No matter where you look - high school history books, online U.S. history sites, or even specific gender and ethnic history sources - there is one group that is at the center of all American history, and that group is the white male.
As an experiment, I looked up various gender and ethnic groups online, using various search engines in an attempt to find resources that would inform me of famous or notable historical figures for each grouping. What I found was difficult to stomach. The number of sites that discussed or listed or provided biographical or historical information on white males was nearly ten times that of any other group. Even sites dedicated to specific minority groups provided nowhere near the excess of information as sites dedicated to white males. One particularly startling discovery was that Asian males seemed to represent the amount of lowest available information for any one group. Even one site I visited that boasted itself as a site dedicated to famous Asian men had only four entries.
Whether the group was male, female, African-American, Asian, Hispanic, or Native American, if the group wasn't white male there never seemed to be adequate access to in depth biographical or historical information.
Our history seems to be solely centered on the white male. Whether reading about the conquest of the indigenous peoples who lived here before us, or reading about the "important" figures in "significant" events in our history, the white male dominates all areas. Is it any wonder that there has never been a woman president or that it has taken us until two years ago that we had a president that wasn't a white male? Is it any wonder that our history books are primarily centered on white males with all other groups as figures on the horizon, on the outside looking in? Why has it taken so long for women to gain any level of recognition as deserving of the same rights as men? And what about minority groups? Even today we still see issues of racism and sexism embedded in our laws and social norms. We see imbalance of pay, imbalance of opportunities for advancement, and imbalance of fair treatment by the dominant white male. Is it any wonder that history has brought us here? What of the real history of groups outside the realm of the white male? As my research has shown, the access to any sort of detailed information regarding the history of these marginalized groups is slim to none. White women have perhaps the second most historical information, followed closely by African-American men and then African-American women. Beyond these groups, the disparity is startling. Hispanic, Native American, and Asian men and women only really appear in any relevance when they are shown as they relate to the historical perspectives of white males. Beyond this, there is little else readily available.
Perhaps the only way to explain this censoring of the history of marginalized groups is as a way for white males to control and oppress these groups. If history told the full story or re-centered the story, perhaps there would be more propensity for equality. Perhaps white males would be just another subcategory of America's wealth of ethnic groups. Perhaps many atrocities could have been avoided if white males had not controlled and oppressed and marginalized groups outside of their exclusive club.
A great re-centering needs to take place in order for any levelling of perspective is to occur. Even if the historical information does not exist to do justice to those groups marginalized by those systems controlled by the oppressive regime of white males, history books and school books need to make an effort to re-center our understanding of these groups. Marginalized groups ought not to be mere decorations on the landscape of white male history, but deserve their own adequate representation in history - their history, their perspective.
Questions:
1. What group do you think has received the least coverage in terms of their perspective on American history?
2. What can be done to rectify the marginalizing of these groups?
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One of the groups to receive little coverage would be, to my knowledge, Asian and Middle Eastern. I cannot recall extensive teachings of these groups. Integrating these groups into grade school curriculums could assist in rectifying the situation.
ReplyDeleteI think that the group that has received the least amount of coverage would be Asian. I do not remember being taught about Asian history at all in my schooling. I would have to say that I think the Middle Eastern group also has not received extensive coverage - the bulk of the coverage they received after 9/11. I think that if we were to include units of study that were focused on these groups we would be able to learn a great deal more about them.
ReplyDeleteI agree, I think the group that has had the least coverage is Asian. When I was looking up people of each ethnicity I couldn't find anything on any Asian women, and the men I knew I remembered from movies. To rectify this the United States could add more about their culture and history to the school curriculum or mention this country on the news. Also, people could talk about the Asian Americans on the news and how they have helped form this country.
ReplyDeleteI think the group that has gotten the least and yet, most coverage is Middle East. When I was trying to answer questions about them, I drew a complete blank. I could not think of anyone! I think this is because they are just not discussed very often. When they are discussed, however, it is almost always negative. People associate them with September 11th and the war we are in right now and never think of them in a positive way. I don't think that we are going to be able to change this view until the war is over. I think many people have seen so many negative feelings about them that they have a stereotype and are unable to change it. When the war is over, we will not look at them as much as "the enemy" and we will probably have more of an understanding concerning this race.
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