We Are All Americans
By Nate - Posted at If You Can Keep It:
The Tragedy of Identity Politics in American History
Most college history courses have a common denominator: no matter the subject of the course, the syllabus will include one or more units devoted to race, gender and/or sexuality as they pertain to the course theme, even if they do not pertain to the course theme. The connection can be very forced, such as devoting a section of a Vietnam War class to the contributions of sexual minorities to the war. These topics are carved into every course in the name of inclusivity. The outcome of their “inclusion” is anything but. They serve only to divide and turn people against each other. The topics inevitably delve into how each group was oppressed and marginalized by the majority group. In this framework, these groups are cast as perennial outsiders with little to contribute to the national tapestry beyond their status as victims. When American History is taught and studied this way, it is a tragedy. History morphs from being a uniting force that brings people together around a shared story to just another vehicle of identity politics to sow discord, an attitude that is uniquely un-American. Unlike most countries where national inclusion is based on shared genetics, America is founded on a shared creed. To shift the focus from the creed to immutable characteristics is to abandon the heart of the American civilization.Identity politics dragged into history is a tragedy for all involved, but ironically even more so for the group it seeks to promote. When history only focuses on how one class is oppressed by another, the oppressed group is cut off from the shared culture of the rest of the country. When, for example, academics put the focus in teaching the American Founding on the oppression of marginalized groups, as Jeffrey Anderson warns is taking place in the historic sites of Philadelphia, those groups have been cut out of the grander national story and relegated to a single unit on a college history syllabus...