the MAGA influence with book banning, racial issues and more Republican state representatives than in St. Louis Co. I live in a retirement community that I know includes Trump supporters who are very nice individuals.
Absolutely it was a total racist reaction to Obama. As was the rise of the Tea Party. I don’t care what words or concepts they use to obfuscate their agenda…it was racism plain and simple. I say this as a white 73 yo bleeding heart liberal from PA. I taught Sped in VA and AZ from 1978 until 2013. Even in the 11 years since I’ve been retired, I am very aware that racism is alive and well in the USA.
Another spot on, powerful post, Jess. I knew the murderer’s name, but, I am ashamed to admit I could not name any of the victims. That seems wrong. Thank you for posting their names. Clementa C. Pinckney, Cynthia Graham Hurd, Susie Jackson, Ethel Lee Lance, Depayne Middleton-Doctor, Tywanza Sanders, Daniel L. Simmons, Sharonda Coleman-Singleton, Myra Thompson deserve to be remembered.
May they Rest in Power.
We need to remember all the names hate and ignorance have caused, including the White House guards and the millions of folks who died of misinformation during COVID. We need to remember the cost in human terms of miseducation.
Thank you for this. I retired from history education (junior high through university adjunct) just in time (2018). In poverty-stricken rural Indiana, my principal had my back (I created a straightforward truthful lesson on the Charlottesville weekend for the week after it happened--no one opposed me), but he would not be able to save me today. God help us. I often pondered the "complete southernization" of the US. We're almost there. A few states remain strong. Lord, have mercy.
Thank you for doing the work
The current push for "school choice" seems to be an effort to endorse and codify such miseducation in many cases. Some days it feels like we are characters in a bad cartoon from a Mad Magazine drawn in the 60's, or something like that.
I grew up in deeply red south Texas, where we were taught that Reconstruction was worse than slavery. My hometown still has Confederate memorials in the town square. The ingrained racism is sad and horrifying at the same time.
I think it is long past time that the federal government states that the Confederacy was an enemy of the states, believed in slavery and misogyny which goes against the Comstitution, Therefore any symbols, statues, false stories, or groups celebrating this dark part of our history is not allowed. If Germany could do this after WWII, why can’t we?
This story of Dylan Roofs education has done nothing to dissuade me from my opinion that the South will always be some of the most poorly educated in the US!
That's not an opinion, those are the facts. We live in purposeful ignorance down here.
T
Really well done Jess, and a great argument for the teaching of complete history. In elementary school in North Carolina, I was taught a similar version of U.S. history and the only change when we moved to California was that the benevolent slavemasters were replaced by benevolent Catholic priests who had only the best interests of the native population at heart. Having now read in close order Born in Blackness by Howard French, Before the Mayflower by Lerone Bennett, and being in the midst of White Trash by Nancy Isenberg, I have a bit more rounded view now and am amazed at the depth of history of racism toward non-whites regardless of economic class and the classism toward poor people regardless of race. I don't know that any of those books would be welcome in a public school library, but the historical citations and writing are outstanding and all read very easily. That said, I don't know what the solution is, because the problem has been with us since before there was a United States or even white people on these shores. You've certainly started one path toward change and hopefully we'll see it grow into an effective tool that will see us remove the fist raiser who later fled the House chamber with a human being.
Solidarity, friend
And what of Project 2025? Methinks there is a purposely quiet group of insurrectionists working madly along with ‘where the hell did he go?’Vance to strategize implementation of their nefarious plans. I shudder.
A person I was talking politics said that there were 36 FBI Agents in the crowd at the Capital. I googled it. There were 36 FBI Informants there. Quite a difference!!!! And so it goes.
So what if there were 36 FBI agents in the crowd? Good for us?
(The crowd should've been arrested before they were ever freed from that building).
When I started teaching in Fairfax county in 1964, a northern Virginia county next to DC, the 4th grade textbook said the south won the war. It was 3 or 4 years later that it was replaced.
Oh my god!
In a way they did. They now control all the levers of power.
OMG!!!
Wow!
Just curious, what did you tell your students about that?
I taught 5th grade. So, believe it or not, I covered slavery. I taught them the truth. We were an integrated county and school. We did lots of activities that went to the struggle of being a slave. There was a great book, To Be A Slave, that I read to the students and we talked about what they heard from the reading and talked about how they saw it in their community and lives.
Thanks Jess. Your observations and thoughts are always welcome.
Yes, I did not know that connection between Dylan Roof’s miseducation-radicalization-terrorism.
I’m in a book club with people that say Americans fought on both sides of the civil war. I always correct them. It was a war between 2 countries, the USA and the CSA. The CSA is the historical enemy of the USA, and their flag is the enemy’s flag.
This "Americans on both sides" interpretation is fueled by fact-gathering institutions. Best example is the universally accepted "fact" that the Civil War was the cause of the greatest number of American casualties than any other war in which we've been involved, because all sources for this question combine the fatalities. Some directly give the data with this explanation "...as Americans were fighting on both sides..." Your point is accurate and interesting and complicated by the fact that the names of both countries ended with "of America." So, correct education on this issue? America is the name of the land mass, not the name of the government.
Thank you. I’ve heard that “fact,” also, and didn’t make the connection. The fact that the CSA was an enemy country fighting against the USA, and the people living there were not US citizens, is a new revelation to me. I’m still in the process of wrapping my head around it.
It’s like a lightbulb went off, and now whenever it comes up, I’m sharing it with everyone.
Of course, you are correct, (North) America is the continent. We are all (North) Americans: Mexico, USA, Canada.
Thank you, again, for your excellent points. I love learning from each other.
Thank you. I came to the US as a 10 year old and had lived in London England. The English referred to our Revolution as a civil war. You are so right to remind us of the confederate story.
Wow, despite many conversations with English friends I had not heard that! Not surprising, I suppose. Russians will no doubt say or teach the same about Ukraine for years to come. Our human ability to understand our conflicts isn't getting better, and the closer the combatants the worse it is.
I am not English, but like you I have never come across this! Here ‘Civil War’ usually means the events of the 1640s.
We use ‘American Civil War’ for your civil war in the 1860s.
Wonderful writing, Jess! In my entire educational life, I was NEVER taught black history. This includes my 4 undergraduate years as a history major and my 1 full year of grad school in history! I didn't learn any black history until my son was in junior high and high school (I helped him study). I live in a southern red state and I am sure that had something to do with it. I really hope education doesn't backslide to that point, but I suspect it will here in the south. Very sad.
Jan, let’s broaden to include all R states not just the southern ones.
Oh. Jess- a thousand thank-yous for writing this piece and sharing it today. This old Canuck had back-to-back meetings yesterday- one with the youth symphony board and the other with our Health Coalition group waging a battle to protect our Canadian public health care system. As you probably know, our conservative provincial government is itching for an election- and our PM has stepped down with the Conservatives' populist pit bull just tugging at his leash for a federal election as soon as possible.
Then I clicked on Breitbart last night to find a wave of exactly what you have written about today - a tsunami of comments telling me to "get over 'my side' losing and once again repeating with dogged assurance the lies that so many brilliant US fact-checkers have tried to dispel. Offering my counter-arguments (with sources cited) I was told that my "arrogant hubris" (pat me on the back for NOT pointing out the tautology) was exactly the reason Democrats like me were defeated. I'll share a few more mood-brighteners:
-The "committee report" was a partisan clown show. They selectively presented evidence to sell a particular narrative, designed to impress people like yourself.
- We paid attention to the terabyte of evidence Nanzi's Inquisition destroyed...
- What a dope you are. Sucker and loser. HBO Films for God’s sake
_ Just think, none of this would’ve happened if thousands of Democrat operatives didn’t load up unguarded ballot boxes with false ballots, when thousands and thousands of operatives didn’t go into nursing homes, homeless shelters and homeless areas and get ballots none of this would’ve happened. What happened to the 17 million voters of 2020 that didn’t vote in 2024?The gig is up.People are going to prison. The amount of people arrested on January 6, 2021 will look like a flea on a frog on a log in a hole at the bottom of the sea compared to J-6.
Jess, even 35 years of teaching high school did not prepare me for ingrained idiocy and meanness like this. It's spreading around the world. How do we talk to these people?
As Jess recently noted (I can't remember the date of the post), farm equipment only has AM radio. Time for some liberal AM stations in rural communities!
Jess got me searching for more info - an article from the Kansas Reporter two years ago: https://kansasreflector.com/2023/01/21/why-do-right-wing-voices-dominate-the-am-dial-decades-of-change-cemented-shift/
Having grown up on a farm (ranch) where no equipment had ever heard of a radio 😏, I hadn't thought of that! It would no doubt be a real influence. Same with non-field work environments where radios are probably often on all day.
Thanks for the link!
You can't talk to them. Read Eric Hoffer's book The True Believer.
It would probably be most appropriate to talk to some of those people in their native language. Do you speak Russian?
Good one! No, only Latvian and German. My parents were the victims of both Nazi and Soviet invasions of World War II. They left everything they had built behind to live in refugee camps and then Canada. They were grateful to America throughout their lives, but also adamant that their children learn history and critical thinking.
Thanks Jess for speaking the truth. I’m 82 years old and can’t believe my eyes of the ignorance that seems to be getting worse. We all must keep speaking up.
Thanks so much, Jess, for another significant and truthful piece that needs to be widely read and heeded!
I grew up and went to school in the 40s - 50s in a small West Texas farming community and then graduated from a nearby Southern Baptist college. I’ve always loved history but I can’t remember ever studying the civil war in any detail. Most of my history knowledge has been gained by reading. Our little community only had two Blacks, a husband and wife who worked on a nearby ranch. Her name was Mary and she was the cook and housekeeper for the owners and his name was Jim, (he was the ranch hand) but everyone called him “N****r Jim…to his face.
I was born on June 18th and when I was six and was with my dad at the local grocery store, when a neighbor farmer said to me, “Jerry Mack. It’s a good thing that you weren’t born a day later (Juneteenth) because if you had, you would have been born a N****r!” Even at my young age, I knew that was wrong. When I was about twelve I asked my dad why the Black kids who lived across the street from the school at our county seat had to ride the Hamlin Colored Consolidated School twenty-five miles away. I said that seemed wrong to me. My dad responded and said “you are right son. But that’s just the way it is.” I have fought against bias, bigotry and hate for all of my life and my success rate in changing people’s minds has been too low (IMHO) but nevertheless continue to try.
Thank you Jess for continuing to fight the good fight.
I was shocked to learn about the 1921 Tulsa Ok race massacre but further horrified that the last 2 living survivors could get justice, We are. not a good country, https://apnews.com/article/tulsa-race-massacre-reparations-lawsuit-racial-injustice-cb616bdc1f57c269b3cec63baecf0008