{"id":52490,"date":"2023-07-23T13:59:24","date_gmt":"2023-07-23T20:59:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/?p=52490"},"modified":"2023-07-23T13:59:24","modified_gmt":"2023-07-23T20:59:24","slug":"everyday-erinyes-380","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/2023\/07\/23\/everyday-erinyes-380\/","title":{"rendered":"Everyday Erinyes #380"},"content":{"rendered":"

Experts in autocracies have pointed out that it is, unfortunately, easy to slip into normalizing the tyrant, hence it is important to hang on to outrage. These incidents which seem to call for the efforts of the Greek Furies (Erinyes) to come and deal with them will, I hope, help with that. As a reminder, though no one really knows how many there were supposed to be, the three names we have are Alecto<\/span><\/strong>, Megaera<\/span><\/strong>, and Tisiphone<\/strong><\/span>. These roughly translate as “unceasing,” “grudging,” and “vengeful destruction.”<\/p>\n

Ameican History has probably never been taught as the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth in our K-12 schools – it certainly has not been done in my lifetime, and I was in K-12 in a fairly rational time and in a fairly rational community (as college towns tend to be.) But no one alive today has ever seen such a travesty of American history as is being taught today in Florida. That is ironic, as you will see in this article; it was South Carolina and specifically Charleston which was in the “slaves” corner of the triangle trade. And some of the slaves received in Charleston escaped, or attempted to escape, to Florida, which then belonged to Spain. But now it is in Charleston where the Internatinal African-American Museum has been founded, one of its goals being to set the record straight.
\n==============================================================<\/p>\n

International African American Museum in Charleston, S.C., pays new respect to the enslaved Africans who landed on its\u00a0docks<\/h1>\n
One of the exhibits of notable Black people on display at International African American Museum.
\ncourtesy of v2com\/International African American Museum<\/a><\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Bernard Powers<\/a>, College of Charleston<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

Before Congress ended the transatlantic slave trade<\/a> in 1808, the Port of Charleston was the nation\u2019s epicenter<\/a> of human trafficking.<\/p>\n

Almost half of the estimated 400,000 African people imported into what became the United States were brought to that Southern city, and a substantial number<\/a> took their first steps on American soil at Gadsden\u2019s Wharf<\/a> on the Cooper River.<\/p>\n

That location of once utter degradation is now the hallowed site of the International African American Museum<\/a>. Pronounced \u201cI Am\u201d and opened in June 2023<\/a>, the US$120 million project financed by state and local funds and private donations was 25 years in the making and is a memorial to not only those enslaved but also those whose lives as free Black Americans affected U.S. history and society through their fight for full citizenship rights.<\/p>\n

As a historian<\/a> and founding director of the College of Charleston\u2019s Center for the Study of Slavery<\/a> in Charleston, I served as the museum\u2019s interim executive director and know firsthand how difficult the road has been to build a museum focused on African American history.<\/p>\n

The museum\u2019s mission is to honor the untold stories of the African American journey and, by virtue of its location and landscape design, pay reverence to the ground on which it sits.<\/p>\n

America\u2019s widespread historical illiteracy<\/h2>\n

Many Americans don\u2019t know much about the nation or its history.<\/p>\n

In the 2022 \u201cNation\u2019s Report Card<\/a>,\u201d the National Assessment of Educational Progress revealed ongoing deficiencies in eighth grade students\u2019 knowledge<\/a> of U.S. history and civics.<\/p>\n

Only 20% of test-takers scored proficient or above in civics, and, for American history, only 13% achieved proficiency.<\/p>\n

The adult population shows similar deficits.<\/p>\n

A 2018 Woodrow Wilson National Fellowship Foundation<\/a> survey shockingly revealed only 36% of people who were born in the U.S.<\/a> knew enough basic American history and government to pass the citizenship test.<\/p>\n

And conservative political candidates<\/a> are working to prevent current students from learning key information about the country\u2019s founding and development by mischaracterizing the teaching of slavery and civil rights as critical race theory<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\"A
An advertisement details the auction sale of 25 enslaved Black people at Ryan\u2019s Mart in Charleston, S.C., on Sept. 25, 1852.<\/span>
\nKean Collection\/Archive Photos\/Getty Images<\/a><\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Though critical race theory is typically taught in graduate and law schools, at least 36<\/a> states had banned or tried to ban lessons on Black history from public K-12 classrooms.<\/p>\n

In this highly politicized environment, efforts to restrict how race can be discussed in public schools have led to widespread calls from parents and politicians<\/a> for the censorship of certain books on race.<\/p>\n

These new restrictions have had an impact on public education, according to the National Council for History Education<\/a>.<\/p>\n

A 2022 survey of teachers<\/a> conducted by the Rand Corp.<\/a> showed the restrictions \u201cinfluenced their choice of curriculum materials or instructional practices,\u201d as many \u201cchose to or were directed to omit the use of certain materials\u201d deemed \u201ccontroversial or potentially offensive.\u201d<\/p>\n

South Carolinians\u2019 overlooked national impact<\/h2>\n

One of the first things visitors see at the museum is an African Ancestors Memorial Garden<\/a>, which includes a graphic stone relief depicting captive Africans during the Middle Passage<\/a>.<\/p>\n

But the museum is not just a memorial site of enslavement.<\/p>\n

Exhibits show how the lives of Black people and their resistance to enslavement helped shape state, national and international affairs.<\/p>\n

For example, South Carolina\u2019s 1739 Stono Rebellion<\/a>, in which fugitive slaves attempted to escape to Spanish Florida, precipitated conflict between Spain and Great Britain.<\/p>\n

\"An
An exhibit detailing African people\u2019s migration around the Atlantic.<\/span>
\ncourtesy of v2com\/International African American Museum<\/a><\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Many Americans know about white abolitionist John Brown\u2019s 1859 attack<\/a> against the federal arsenal at Harpers Ferry, Virginia, which led to the Civil War.<\/p>\n

But few know that Shields Green<\/a>, a South Carolina fugitive slave, assisted in the planning and execution of the fateful attack.<\/p>\n

Even fewer know of South Carolina\u2019s role<\/a> in the Civil Rights Movement.<\/p>\n

Many know the name Rosa Parks, but it was Charleston\u2019s educator and activist Septima Clark<\/a> who inspired Parks and led the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.\u2019s Southern educational and voting rights initiatives.<\/p>\n

In fact, King once called Clark<\/a> \u201cthe mother of the movement\u201d and considered her to be<\/a> a \u201ccommunity teacher, an intuitive fighter for human rights and leader of her unlettered and disillusioned people.\u201d<\/p>\n

A monument to freedom<\/h2>\n

The museum\u2019s educational goals are ambitious.<\/p>\n

It is an interdisciplinary history museum, where educators plan to work with teachers and administrators around the world to make sure students in American schools \u2013 and everyone who lives in the U.S. today and in the future \u2013 learns about South Carolina\u2019s significant role in U.S. history.<\/p>\n

In my view, that collaboration will likely be challenging, given the efforts to sanitize the nation\u2019s racial history and teachers\u2019 apprehensions about teaching supposedly controversial subjects.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is a site of trauma,\u201d Tonya Matthews, CEO and president of the museum, told CBS News<\/a>. \u201cBut look who\u2019s standing here now. That\u2019s what makes it a site of joy, and triumph.\u201d<\/p>\n

Indeed, the International African American museum is, by design, a monument to freedom \u2013 and an honest engagement with America\u2019s troubled racial past.\"The<\/p>\n

Bernard Powers<\/a>, Professor of History Emeritus, College of Charleston<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

This article is republished from The Conversation<\/a> under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article<\/a>.<\/p>\n

==============================================================
\nAlecto<\/span><\/strong>, Megaera<\/span><\/strong>, and Tisiphone<\/strong><\/span>, literally the only way we can get even the smallest glimpse of the future is by looking at the (unvarnished) past in order to understand how this happening led to that happening, and so on. Anyone unable to do that will live in delusion. Disney may have built a “Fantasyland,” but DeSantis is the one who is actually living (and forcing Florida’s children to live) in a Fantasyland which is certain to eventually come crashing down around them. Anything you can do to help prevent that happening to the children will be most appreciated. I wouldn’t worry or bother about DeSantis. He’s old enough to know better. He’s welcome to FAFO.<\/p>\n

The Furies and I will be back.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Experts in autocracies have pointed out that it is, unfortunately, easy to slip into normalizing the tyrant, hence it is important to hang on to outrage. These incidents which seem to call for the efforts of the Greek Furies (Erinyes) to come and deal with them will, I hope, help with that. As a reminder, […]<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":50366,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[3915,3729,3866,3748],"class_list":["post-52490","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-politics","tag-education","tag-furies","tag-history","tag-racism","category-5-id","post-seq-1","post-parity-odd","meta-position-corners","fix"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/52490","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=52490"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/52490\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/50366"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=52490"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=52490"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=52490"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}