Our Past and Our Future

This piece talks about President Donald Trump's "Executive Order on Combating Race and Sex Stereotyping" from 2020. It can be read here.

Donald Trump cites champions of Civil Rights in his executive order while also saying it is wrong to acknowledge the cause they were fighting against. Donald Trump begins his executive order by saying that, because of the valiant fighters in the Civil War and activists such as Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., these figures have worked hard to make sure that America makes progress toward racial equality. Although this is true, and America has made more strides toward racial equality because of these historical figures, Donald Trump takes umbridge on an ideology of teaching America’s history. This ideology is the idea that “divisive concepts”, such as “concepts that (1) one race or sex is inherently superior to another race or sex” is damaging to the American people if taught. This ideology, to him, is “rooted in the pernicious and false belief that America is an irredeemably racist and sexist country; that some people, simply on account of their race or sex, are oppressors”. He defines this concept as “divisive” and if taught, can divide us and “prevent us from uniting as one people in pursuit of one common destiny for our great country”.

It was not as if those at Selma and in the Civil War fought for no reason. These people bravely fought against the very idea that Donald Trump wants stripped of any mention of it from American history and the education of it: the idea that some believed that “one race or sex is inherently superior to another race or sex”. This is the “divisive concept” that Donald Trump

detests and thinks it pushes “a different version of America” when those concepts are the important contexts that have unfortunately governed many historical American events. It is essential to comprehend America's racist past, especially in light of African Americans' struggles, in order to promote empathy and build a more compassionate society. The long-lasting effects of these injustices on African American communities are made clear by delving into the historical background of slavery, Jim Crow legislation, segregation, and continued institutional discrimination. It challenges people to examine their own prejudices and privileges and to critically consider how ubiquitous racial inequity is. Additionally, realizing the historical foundations of racial injustice motivates people to work together to remove structural obstacles and promote racial justice and equity. Recognizing and confronting America's racist past against African Americans might help society progress toward a more compassionate, welcoming, and just future in which everyone's rights and dignity are upheld. However, even acknowledging that one group of people may have been considered unequal to another in the past is against the former President’s wishes.

MY EXPERIENCE

In my own K-12 education, I would not be able to conceive a history class curriculum that is taught without the mention of race. Race, especially the “divisive concept” that is the idea that “one race or sex is inherently superior to another race or sex” is inherent in many historical events, such as in the very examples that Donald Trump gives, such as in the Civil War and in the Jim Crow era. Learning about the Civil War, I remember learning about the hard facts, as my teachers put it - this was a war against slavery. To even comprehend slavery, you must think about the divisive concept that Donald Trump is afraid of – slavery existed because white people thought they were superior to Black people and thought they did not amount to people, just

property. Those who fought in the Civil War did fight valiantly and it is a great example of American perseverance, it was still a war against the notion that Black people were considered property to white people. Donald Trump’s other example, of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., is another great example of Americans overcoming great odds to stand together and fight for equality. I remember sitting in my history class, looking at the pictures of protestors for integration and seeing the hate on their faces and written on their signs – these people wanted to uphold the notion that one race is better than the other and Dr. King’s fight is in direct opposition to this. I remember learning about Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.’s murder and I wondered, in my limited child vocabulary, how hate could be so pervasive and how this could even happen. I am sure that Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. would also wish that the idea that one person is superior to another because of race did not exist, and if that were the case, maybe he would still be just an older, nice, alive reverend and we never would have had to have learned about him.

EVALUATION

Although I wish I could be as naive as Donald Trump and live in a world where racism does not exist and has not ever existed, the truth is that it has. The brave people that have fought against the notion of slavery in the Civil War, including the Black soldiers that fought for their brothers and sisters to be seen as equals and not as property, deserve to have their stories told and recognized. Although America holds a shameful history of racism, it is necessary to recognize it and recognize the efforts that we made to overcome it and work for a better future. Donald Trump wants the recognition and the glory of fighting a battle that... wasn’t a battle? In order to even note how amazing it is that we conquered slavery requires that we recognize that slavery and the assumptions that come along with that, including the notion that some believed that they were better than others based on the color of their skin, exist. To recognize Dr. Martin Luther

King, Jr. as the powerful speaker and leader he was, is to also see that his fight is against the notion that one race is superior to the other, therefore acknowledging that it exists. Sorry, Donald Trump, but these great people that you are quoting fought for there to be a better America, yes, but they also fought against the strong and pervasive notion that was so dominant in America - the idea that one race is superior to another - your “divisive notion” that you detest so deeply.

Donald Trump, the disgraced former President that has surely united us the most, states that learning about an American history where the idea of racism is taught can “prevent us from uniting as one people in pursuit of one common destiny for our great country”. I disagree – I feel that learning about these atrocities and how we worked to overcome them speaks volumes more than if we buried them under the rug. Our common destiny is that we saw these atrocities and decided to do something about them, always changing and moving forward “toward the realization of our national creed” that “all men are created equal”. We are honoring the “courage and sacrifice of our forebears” by learning about the lives they led and the events that they experienced and the iniquities they fought. It strengthens us to learn about this as it prevents us from falling back into the idea that one race is better than another because we are seeing it, pointing it out, and expressing it is an awful sentiment. We deserve a future where the notion of racism truly does not have a place in society and is considered wholly barbaric and deranged to have ever been a concept, but we cannot have that future if we do not recognize its pervasiveness in the past and the way it has shaped us. Gaining an understanding of the hardships and sacrifices made by individuals and movements to combat racism is essential for advancing justice and equality and having a society where racism is a relic of a time long passed and is not simply a forgotten tale. Those who forget the past are doomed to repeat it, and America's heroes did not fight for so long and so hard for the injustices of the past to become the problems of the future.