I moved from the suburbs of Chicago to a small town in Tennessee the summer before 8th grade. When I opened my U.S. History textbook, I noticed something weird. My TN textbook detailed the Civil War in complete contrast to my IL textbook. It sounded like a totally separate event.
It was the first time I ever heard the Civil War referred to as “The War of Northern Agression.”
It was the first time I ever heard the phrase “The South will rise again.”
It was the first time someone had ever called me a “Yankee” and meant it as an insult.
Back then, I thought to myself,
“What did they mean, ‘the South will rise again?’ Rise to WHAT? Slavery?? What could the southern states possibly be holding a grudge about and why is there so much animosity around this war that clearly made America better?”
In Illinois, U.S. History was taught in 7th grade. In Tennessee, it was taught in 8th grade. What I thought would be a “repeat” course felt like an entirely different course altogether.
And I was baffled by the charged emotion around the Civil War.
My first go-round at U.S. History, there was no visceral emotion around the Civil War.
My second go-round, everyone seemed bitter and vengeful against “the North.”
The system —
the one that perpetuates and upholds racism our institutions —
was doing just that.
I was shocked.
The first time I saw a giant Confederate flag mounted in the back of a pickup truck, I was horrified.
They might as well be flying a swastika.*
Why was no one stopping them?!
I felt like I had stepped back in time.
*this was well before emboldened Americans did just that
I often think about how students in southern states and students in northern states are likely learning our country’s history out of completely different textbooks.
And it’s still jarring to me, as it was all those years ago.
But it does explain a lot.
About our division...
About how deeply rooted systemic racism really is.
How it’s never just “one bad apple” or one racist comment or a single microaggression or poorly written policy.
Somewhere along the way,* racism was built into these systems on purpose.
*literally at America’s inception
I don’t think all southerners are racists or all northerners are abolitionists.
That would be both foolish and presumptuous.
I think we are all complicit in unjust, racist systems.
And I think it’s up to all of us to expose + confront these systems as we bear witness to them.
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