I saw it, I lived it, and I continue to witness it today.
I fell in love with history the moment I met it.
Not through boring textbooks or memorizing dates, but through stories—vivid, exciting tales that came alive in my imagination. I grew up on classroom legends about Columbus sailing into the unknown, about cowboys and Indians in the Wild West, about brave Texans at the Alamo, and the sweeping drama of the Civil War. Then came the epic narratives of World War I, World War II, and Vietnam.
Those early stories stirred something in me. They made me feel proud. They made me curious. And they made me want to know more.
But as I got older and started studying history more seriously, I began to notice something. Those stories—the ones I was told as absolute truths—had holes in them. Gaps. Entire perspectives missing. And slowly, I began to realize that what I had been taught was not the whole story at all.
It was a version of history—sanitized, selective, and written by those who had the power to shape it.
The real horrors of slavery? Barely touched on. The genocide and forced removal of Indigenous peoples? Reduced to a paragraph. The systemic oppression of women? Skimmed over, if mentioned at all. And the voices of the marginalized—Black, brown, poor, queer, immigrant—completely absent.
These weren’t innocent oversights. They were deliberate omissions. The goal wasn’t to educate—it was to indoctrinate. To build a version of America that was clean, heroic, and unquestionably noble. A myth, not a memory.
It wasn’t until I began digging deeper—reading accounts that weren’t assigned in school, listening to voices I was never taught to hear—that I understood just how manipulated our understanding of history has been. And let me tell you: once you see it, you can’t unsee it.
History, when told truthfully, is raw. It’s uncomfortable. It demands that we confront the ugly truths as much as the inspirational ones. But that’s exactly why we need it. Because history isn’t just about where we’ve been—it’s a map of where we are, and a warning about where we could end up.
And here’s the thing: history doesn’t just march forward. It loops. It repeats. And unless we learn from its lessons—about racism, authoritarianism, misogyny, nationalism, and fear—we’re bound to relive its darkest moments.
Look around. That cycle is repeating right now.
We’re seeing authoritarianism on the rise. Book bans. Censorship of classrooms. Politicians working to erase the stories of people who don’t fit into their version of what America is—or should be. Sound familiar?
It should. Because we’ve seen it before. And as someone who has studied the past, I can tell you: when a government tries to rewrite history, it’s never for your benefit. It’s about control. It’s about power.
That’s exactly what’s happening right now in the United States. The political right, led by Donald Trump and his loyalists, are rewriting our story—scrubbing away the stains, inflating the myths, and weaponizing fear. They want to eliminate diversity, inclusion, and immigration—not because those things weaken us, but because they strengthen us. And strength through unity terrifies them.
This is how fascism takes root—not just through violence, but through the slow, steady rewriting of who we are.
So I say this with everything I have: don’t let it happen.
Don’t take the lazy way out by watching the same cable news show that tells you exactly what you want to hear. Don’t fall for the feel-good fairy tale. Dig deeper. Ask questions. Read widely. Listen to people whose stories weren’t told to you in school. Learn history—the real, complex, contradictory, painful, powerful truth of it.
Because if you do, something remarkable happens: you don’t feel ashamed of your country—you start to understand it. And that understanding is what allows us to grow. To heal. To build something better.
I’m proud to be someone who loves history. But I’m not proud of the way it’s been twisted to serve an agenda. We are at a crossroads, and the only way forward is by looking honestly at where we’ve been.
History is not behind us—it’s right here, unfolding every day. Learn it. Or die from it.
Suggested Reading to Unlearn History
Support independent bookstores via Bookshop.org:
- Lies My Teacher Told Me – James W. Loewen — debunks textbook myths and myths of American greatness. Available at https://civilheresy.com/Lies My Teacher Told Me
- A People’s History of the United States – Howard Zinn — a bottom‑up narrative centering marginalized voices. Available at https://civilheresy.com/Lies My Teacher Told Me
- Stamped: Racism, Antiracism, and You – Jason Reynolds & Ibram X. Kendi — an accessible yet powerful companion to understanding systemic racism. Available at https://civilheresy.com/stamped
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