Yesterday, my daughter and I went to Historic Jamestowne, where she works. I'd not had a chance to tour the place since our move here in December, and when she finally had a Saturday off, we decided to go.
The weather blessed us with a beautiful day - sun, a cool breeze, and temps hovering around 80 degrees. We walked around the site, marveling at the monuments commemorating the first English settlement in America (1607), the reconstructed buildings, the original foundations, and the plethora of artifacts recovered through dedicated, passionate archaeologists.
But I enjoyed listening to the historical interpreters the most. One, a Native American of the Algonquin tribe, educated us on why the colonists chose this particular part of America to settle, of how they saw his people as "savages," of how his people tried to be welcoming of these boastful and yes, bigoted white people.
And as I listened to him share how his people used and honored the land, how they saw men and women as equal in their society, and how they only wanted to share this land, I became angry at my education.
I was not taught that Indigenous peoples were intelligent and incredible, more than capable of creating a rich, cultured society that needed absolutely no interference from holier-than-thou Europeans. That was not the narrative. Instead, I was taught that the Europeans were "civilizing" these people, seeing it as their duty to bring them to Christ (indeed, the charter for the Jamestown colony included an important goal - to convert the natives to Christianity and the Church of England), and educating them on the "right" ways to live.
The damage colonizing has done to Indigenous peoples around the world just...sigh. I can't wrap my head around it.
But for me to have to view that history through a white-centric, patriarchal gaze for all of my educational years, and for much of my life through the continued white-gaze of books, television shows, documentaries, etc. - enrages me. I've been in a constant state of de-programming myself from this, and it's something I have to confront every time I find myself in a museum or watching a historical drama or reading a history book, or whatever.
It boils down to this: white, European colonizers thought they were better than other people: better educated, better cultured, just better. And that idea hasn't gone anywhere. In fact, it is more prevalent than ever as we deal with anti-immigration sentiment in America and Europe. Right-wing idiots claim that Native Americans are not native to America because millions of years ago, their people crossed the Bering Straight. These people are so scared of no longer being the dominant race that they're twisting themselves into knots trying to justify their stances. White people are the most fragile, fearful people on the planet. The attack on the Smithsonian by the current presidential administration for showing "how bad slavery was" incenses me to my core. And again, we have people on the right claiming that it was actually a good thing that Africans were stolen from their lands and brought to America to be "civilized," to be beaten and abused and to endure horrific tortures, with no bodily autonomy, with no freedom to make their own decisions, rather than stay in "savage" Africa. People who try to reframe slavery as a "moral good" are delusional, trying to justify their racism and white supremacy. That's exactly what it is.
I blame the American education system for much of this, but also the American ideal itself. The idea of Manifest Destiny did untold harm on our society, shaping a narrative that said we deserved to take land away from the Indigenous because it was our glorious destiny to do so.
What a load of crap.
That the right wants to resurrect and embrace this despicable heritage again says volumes about who they are, and none of it is good.
And this, THIS, is why the humanities is important. It's why we need places like Historic Jamestowne and the Smithsonian and other museums and historic sites to engage us in difficult conversations. (That many museums/sites have thankfully moved away from the white-centric perspective is a good thing, but many have a ways to go to incorporate Indigenous, Black, and women's perspectives, among others). It's why we need people passionate about telling the truth about history - like the historic interpreters at Jamestowe, historians, park rangers, and others.
I wasn't expecting to have this reaction after my day yesterday, but I'm so glad I did. That is what history is for - to challenge us and educate us. We may not like what it tells us about our country and about ourselves, but we need to listen and learn. Unfortunately, our administrations sees this as "woke" (how can the truth be woke?!?) and is trying to destroy it at every turn.
We must now allow it. We must fight back. We must resist.
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