Contrary to popular belief, American history isn't perfect. Our government has done some ridiculously horrible things and covered them up so well that most of us are never taught about them. From Japanese internment camps to using weapons of mass destruction on children's hospitals, America has made some gruesome mistakes that no one seems to talk about.
1. The government held and arrested "potential domestic enemies" during WWII.
Okay so this is one that you may have learned about in school, but I bet you weren't told exactly what was going on. After the Japanese bombing of Pearl Harbor, the American government evacuated 120,000 Japanese individuals (62 percent of them were born in America by the way!) and forced them into internment camps. It gets worse. There were also 4,058 Germans, 2,264 Japanese, and 288 Italians taken from 13 Latin American countries and put in an internment camp in Texas. That's right, the United States government took people out of other countries. Internees were traded for Americans (typically diplomats, soldiers, the wealthy) who were trapped behind enemy borders during the war.
Although these internment camps were nothing like the horrors of the WWII concentration camps, they weren't comfy bed and breakfasts either. People's homes were raided and they were taken in the night. They worked tirelessly for an extremely low wage, and many were killed by the conditions or American soldiers. Let's also remember what America did to Japan itself by killing thousands of civilians with atomic bombs. The only thing I learned about that in history class was that America ended the war.
2. The government let poor black men die of a disease that had a cure.
The sexually transmitted disease syphilis, which is cured by penicillin, was raging during the Great Depression. The Tuskegee Study was supposed to offer free medical examinations and medical care for people with "bad blood" (yeah, they weren't even told they had syphilis) and provide them with burial insurance in case they could not cure them. The infected received no treatment for the disease. They were experimented on to see how the disease progressed and how it affected people who were infected. The researchers gave them several painful "treatments" that provided no benefit for the victims. People died, people's wives and kids were infected and no one was even aware they could have been cured. Oh, and every single participant was black. President Clinton apologized for this in 1972, 40 years after it started.
This is only one of the many horrible and deadly acts of racism, but also one of the many government-funded science experiments against the poor and marginalized. It also wasn't the only time that the government ignored the deadly effects of a sexually transmitted disease that affected marginalized groups. Remember the AIDS epidemic anyone?
3. Americans literally helped destroy Yemen.
Yemen is a Middle Eastern country that is dealing with a ghastly civil war between Iran-backed Houthi rebels and Saudi-backed government loyalists. Besides horrifying bombings and attacks and a devastating cholera outbreak, Yemen is also dealing with a deadly famine. This famine is not caused by any natural phenomena such as drought or agricultural failures, rather by the violence itself. For over two years now, the Saudi Arabian military (with the help of guess who!) has held a blockade on where 90 percent of food in Yemen comes from. Saudi Arabia has destroyed hospitals and water systems, essentially using the poverty of the nation against them. There are mass amounts of civilian casualties almost daily.
Well, where do you think these weapons came from? You guessed it: the United States sold them! To make it short and sweet, essentially what happened was that after realizing (much later might I add) that this was happening, President Obama halted sales. In June, the Senate passed a bill that essentially continues the sale of weapons and further involves us in the carnage of Yemen.
But how bad is this situation in Yemen, really? The United Nations recently
4. One of our founding fathers was a legitimate pervert.
Besides the fact that human remains from the same time he lived there were found in his house, Benjamin Franklin is actually a huge creep, and no one ever talks about it. He once wrote a letter to one of his friends about how older women are the best sexual partners because they are more discreet, less likely to get pregnant and more experienced. He also said you'll feel less guilty getting with an older woman as opposed to deflowering a young, beautiful woman. He continued by basically saying that women age from the top down and that all women are the same from the waist down anyway.
He was also really close with Francis Dashwood, who was the founder of the Medmenham Monks, which is essentially a really kinky orgy club. People are pretty convinced he was in the club and was doing all these really weird sexual things in his 70s. There are a ton of reports of him sexually harassing women, having affairs in really weird scenarios, and cheating on his wife. The man on our $100 bill was a creepy old man.
5. The government intentionally poisoned American citizens.
Besides the civil injustice in Flint, Michigan (which, by the way, is still happening), poisonous drinks hurting huge numbers of people has happened before. This time, it was at the government's hands. When we think of the 1920's and the Prohibition era we think of flappers, glamorous speakeasies, silent movies and cool mobsters. The Prohibition period got a little darker than our history books told us. The federal government went as far as poisoning the alcohol supply that most bootleggers used. At least 10,000 people, although lawbreakers, died by the government's hand directly.
Before you go ahead and use your blind patriotism to attack me for being unAmerican, please let me explain. I am in no way trying to attack the government. If I'm attacking anything it's the school system, but I digress. We are not the only country who has committed mass atrocities in its history. In fact, literally all countries have. I just think there can be a case made for how well we hide this dark history. I am incredibly proud to be an American, but it blows my mind how I went through 12 years of formal schooling without ever talking about these things.
Stay woke ladies and gentlemen. Our history isn't as squeaky-clean as you think.
