In his bestseller The Da Vinci Code, writer Dan Brown has his character Robert Langdon suggest that 鈥渉istory is always written by the winners,鈥� an opinion that has been attributed to many well-known figures, from Churchill to Hermann Goering.
Brown has his character expand upon the thought, 颅saying: 鈥淲hen two cultures clash, the loser is obliterated, and the winner writes the 颅history books 鈥� books which glorify their own cause and 颅disparage the conquered foe. As Napoleon once said, 鈥榳hat is 颅history, but a fable agreed upon?鈥欌��
That鈥檚 not too reassuring about the objectivity of history, but it does lead us to a 颅political kerfuffle in the U.S., where some states are seeking to ban the teaching of the 颅latest 颅academic/political football, 鈥渃ritical race theory.鈥�
Let鈥檚 back up for a moment.
Critical race theory, 颅abbreviated as CRT, is a 颅theoretical framework 颅(emphasis on 鈥渢heoretical鈥�) or set of perspectives, a politically infused lens if you like, through which structural and 颅institutionalized racism can be examined in a kind of 鈥渨hat was OK then is not now鈥� context.
CRT examines social, cultural and legal issues as they relate to race in the U.S., here in sa国际传媒 and elsewhere in the world, and it doesn鈥檛 make thinking about 鈥� much less teaching 鈥� history any easier.
It examines links between political power, social 颅organization and language, and its ideas have informed other fields, such as the humanities, the social sciences and teacher education.
There are plenty of 颅perilous holes in the road to current affairs lessons for well-颅intentioned teachers to trip over.
Put simply, according to 颅Kimberl茅 Crenshaw, a 颅founding critical race theorist and law professor who teaches at UCLA and Columbia University: 颅鈥淐ritical race theory is an approach to grappling with and challenging a history of White Supremacy that rejects the belief that what鈥檚 in the past is in the past, and that the laws and systems that grow from that past are detached from it.鈥�
But history is a cruel and relentless master, which, despite the best efforts of anti-CRT 颅politicians both here and 颅elsewhere, cannot be denied.
As York University 颅researchers Dua, Razak and Warner wrote in an article on social justice: 鈥渟a国际传媒 颅provides an interesting site for 颅investigations into a long 颅history of Indigenous colonization, white-settlement policies and 颅racialized immigration policies of the past.鈥�
CRT scholars view race and colonial white supremacy as a kind of crossroads in the 颅evolution of a society that serves to uphold the interests of white people against those of 颅marginalized communities.
In the field of legal studies, CRT emphasizes that merely making laws colour-blind on paper may not be enough to make the real-world application of the laws colour-blind.
And that鈥檚 where teaching the truths of history can get tricky, especially since the sa国际传媒 School Act requires that 鈥渁ll schools and Provincial schools must be conducted on strictly secular and non-sectarian principles.鈥�
Some educators believe that historically relevant aspects of our history are best left alone.
Former prime minister John A. Macdonald vigorously 颅advocated residential schools for Indigenous children, saying in 1879: 鈥淚t has been strongly impressed upon myself, as head of the Department, that Indian children should be withdrawn as much as possible from the parental influence, and the only way to do that would be to put them in central 颅training 颅industrial schools where they will acquire the habits and modes of thought of white men.鈥�
And Macdonald, for all his contributions to the 颅emergence of sa国际传媒 as a nation, said far worse than that about 颅Indigenous people.
Teaching rather than 颅ignoring or even denying that kind of thing may be a complicated, even professionally perilous path for Canadian public school history teachers. But, as an aspect of sa国际传媒鈥檚 past, such revelations and truths may be an important step toward 颅reconciliation for the next 颅generation of both Indigenous and non-Indigenous kids.
So perhaps, with fresh 颅revelations about the 颅unspeakable horrors of 颅sa国际传媒鈥檚 130 or so residential 鈥渟chools鈥� right in our faces, the 颅previously accepted teaching of a 颅somewhat 颅whitewashed and 颅revisionist Canadian history in public schools has received an 颅unavoidable and timely 鈥渟mack upside the head.鈥�
Pulling down statues of 颅Macdonald actually changes nothing. It might feel good. It might feel like a demonstration of 2021 moral sensibility, but in terms of existing racism, systemic and otherwise, it鈥檚 a gesture without real substance.
What might bring about change is for whitewashed 颅history courses to come clean in the way that Daisaku Ikeda, a Buddhist philosopher, educator, author and poet, explains 鈥� 鈥渢o communicate the truths of 颅History is an act of hope for the future.鈥�
Geoff Johnson is a former superintendent of schools and former teacher of history.
