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Texas Boards of Education publish separate racist history textbooks.

Mindmaster

Well-Known Member
Premium Member
No, you cannot depend on only one source on such highly contentious matters, but it also unethical and immoral to try and rewrite history to justify a racist Southern agenda. One big fact your ignoring is slavery did not end with the end of the Civil War.

What was refer to in this edited text are undeniable historical facts of widespread racism in America, based on a racist and religious agenda. If there are more facts that need to be addressed bring them up and we will discuss them

Slavery in America did, though I'd say it wasn't completely equal in any way, in terms of rights, at that juncture... Slavery in the rest of the world did not and still exists all over the Middle-East and Africa.

There is racism everywhere where people live and breathe and despite that we're still here. BTW, I find it completely amusing that our history books don't talk about Dixiecrats or their relationship to Jim Crow and other nastiness. :D Or, how the Confederates were mostly Dems -- anyway, it just let's you know who is writing the books. :D
 

Subduction Zone

Veteran Member
Slavery in America did, though I'd say it wasn't completely equal in any way, in terms of rights, at that juncture... Slavery in the rest of the world did not and still exists all over the Middle-East and Africa.

There is racism everywhere where people live and breathe and despite that we're still here. BTW, I find it completely amusing that our history books don't talk about Dixiecrats or their relationship to Jim Crow and other nastiness. :D Or, how the Confederates were mostly Dems -- anyway, it just let's you know who is writing the books. :D
Actually @shunyadragon is right. The Emancipation Proclamation only freed slaves in the South. Kentucky and Delaware did not leave the union and slavery there was not banned until the Thirteenth Amendment passed. After the Civil War:

Slavery in the United States - Wikipedia
 

HonestJoe

Well-Known Member
Actually no, the specific facts edited and omitted by the Texas editors of the textbooks are facts of American history and not opinions.
The article makes it clear that the boards from both states requested edits to the standard textbook. None of the changes appear to render the text false and all versions (even the original) will include and exclude some facts and present events from a particular viewpoint or with a particular spin (even unintentionally). The changes from both states clearly seek to reference or emphasise particular facts in each case and inevitably change those viewpoints and spin. The impression of evil Texas being a special case and honest California following the standard is simply false.
 

shunyadragon

shunyadragon
Premium Member
The article makes it clear that the boards from both states requested edits to the standard textbook. None of the changes appear to render the text false and all versions (even the original) will include and exclude some facts and present events from a particular viewpoint or with a particular spin (even unintentionally). The changes from both states clearly seek to reference or emphasise particular facts in each case and inevitably change those viewpoints and spin. The impression of evil Texas being a special case and honest California following the standard is simply false.


By the actual very recent historical evidence many of the edits required by Texas rendered the text false, in particular the exclusion of the blacks from new housing for up to thirty years after WW II, and exclusion for second resale of homes in these developments.. You need to not only read the article carefully, but also make yourself more aware of 'honest' accurate history. This is actually not new older text books contained many errors of 'political correctness,' to justify our racist past.

Please specifically demonstrate that the changes required by California were historically inaccurate. Rewriting history by exclusion of facts is writing false history.

I asked for specifics, and so far you have avoided responding. Still waiting . . .
 

HonestJoe

Well-Known Member
By the actual very recent historical evidence many of the edits required by Texas rendered the text false, in particular the exclusion of the blacks from new housing for up to thirty years after WW II, and exclusion for second resale of homes in these developments..
Excluding a statement of fact doesn’t make the remaining text false though. If I change the phrase “I have a red apple” to “I have an apple”, it’s still true. That isn’t to say the changes are a good thing, only that they’re not as extreme as you’re trying to make out. Neither state is creating textbooks that are false as such but they are both tailoring the facts presented (and excluded) to meet their own legal and regulatory requirements and, it appears, the socio-political preferences of their respective boards.

Please specifically demonstrate that the changes required by California were historically inaccurate. Rewriting history by exclusion of facts is writing false history.
I’m not saying the Californian changes rendered anything false or inaccurate either. More core point is that both states were doing exactly the same thing so presenting one as evil and the other innocent is simply wrong.

I asked for specifics, and so far you have avoided responding. Still waiting . . .
Examples from the article of factual elements being not being included in the Californian versions of textbooks;
A California panel asked the publisher McGraw-Hill to avoid the use of the word “massacre” when describing 19th-century Native American attacks on white people….
Southern whites resisted Reconstruction, according to a McGraw-Hill textbook, because they “did not want African-Americans to have more rights.” But the Texas edition offers an additional reason: Reforms cost money, and that meant higher taxes…
In a written statement, McGraw-Hill said the full-page Border Patrol narrative was not included in the California edition because it would not fit beside the literary excerpt…
The California edition does not mention Solyndra or the other nations…

Again, I’m not presenting any of these changes as fundamentally good or bad, my only point is that both states are engaging in the same kind of behaviour and I don’t think you can condemn one but not the other.
 

shunyadragon

shunyadragon
Premium Member
Excluding a statement of fact doesn’t make the remaining text false though. If I change the phrase “I have a red apple” to “I have an apple”, it’s still true. That isn’t to say the changes are a good thing, only that they’re not as extreme as you’re trying to make out. Neither state is creating textbooks that are false as such but they are both tailoring the facts presented (and excluded) to meet their own legal and regulatory requirements and, it appears, the socio-political preferences of their respective boards.

I’m not saying the Californian changes rendered anything false or inaccurate either. More core point is that both states were doing exactly the same thing so presenting one as evil and the other innocent is simply wrong.

Examples from the article of factual elements being not being included in the Californian versions of textbooks;

Again, I’m not presenting any of these changes as fundamentally good or bad, my only point is that both states are engaging in the same kind of behaviour and I don’t think you can condemn one but not the other.

You have not made any coherent distinctions of what is history and what is not in comparing Texas and California, and no they did not do the same types of editing. Some of the things Texas changed resulted in downright dishonest texts. It is a fact that excluding facts from history books as the Texans did is dishonest and immoral. The excluded specific historical facts that concerned the racist past.
 

HonestJoe

Well-Known Member
You have not made any coherent distinctions of what is history and what is not in comparing Texas and California, and no they did not do the same types of editing. Some of the things Texas changed resulted in downright dishonest texts. It is a fact that excluding facts from history books as the Texans did is dishonest and immoral. The excluded specific historical facts that concerned the racist past.
I've not made any assertions about what is history and what is not. I'm only responding to what was written in the article linked and how I think that article is being somewhat misrepresented here. The fact remains that the publishers hire historians and other experts to write the textbooks and them politically-influenced boards in both states push for all sorts of different changes, both of which included excluding factual statements from the original texts.

Now you can make an argument that the changes imposed from Texas are somehow "worse" than the ones imposed from California but if that is the case and given you demanded I gave specific examples for what you (wrongly) thought I was claiming, shouldn't you also be giving specific examples of what you are?
 

shunyadragon

shunyadragon
Premium Member
I've not made any assertions about what is history and what is not. I'm only responding to what was written in the article linked and how I think that article is being somewhat misrepresented here. The fact remains that the publishers hire historians and other experts to write the textbooks and them politically-influenced boards in both states push for all sorts of different changes, both of which included excluding factual statements from the original texts.

Now you can make an argument that the changes imposed from Texas are somehow "worse" than the ones imposed from California but if that is the case and given you demanded I gave specific examples for what you (wrongly) thought I was claiming, shouldn't you also be giving specific examples of what you are?

You need to demonstrate and support your assertions what is history and what is not to make you argument meaningful. At present you have offered nothing but vague assertions to support an argument that I am not certain as what points your actually making. The history involved does not represent 'opinions' as asserted.

What Texas did was a classic 'WHITE' wash.
 

HonestJoe

Well-Known Member
You need to demonstrate and support your assertions what is history and what is not to make you argument meaningful.
I’ve not made any assertions about what is history or which versions of the textbooks (even the original) is “more” accurate, not least because I don’t think that is a simple binary assessment. Everything I’ve said is based directly on what was written in the linked article.

At present you have offered nothing but vague assertions to support an argument that I am not certain as what points your actually making.
The article clearly describes how the companies produce a textbook and how both states push for additions, removals and changes. You focused exclusively on Texas, creating the impression that all the changes Texas made were bad and all the changed California made were good. I was offering balance to that impression based on what was actually written in the article.

The history involved does not represent 'opinions' as asserted.

What Texas did was a classic 'WHITE' wash.
That is your opinion. ;) My opinion is that it isn’t anything like that simple and that the changes highlighted from both states have a whole range of varying reasons, justifications and consequences, good, bad and indifferent.
 

shunyadragon

shunyadragon
Premium Member
I’ve not made any assertions about what is history or which versions of the textbooks (even the original) is “more” accurate, not least because I don’t think that is a simple binary assessment. Everything I’ve said is based directly on what was written in the linked article.

The article clearly describes how the companies produce a textbook and how both states push for additions, removals and changes. You focused exclusively on Texas, creating the impression that all the changes Texas made were bad and all the changed California made were good. I was offering balance to that impression based on what was actually written in the article.

That is your opinion. ;) My opinion is that it isn’t anything like that simple and that the changes highlighted from both states have a whole range of varying reasons, justifications and consequences, good, bad and indifferent.

Vague generalizations do not justify your argument. Need more or your arguments mute.
 

HonestJoe

Well-Known Member
Vague generalizations do not justify your argument. Need more or your arguments mute.
What generalisation, I'm directly referencing what the article says? When you asked, I even listed direct quotes about changes the Californian board demeaned. I'm still only asserting what the article tells us; boards from both states demanded changes to the standard texts. I'm not making any assertions about any of those changes being good, bad or indifferent.
 

shunyadragon

shunyadragon
Premium Member
I did, bottom of post #26.

OK, and ah . . . so what? . . . but . . . what is wrong with these edits not being historically valid. As before I asked you to be specific as to what is historical and what is not. Not enough, the issue of the thread is the extreme racist edits by Texas.
 

Subduction Zone

Veteran Member
Actually prison slavery of thousands of blacks persisted up into the 20th century. More details to follow.


"Hard labor" was not a sentence limited only to black people, though arguably they did suffer that punishment more than others. There are also many that will argue that is not slavery, but rather a punishment for a crime.
 

shunyadragon

shunyadragon
Premium Member
"Hard labor" was not a sentence limited only to black people, though arguably they did suffer that punishment more than others. There are also many that will argue that is not slavery, but rather a punishment for a crime.

I was not necessarily referring to contemporary prison labor, though there are indeed problems today, but in the period after the Civil War until the early twentieth century.

The reality is after the Reconstruction period the blacks were rounded up like cattle with little or no criminal offences (trumped up) and what some times were life sentences in coal mines, rebuilding railroads, and the industry of the South.

Why Do Inmates Fight Wildfires for Dollars a Day? The Origins of Prison Slavery in America.

The Origins of Prison Slavery
How Southern whites found replacements for their emancipated slaves in the prison system.


By SHANE BAUER

OCT 02, 20188:00 AM
531d2b72-a5d9-4473-979a-0aeca8680543.jpeg

A Southern chain gang from the 1900s.
Detroit Publishing Company/United States Library of Congress
"History
  1. The Year Abraham Lincoln Declared Thanksgiving
  2. The Stories of “Segregation Academies,” as Told by the White Students Who Attended Them
  3. When Did the Right Become Unable to Deal With the Complexity of American History?
  4. Being Right About Reagan’s Racism Was Bad for Jimmy Carter
In August, an organization called the Incarcerated Workers Organizing Committee announced that prisoners in at least 17 states had pledged to stage a strike to protest prison conditions. It is unclear how many inmates actually took part in the 19-day strike, but organizers said “thousands“ refused to work, staged sit-ins, and turned away meals to demand “an immediate end to prison slavery.” Nationwide, inmates’ labor is essential to running prisons. They cook, clean, do laundry, cut hair, and fulfill numerous administrative tasks for cents on the dollar, if anything, in hourly pay. Prisoners have been used to package Starbucks coffee and make lingerie. In California, inmates volunteer to fight the state’s wildfires for just $1 an hour plus $2 per day.

The link between prison labor and slavery is not merely rhetorical. At the end of the Civil War, the 13th amendment abolished slavery “except as a punishment for a crime.” This opened the door for more than a century of forced labor that was in many ways identical to, and in some ways worse than, slavery. The following is an excerpt from my new book, American Prison: A Reporter’s Undercover Journey Into the Business of Punishment. The book details my time working undercover as a prison guard in a for-profit prison in Louisiana. It also traces the ways in which our prison system evolved out of the attempt of Southern businessmen to keep slavery alive.

A few years after the Civil War ended, Samuel Lawrence James bought a plantation on a sleepy bend of the Mississippi River in Louisiana’s West Feliciana Parish. It was known as Angola, named for the country of origin of many of the people who were once enslaved there. Before the war, it produced 3,100 bales of cotton a year, an amount few Southern plantations could rival. For most planters, those days seemed to be over. Without slaves, it was impossible to reach those levels of production.

But James was optimistic. Slavery may have been gone, but something like it was already beginning to come back in other states. While antebellum convicts were mostly white, 7 out of 10 prisoners were now black. In Mississippi, “Cotton King” Edmund Richardson convinced the state to lease him its convicts. He wanted to rebuild the cotton empire he’d lost during the war, and, with its penitentiary burned to ashes, the state needed somewhere to send its prisoners. The state agreed to pay him $18,000 per year for their maintenance, and he could keep the profits derived from their labor. With the help of convict labor, he would become the most powerful cotton planter in the world, producing more than 12,000 bales on 50 plantations per year. Georgia, whose penitentiary had been destroyed by Gen. Sherman, was leasing its convicts to a railroad builder. Alabama had leased its convicts to a dummy firm that sublet them for forced labor in mines and railroad-construction camps throughout the state.

ae358cdd-9c12-4dcf-9601-4e1b221ff48c.jpeg

Photo illustration by Slate. Images by Penguin Press and Ted Ely.
There was no reason Louisiana couldn’t take the same path. Black Americans were flooding the penitentiary system, mostly on larceny convictions. In 1868, the state had appropriated three times as much money to run the penitentiary as it had the previous year. It was the perfect time to make a deal, but someone beat James to it. A company called Huger and Jones won a lease for all of the state prisoners. Barely had the ink dried on the contract before James bought them out for a staggering $100,000 (about $1.7 million in 2018 dollars). James worked out a 21‑year lease with the state, in which he would pay $5,000 the first year, $6,000 the second, and so on up to $25,000 for the 21st year in exchange for the use of all Louisiana convicts. All profits earned would be his. He immediately purchased hundreds of thousands of dollars of machinery to turn the state penitentiary into a three‑story factory. One newspaper called it “the heaviest lot of machinery ever brought in the state.” The prison became capable of producing 10,000 yards of cotton cloth, 350 molasses barrels, and 50,000 bricks per day. It would also produce 6,000 pairs of shoes per week with the “most complete shoe machinery ever set up south of Ohio.” The factory was so large that the Daily Advocate argued it would stimulate Louisiana’s economy by increasing demand for cotton, wool, lumber, and other raw materials.

In 1873, a joint committee of senators and representatives inspected the Louisiana State Penitentiary and found it nearly deserted: “The looms that used to be worked all day and all night, are now silent as the tomb.” The warden and the lessees were not at the prison. “It is pretty difficult to find out who are the lessees or, indeed, whether or not there are any,” the inspectors wrote in their report. Where were the convicts? Almost as soon as James’ prison factory was running, he’d abandoned it. He’d discovered that he could make a lot more money subcontracting his prisoners to labor camps, where they were made to work on levees and railroads. A convict doing levee and railroad work cost one‑twentieth the labor of a wage worker.

Some in Louisiana’s Reconstruction legislature tried to rein in James. In 1875, it forbade convict labor from being used outside prison walls—senators and representatives were concerned it would deprive their constituents of jobs—but James disregarded the ban and kept his labor camps going. A Baton Rouge district attorney sued James for nonpayment of his lease. James ignored him and made no payment for the next six years. He had become untouchable.".
 
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shunyadragon

shunyadragon
Premium Member
Slavery in America did, though I'd say it wasn't completely equal in any way, in terms of rights, at that juncture... Slavery in the rest of the world did not and still exists all over the Middle-East and Africa.

There is racism everywhere where people live and breathe and despite that we're still here. BTW, I find it completely amusing that our history books don't talk about Dixiecrats or their relationship to Jim Crow and other nastiness. :D Or, how the Confederates were mostly Dems -- anyway, it just let's you know who is writing the books. :D

The Democratic party "Dixie Crats' in the South became Republicans. The Republican Party of today is not the Republican Party of Lincoln.

Please note the post I added concerning 'prison slavery' in the South after the Civil War,
 

Mindmaster

Well-Known Member
Premium Member
The Democratic party "Dixie Crats' in the South became Republicans. The Republican Party of today is not the Republican Party of Lincoln.

Please note the post I added concerning 'prison slavery' in the South after the Civil War,

Yeah, if you're talking about the 1970's and 80's. I'm not and that was abundantly clear via context. :D

And you're right, I think the modern Republican party is far more liberal leaning than it has been in the past. Secondly, I think the Democrats have changed too... You know like forgetting the workers they were courting and leaving minority cities to burn. :D Now all they seem to care about is free stuff and illegal immigrants...

In either case, as parties, I don't find either's platform especially compelling -- I just think the Republicans are moving in a direction that will do less damage. :D

The far right affiliating with the Republicans at all is a relatively modern association -- it really happened when the progressives started getting regressive (from a moderate view...) The Democrats were the Party of the Ku Klux Klan and Slavery - Fact or Myth? happened a lot earlier.
 
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