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Our Heritage! Listen, if you want to be a loser, no one is stopping you. I don't care if you fly that flag on the antenna of every one of the broken down vehicles displayed in your front yard. You have the right to warn me that you're someone I don't want to associate with.
Where does it end?! Next they'll be burning our books! It makes sense that you'd think setting things on fire would be the next step, but that's your heritage; not ours. Those books are evidence of how we screwed up there too, and we are keeping them as such.
We can't showcase how we passed laws that influenced our history textbooks to misrepresent the role of black americans, and omit historic events. States passed textbook adoption laws that allowed the state or their districts to choose which books were used in public schools.
Most of the states that had statewide textbook adoption policies were former members of the Confederacy. And as textbooks became increasingly affordable, a group called Daughters of the Confederacy rose to prominence.
They worked hard to change the narrative to one that hailed their traitorous fathers/grandfathers as heroes for their efforts to lose the civil war. They advocated different lies in different states, but in TX they'd successfully damage the country, via public education.
Their advocacy included manipulating history class to build a state identity around the treason they saw as, strength and resiliency. Other states would follow suit, wanting a shared message across schools related to their history.
In 1949, the Texas Board of Education solicited bids from publishers for textbooks, including American History books for elementary and middle schools. Texas had previously done something similar for high school books, but this order was twice the size.
Interested bidders were required to deposit a hefty sum of money, which they would lose if they won the bid and presented textbooks that didn't meet the board's approval regarding CONTENT. Members of the approval committee included the Daughters of Confederacy.
Winning bidders had to prove that they had the capacity to print books for thousands of children, that contained content that ensured the texts were acceptable for the eyes of children of various ages, according to the opinion of the approval committee.
The focus of the publishing companies wasn't documenting a comprehensive portrayal of America's history that would showcase indigenous genocide, chattel slavery, as well as revolution and independence. The publishing companies were focused on getting the contract.
So "slaves" were depicted as "workers," and the "The War of Northern Aggression," the DOC's very important argument, justifying the glorification of treasonous, war losing losers, "We didn't start the war! You started the war!" began to take shape. But I digress...
The the zippity-doo-dah spin on black american history began with women that couldn't accept the view of their fathers/grandfathers as it truly was, and worked hard to skew history's view of them. Texas school books greatly misrepresented black people and the severity of slavery.
Don't forget that other states would follow suit, sending a variety of rated G versions, of black american history to their schools. The version you got depended on what the publishers thought approval committees wanted to hear, so they could cinch those precious contracts.
This misrepresentation included the omission of historical events. This is why we weren't taught about The Greenwood Massacre, Rosewood, Wilmington Riots, Oregan's banning of black people, the Great Migration, etc. We tried to erase THEIR history!
So no, burning books won't be next. I learned 2 days ago that they are evidence showcasing how ignorant we are, they're proof that we have so much more to learn, and that we need to do so much better.
All my life I've heard about southern "heritage," and cries of "don't erase history." I've known for 2 days that robbing them of their heritage wasn't enough, we needed to erase their history too. I already didn't respect the argument that removing statues erases history.
The fight to remove those monstrosities has gone on way too long. No one is demanding that you stop idolizing traitors, or throw out your personal property. We are demanding our government to accept victory, we took down the traitors, there was no reason to put them back up!
They didn't need to be built at all, the confederates don't belong in our public spaces, on government offices, on our military bases, and you should be grateful at the suggestion of preserving them in a museum. They belong in a history book, being portrayed as losers.
Your confederate constituents are confederates, stop accepting their votes. Remove the plaques and monuments. We are the ones that tried to erase black history, and it's amazes me how anyone fights this hard to cling to a 155yr old history that they ought to be ashamed of.
So much change needs to be made, "what's next?" is something I don't know, and I feel sheepish asking you for anything. It's extraordinarily unfair, but I need your help in order to help, so I am listening and learning, until you show me where I need to go. #blacklivesmatter 
