What do you remember from your elementary history class? Columbus, happy Indians, the colonies, pioneers, missions, cowboys, the Great Plains, maybe the Mexican-American War, the French-American War… Does this sound about right? What about middle school history? The Mesopotamians, African tribes, slavery, the Egyptians, evolutionary theory, the Constitution, the Founding Fathers, the Bill of Rights, the Civil War... What about high school? “World Religions,” European History, more US History, American economics and government?
In the American education system kids are required to learn about American history from the side of the white conqueror and about European history from the side of the powerful Europeans (British, French, German), and a fraction about the rest of the world from the perspective of colonialism and Imperialistic powers. Can you honestly say that you know about Middle Eastern, Asian, African, Eastern European, and South American history? Probably not. However, those nations can likely say that they know about our history. In many other, less powerful countries, children are required to learn about American history and the ways in which America has affected the history of other countries.
The approach of Americans to the history and cultures of other countries and peoples is through the lens of the white man’s perspective. In other words, we don’t learn on the basis of truth and objectivity but on the basis of perspective and bias. Our children are taught what the American government wants them to know of the world, and many of us go our entire lives without knowing what it’s truly like in other places. This selective learning is detrimental not only to the knowledge of the American people, but also to the people whose stories aren’t being told, whose voices aren’t being heard, and who are suffering without aid and without compassion.
The first time I discovered how little we’re taught about the world was in my freshman year of college. I was taking a seminar for the Humanities Scholar Program I’m in at the University of the Pacific in Stockton, CA, when I was handed the graphic novel Persepolis by Marjane Satrapi. The book follows the story of a young girl, Marjane herself, throughout her childhood and into her young adult years as she lived through the Islamic Revolution in the Middle East, specifically Iran, though she does travel throughout the years. While reading this novel, I realized that I’d never learned anything about the Islamic Revolution or about the history of Iran in general. I knew nothing about Middle Eastern culture except for the American associations we’ve stamped on them. At that moment, I decided that I would try to enlighten people about the views and cultures of those who almost always get overlooked.
The following year I took a course entitled Asian American Literature. I’ve always been interested in Asian history and culture, but it wasn’t until I started looking at the novels assigned for this course that I discovered that I’d never read anything by an Asian author. I’d never looked at history or narrative through their perspective, only through the perspective of the master narrative. After reading the stories of Vietnamese refugees, after looking through the eyes of a young Filipina servant working for a dominant Spanish master, I could no longer stand the way immigrants and refugees are discussed here.
How can we possibly discuss their rights to a normal, safe life, their rights to go to a place where they can prosper and add to our economy, when we force ourselves into their land and their culture? How can we discuss their rights when we don’t even treat them as people? Who made us the dictators of a world full of people whom we know little to nothing about?
Now, you can argue that just because I knew nothing about those events and perspectives doesn’t mean that it’s the same for most Americans. To this argument I say: watch a documentary. Take a survey. Ask those you know and love. This lack of knowledge and lack of understanding is an epidemic in culturally dominant countries like America and Western Europe. I’m not calling for a revolution or some type of Eureka moment like I experienced, just for the ears of the people. I’m asking for the recognition that there is a knowledge gap and that it does affect the world. I’m asking for compassion and open-mindedness. Though this may seem like a tall order for many, it’s worth the thought.
A common concept in the field of anthropology is that of ethnocentrism, which refers to the imposition of our view of the world on other countries. Simply put, we only understand things through our own set standards and cultural norms. This type of thinking leads to the belief that other cultures’ practices are “wrong” or “odd.” The main excuse for world powers going into “poorer” or “foreign” countries is that we must educate them and teach them the proper way to be "civilized." While this is actually a false reason told to the people of these Imperialistic powers to justify their heinous actions, it is also an ethnocentric excuse that demonstrates oppression.
For instance, the American people were told that our military was sent into Iraq to liberate the people there and to stomp out terrorism before it had the chance to reach other parts of the world-- namely our own country. However, the true reason we went into Iraq, as some people know, was to regain power over the oil mines there and disassemble the non-cooperative government. Our involvement in the Iraq government and the group Al-Qaeda created a vacuum that allowed other terrorist groups, such as the current ISIS organization, to form due to a lack of government control and both civil and religious unrest.
Similarly, during WWII and especially after the attack on Pearl Harbor, the American people were told that the Japanese were our enemy. Not the Japanese military or the Japanese government that resided thousands of miles away in Japan, but all people with any relation to the Japanese culture or ethnicity. This caused the unjust internment of thousands of Japanese-Americans, all of whom were already citizens of this country and none of whom were found guilty of any form of treason or conspiracy.
Not only did this prove the American need for power, but also the discrimination enforced upon those who do not meet the ideal of a white citizen. Do you know the stories of those people? The toll such treatment took on them? Do you care to know? Facts like these are not taught to our children and this leads them to grow up thinking that discrimination and inhumane treatment is either nonexistent in America or that it is fair. It leads them to create these made-up images of what is foreign and what is wrong.
The lack of knowledge on the part of the American citizens isn't even the worst part of all this; rather, it’s the effects on the people who we fail to talk about. Without knowledge of the past we cannot fix our mistakes, so we can’t properly prepare for the future. If people don’t understand what’s happened and don’t recognize that it isn’t right, then nothing will change and history will repeat itself.
We as Americans preach about progress, about our knowledge, about our superiority. Where is the progress if nothing changes? Where is the knowledge without the discovery? Who is there to say what’s superior or not? It all begins when we’re six years old, learning about the hero Columbus and the friendly Indians he saved.
