Lies My Teacher Told Me Chapter 5 'Gone with the Wind'

 This chapter seemed much more relevant to me than Chapter 4 mainly for the reason that racism is something I personally experienced while I was in the states. There was this one time when my family went on a trip and there was a swimming pool. I personally do not remember this for I was so young but my mother has talked to me about how when our family put our feet into the water, this group of 'white people' left the pool. Racism is not over and it is wrenching for me to even hear that American text books consider it as something of the past. Although America is called 'a salad bowl of different races,' 'race is the sharpest and deepest division in American life' as Loewen puts it. 

 In this particular chapter, there were many points that caught my attention but one of them would have to be what is written in the bottom end of page 141. Loewen writes,  'in the fifteen years between 1955 and 1970, however, the civil rights movement destroyed segregation as a formal system in America. The movement did not succeed in transforming America race relations, but it did help African Americans win more power.' I might just be stating the obvious but this part made me wonder about the structure and relationship between the people and the law. Conventionally, it is the people who rule the law but Loewen's remark infers that by changing the law, the people's ideas towards racism slowly changed. Of course the laws will inevitably change according to the era just like the legalizations of gay marriage that is currently being conducted. However, it just makes me think that maybe the laws just might have more power over us than we have over the laws. 

It was very interesting to hear about how the textbooks leave out certain historical events for the sake of not making the white people look bad. This made me wonder if there is anything written in textbooks that make white people feel ashamed of their race or skin color because otherwise,  they would continue to love their culture and the fact that they have always been superior to other races. History could really mentally mess you up. The historical relations between Korea and Japan sometimes gets into my head and makes me feel ashamed of my nationality when I am in front of my Korean friends. I can only imagine how the black people feel about their ancestors being 'used' as slaves. Now, THAT will taunt you and the way you perceive matters. 

This chapter made me realize how history textbooks always(maybe not always but frequently) try to blame a historical event on some kind of group of people. When it is actually their fault or their responsibility, they 'change history' to make themselves look better.

I know this is always the conclusion in my blog entries but in order to get rid of this social stigma that is racism,  we need to renew textbooks into something more neutral and equal. 

We can't ignore that these things actually happened. 

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