S7 E20: U.S. History & Covid Update: Last Week Tonight with John Oliver

The COVID-19 Pandemic and Reckless Behavior

• The US has reached a grim milestone of 150,000 deaths due to the coronavirus, yet people continue to gather in large numbers, ignoring social distancing guidelines (47s).
• A Michigan house party resulted in at least 43 people testing positive for the coronavirus, while a New Jersey Airbnb party had over 700 attendees, prompting the governor to criticize the gatherings (55s).
• New Jersey's governor mentioned the state's "knucklehead Hall of Fame," which includes individuals like Jared Kushner, who is from New Jersey (1m31s).
• A recent concert by the Chain Smokers in the Hamptons has come under fire for ignoring social distancing guidelines, despite the event organizers and performers claiming to have followed all CDC and state guidelines (1m48s).
• The concert also featured a performance by Goldman Sachs CEO David Solomon, who moonlights as a DJ under the name DJ D-Sol (2m21s).
• Solomon has seven remixes of the R&B classic "Rescue Me" on Spotify, which have been described as "garbage" (2m33s).
• The need for strong leadership during the pandemic is being hindered by reckless behavior, including President Trump's recent tweet spreading misinformation about masks and promoting hydroxychloroquine (3m6s).
• The doctor featured in the tweet, who has a history of making outrageous statements, including claiming that health problems can be caused by demons and that alien DNA is being used in medical treatments (3m15s).
• The president refused to back down from his tweet despite criticism, and the doctor's comments have been widely condemned as irresponsible (4m4s).
• A doctor was praised for her voice and claimed to have had tremendous success with hundreds of patients using hydroxychloroquine, despite the person praising her knowing nothing about her background or credentials (4m6s).
• Herman Cain died about 6 weeks after attending a Trump rally in Tulsa, where he was photographed without a mask, highlighting the risks of downplaying the virus (4m48s).
• Texas Congressman Louie Gohmert tested positive for COVID-19 and initially did not isolate himself, instead returning to his office to inform his staff in person, which is considered reckless and absurd (5m8s).
• Gohmert disputes the claim that he did not immediately isolate himself, stating that he notified his staff by phone and only visited his office wearing a mask (6m17s).
• A letter from a staffer to Politico claims that Gohmert requires full staff to be in the office, including interns, and that people were berated for wearing masks (6m35s).
• The staffer's claims are disputed by Gohmert, but it is emphasized that no one should be berated for wearing a mask, and that reckless indifference to the virus is costing people their lives (6m53s).
• The importance of taking the virus seriously and protecting each other is stressed, as the number of cases and deaths continues to rise (7m22s).

A Look at Ancient Egypt

• Scientists used a 3D printer to recreate the mouth and vocal cords of an ancient Egyptian, allowing them to produce a single sound, providing an answer to a long-standing question about what an ancient Egyptian would sound like (8m21s).

Reckoning with America's Past: The Tulsa Race Massacre and Juneteenth

• The murder of George Floyd has sparked a national conversation about America's present and past, highlighting the need to reexamine the country's history (8m50s).
• Many Americans lack knowledge of US History, as seen in the reaction to President Trump's plans to hold a rally in Tulsa on June 19th, a day that commemorates the end of slavery in the US and the anniversary of the Tulsa Race Massacre (9m8s).
• The Tulsa Race Massacre, one of the nation's worst outbreaks of racial violence, was recently portrayed in HBO's Watchmen, introducing many Americans to the event for the first time (9m31s).
• A recent poll showed that 48% of Americans were either not at all or not very aware of Juneteenth, a day that commemorates when Union troops informed Texas that enslaved people must be freed (10m19s).
• There are many gaps in knowledge about US History, including the fact that George Washington did not immediately free his slaves, but instead specified in his will that they would gain their freedom after his wife's death (11m37s).
• George Washington became a slave owner at the age of 11, a fact that is often overlooked in discussions of his legacy (11m46s).
• Thomas Jefferson, on the other hand, did not free his slaves and spent the last year of his life pursuing those who tried to escape (11m16s).

The Biased Lens of American History Education

• The way American history is taught in schools can be misleading, with some versions being more palatable, especially for white people, as seen in Joy Behar's version of history and the popularity of the movie "The Help" during the protests following George Floyd's murder (11m56s).
• Senator Tom Cotton suggested that schools should lose federal funding if they teach a curriculum based on the New York Times's 1619 project, which brings slavery to the forefront of American history (12m24s).
• Tucker Carlson criticized President Obama's eulogy for John Lewis, in which Obama advocated for abolishing the filibuster to expand voting rights, saying it was like throwing around partisan talking points at a funeral (12m42s).
• However, it is argued that honoring a friend's legacy by continuing to advocate for voting rights is what John Lewis would have done (13m15s).
• There are no national standards for what topics or figures students must learn about in school, and state standards vary widely, with seven states not directly mentioning slavery in their state standards (13m29s).
• Only two states mention white supremacy, and 16 list states' rights as a cause of the Civil War, which is a misleading argument (13m47s).
• The root cause of the Civil War is clear, and it was slavery, but history textbooks often get it wrong (14m1s).
• The teaching of American history has always been political, with the South campaigning for textbooks that would accord full justice to the South after the Civil War (14m52s).
• The United Daughters of the Confederacy campaigned for schools to adopt textbooks that would tell the story of the South in a more favorable light (15m7s).
• A 1950s Georgia textbook downplayed the horrors of slavery, claiming that slave owners often held barbecues or picnics for their slaves, giving them sandwiches, which is a poor excuse for the brutal system of slavery (15m34s).
• An Alabama school textbook from the 1970s described some slaves as "good workers" and "obedient," implying that those who were not were flawed, rather than recognizing their actions as a form of protest against an unjust system (16m0s).
• The idea that being a "lazy slave" was a character flaw rather than an act of resistance is infuriating and misrepresents the reality of slavery (16m41s).
• A current Texas school book uses the euphemism "chores" to describe slave labor, which is a problematic and inaccurate representation of the brutal reality of slavery (17m20s).
• State standards and textbooks are just a baseline, and what happens in a classroom largely depends on teachers, who may not have the resources to provide accurate and updated information (17m52s).
• Some teachers may use tone-deaf assignments and classroom exercises, such as asking students to choose to be a slave or a slave owner and write a journal entry, or playing a slavery-themed Monopoly-like game, which can be hurtful and insensitive (18m21s).
• These types of assignments can be particularly hurtful for black students, who may already feel marginalized and excluded from the curriculum (19m15s).
• The majority of school teachers in the US are white, and many may have grown up learning a skewed version of history, which they are now passing on to their students, resulting in incomplete educations in history and real harm to students (19m26s).
• A man from Tulsa shared his experience of not learning about the 1921 Tulsa Massacre in school, despite it happening in his hometown, and only finding out about it in a college class, which caused him emotional whiplash (19m50s).

Upgrading History Education: Addressing Key Mistakes

• The way history is taught in schools needs to be upgraded, and three big mistakes that historians believe should be corrected are: not fully acknowledging the history of white supremacy in America, not teaching the full history of the Constitution, and not providing a nuanced view of historical figures (21m2s).
• The history of white supremacy in America is not fully acknowledged, and this is evident in the pushback against teaching anti-racist curricula in schools, with some arguing that it will turn children into "mini Ilhan Omars" (21m21s).
• The Constitution is a document that is both revolutionary and infused with racism, codifying slavery and making it harder for individuals to escape it, and students should be taught to see it as an imperfect document with imperfect authors (22m16s).
• The fact that the Constitution is infused with racism does not mean it should be "canceled," but rather that students should be taught to understand its complexities and nuances (22m41s).
• Students should be taught to see historical figures and documents as complex and multifaceted, rather than simply as heroes or villains, and to understand the context in which they lived and wrote (22m53s).
• The US Constitution can be both revolutionary and racist, and it's possible for kids to understand that things can be both positive and negative at the same time (23m0s).
• Incomplete history can lead to a lack of understanding of how different events and pieces fit together, and when the full story is revealed, it can be uncomfortable and challenging to process (23m21s).
• Thomas Jefferson's legacy is complex, and it's essential to be honest about his flaws, including his ownership of slaves, to provide a complete understanding of history (23m33s).
• The Underground Railroad was a necessary response to the injustices of slavery, and if everyone had been in favor of it, there would have been no need for it to be underground (24m4s).
• The history of America is a story of change, but it's often resisted, and the truth is that progress is not always linear or inevitable (24m29s).

Untaught History: Reconstruction, Wilmington, and the Civil Rights Movement

• The period between the end of the Civil War and the Civil Rights Act is often glossed over, but it's essential to teach this era thoroughly, as it was marked by white hostility and backsliding (25m8s).
• Reconstruction was a time of promise, with black men voting in the South and holding elected office, but it was met with resistance from white people, leading to the founding of the KKK and the lynching of over 2,000 black people (25m34s).
• The Wilmington coup of 1898, in which a mob of armed white men killed at least 60 black residents and replaced the city's government with white supremacists, is a lesser-known but significant event in American history (26m16s).
• The 1898 Wilmington coup, the only coup on American soil, is often either not taught or taught misleadingly in history books, with a 1949 textbook placing the blame for the event on the victims (26m40s).
• The Civil Rights Movement did not end racism in the US, and the version of American history taught in schools often leaves out important details, such as the economic justice aspect of the March on Washington (27m27s).
• The March on Washington was officially called the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom, and Martin Luther King Jr. grew more outspoken about economic justice in the years following the event (27m29s).
• King understood that making progress on economic justice would be harder than achieving civil rights, as it would require the nation to spend billions of dollars and undergo a radical redistribution of economic power (27m45s).
• Martin Luther King Jr. had more than one dream, including one about wealth redistribution, which is often left out of his legacy (28m12s).
• The Civil Rights Movement was longer, messier, and more radical than often taught in schools, and was thwarted in many of its aims (28m27s).
• The black-white wage and wealth gaps are larger now than they were when King gave his famous speech, and housing and education systems in the US are still segregated (28m43s).
• The effects of segregation and racism can be seen in the present day, but the causes are often not taught in history classes, making it seem like these effects appeared out of nowhere (28m56s).
• A straight line can be drawn from the post-Civil War return of plantation land to former Confederates to the present-day segregation and racism in the US (29m1s).
• The growth of suburbs in the 20th century, where redlining kept black people from moving into white neighborhoods, contributed to the ongoing segregation and racism in the US (29m13s).
• Many white Americans, including those in liberal cities, have historically opposed integration and equal rights for black people, often citing concerns about property values and social mixing (29m30s).

The Evolution of Coded Racism and Its Persistence

• The way US history is taught often trails off after the Civil Rights Movement, skipping over the past half-century and the adaptation of white supremacy, rather than its disappearance (30m28s).
• Lee Atwater, a top Republican campaign strategist, explained in 1981 how the party's rhetoric shifted from overtly racist language to more abstract economic issues that still disproportionately harmed black people (30m50s).
• Atwater's strategy involved using coded language to appeal to white voters without explicitly mentioning racism, and this approach has continued to influence politics to the present day (30m59s).
• A recent example of this is a tweet by President Trump announcing the rollback of an Obama-era rule under the Fair Housing Act, which was designed to appeal to suburban voters by promising to prevent low-income housing from being built in their neighborhoods (31m58s).
• This type of rhetoric is part of a systemic racism that has been baked into the US from the beginning and will persist even after Trump is gone (32m29s).

The Challenges and Importance of Teaching Accurate History

• Teaching children about this history is crucial for them to understand what's happening in the present, and it's essential to calibrate the information to each age group (32m38s).
• Addressing mistakes in the way history is taught will not be easy, and there will likely be resistance from parents and accusations of being "political" (33m10s).
• Some parents, like one in Texas in 2010, may resist changes to the curriculum, preferring to focus on teaching "American exceptionalism" and the idea that the US is inherently superior to other countries (33m22s).
• The idea of focusing on the positive aspects of American history, such as overcoming slavery, can be misleading and ignores the fact that certain Americans overcame other Americans, and the impact of slavery is still felt today (33m52s).
• The concept of a "worst day in America" is subjective and depends on who you are and when you are, as the experiences of different groups of people have varied greatly throughout history (34m14s).
• The legacy of slavery and white supremacy in America is still relevant today, and ignoring or downplaying this history can be harmful and perpetuate a white supremacist narrative (34m29s).
• John Lewis, a prominent figure in American history, understood the importance of drawing a line from the past to the present and learning from history to create a better future (35m7s).
• Lewis emphasized the need to study and learn from history, as it provides lessons and solutions to the challenges of the present, and that the truth does not change over time (35m30s).
• The way history is taught is crucial, as it can either show us how to improve the world or falsely claim that there is nothing to improve, and it is essential to teach and learn history well (35m56s).
• Several historical figures and events, such as Claudette Colvin, A. Philip Randolph, James Baldwin, the Red Summer of 1919, David Walker's Appeal, the Brownsville Affair, and the Atlanta Washerwoman strike, are worth learning about to fill in the gaps in American history (36m31s).