With SB 683 our schools would teach a curriculum of history based on racism. The plan is to make it part of the 1619 project which celebrates the arrival of the first slaves in North America. SB 683 was introduced by Senators Lew Frederick (D-Portland) and Rob Wagner (D-Lake Oswego).

Why don’t they teach a true history of racism? Begin with the Egyptians, the Greeks, the Romans, the Arabic lands, India, isolated empirical China and Japan then follow it to its expansion into the America’s with some historical context.

Why would the curriculum begin near the historical end of slavery in 1619 and not include 5500 years of earlier activity? Perhaps the reason is political. Some think it is nothing more than revised history by omission.

Slavery didn’t start in the U.S. It all but ended here. In Oregon the native tribes held rendezvous at Celilo Falls and Willamette Falls into the time of the white man’s arrival. The Modoc tribe would sell Paiute prisoners into slavery at those annual gatherings. One slave for a horse or three blankets. Mexican cartels sell young girls into slavery currently and that sex trade has accelerated with more border crossings facilitated under our new administration. In many Muslim countries today, women are second class citizens living lives tantamount to slavery. China has slave labor camps to reprogram nonconforming religious and dissident citizens. We are told those are OK because it is a cultural thing.

A D V E R T I S E M E N T

A D V E R T I S E M E N T

The industrial Revolution did more to end slavery than any other single event. When machines were invented that did more work of a reliable quality than humans could do the economic necessity for slavery was gone. Why don’t schools teach our kids that it was President Thomas Jefferson that banned the importation of slaves in 1809? Maybe the course should examine the slavery that controls the actions of people once they are made to be economically and psychologically dependent on government.

The greatest deterrent to slavery is a population that believes in the pursuit of self-sufficiency. What are we doing to teach self-sufficiency?

Photo by Dean Franklin


--Tom Hammer

Post Date: 2021-03-05 17:53:41

Last Update: 2021-03-05 18:17:56