Will the culture wars erase history?

At what cost?

If the phrase, “It is what it is,” applies to anything, it would be history. We can’t change it. But we can learn from it.

I’ve lived a long life (82 years) and learned a few things along the way. My opinions have changed over time — in significant, not subtle ways. Reading, listening, thinking, and experiencing life have all brought me to a better understanding of the world. Much of what I learned was from history.

It’s one thing to rewrite a history book, explaining or adding to it if it didn’t include important facts. Educators also have a specific challenge when they choose textbooks. What I’m talking about is criticizing creative works of any kind written in or about a prior time. Those works reflect the thinking, the culture, the attitudes of that era. As such, we have something to learn from these things.

A fellow writer and friend of mine recently wrote a piece about being offended about a story another woman had written. The story was about the author’s childhood — when she was about five — and played “cowboys and Indians,” that being the phrase that brought offense. Since I had edited the story, and was aware of the disturbing phrase, I’ve given it a lot of thought.

My friend and I viewed the complete story differently. The story writer questioned the mores of the culture of the time when she said: “The dynamics of these things still intrigue me, fifty years later, wise to the lies of history. How was it that female stereotypes trumped both cultures? Why were we so sure that a noble enemy still deserved to lose? Was it only that “they” were not “us”? And is that not the basis of war from time immemorial?”

Darn good questions, I thought. Thought-provoking. The story illustrated for me how the biases of that time — that we learned from others and from movies — played out in children’s games. I don’t believe that story could be told without that phrase, so if that is to be eliminated, then is the author’s story to be erased from the culture?

An article in the July 20, 2020 New Yorker magazine by Jill Lepore called “The Invention of the Police” says, “What became the Chicano movement began in Southern California, with Mexican immigrants’ protests of the L.A.P.D. during the first half of the twentieth century, even as a growing film industry cranked out features about Klansmen hunting Black people, cowboys killing Indians, and police chasing Mexicans.” We need to be reminded of these events.

I recently watched “The United States versus Billie Holliday,” a difficult movie to see. It’s painful when Holliday gets kicked around, slapped, and mistreated in many ways by both white and black men. The FBI targeted her in specific ways, endeavoring to shut down her performances all together. Club owners and others in power over her told her not to sing, “Strange Fruit,” a song about a lynching. She knew it was important that it be sung.

Statues are a different matter. While we have choices about what movies we watch, books we read, or songs we sing or listen to, statues are placed in the public square, denoting a hero, an acknowledgement that this person did something worthwhile and important in the long run. As such, they deserve special scrutiny. Do they still represent our values? Are they the best representatives from their time?

Few women have statues in the public square. For most of history, white males have dominated the culture — most cultures in the world. They made the choices that impact us all. That’s what we are dealing with here. How do we correct the errors of centuries?

I question the removal of statues of people such as George Washington and Abraham Lincoln — who played a significant role in history — because they did other things that we find offensive in today’s environment. And should have been objectionable at the time. But history is an evolving story. Not until the United States — with its flaws — was established was there a constitution anywhere in the world that spoke so directly to the rights of the people, to freedom of speech, press, assembly, and more. The Magna Carta of 1215 was a precursor to the rights Americans laid claim to.

I’m quite aware of the large influence white supremacy has played in this country, of the prejudices that still exist, and the work that needs to be done. I came out of that culture, moved purposefully away from it by reading and learning about the past.

Adults are free to choose what influences them. Educators do have to think about the texts they choose for children to read. They need to be prepared to discuss why, for example, we think Mark Twain worth reading, even though he used words we wouldn’t use today.

Let’s learn from history, rather than erasing it.