Chapter 5

This chapter's main focus is racism. Loewen describes how American history classes do cover the issue of racism in length and how in fact they are obsessed with it, however fail to observe it in an objective manner. Meaning that textbooks nowadays still affirm the whole act and regard it as a natural matter of history. It is true how the progress of textbooks to explicate the topic in a fair standpoint can be seen throughout time, as Loewen says "In 1959 my high school textbook presented slavery as not such a bad thing"(137). However, they still omit the whites' involvement in the event. Therefore, the notion of white supremacy still continues to exist within our textbooks and is passed on in high school students' minds in present.

The Americans' obsession with the issue of racism can be seen in many pieces of work. For example, the musical "Hairspray"'s main theme is racial discrimination and segregation. I used to do this musical for my club when I was in high school. Another example is the novel "The Help", which was my topic for my book review for this class. The most memorable piece of work of all times has been the TV-miniseries"Roots". I watched this particular film in my American history class in Spain, and it gave me a huge impact leaving enormous footprints in my mind. These are just a few examples of the numerous pieces of entertainment that focuses on racism. I suppose that students should rely more on these as alternative sources to gain rational information other than just high school textbooks.

CC image courtesy of  墨琳 on flickr