Rising again

[avram]

Students in a North Carolina Christian school are being given a book, Southern Slavery, As It Was that teaches that Southern slavery wasn’t so bad. One of the book’s authors is a member of the board of directors of a neo-Confederate group, the League of the South. Some excerpts from the book:

• “Slavery as it existed in the South was not an adversarial relationship with pervasive racial animosity. Because of its dominantly patriarchal character, it was a relationship based upon mutual affection and confidence.”
• “There has never been a multi-racial society which has existed with such mutual intimacy and harmony in the history of the world.”
• “Slave life was to them a life of plenty, of simple pleasures, of food, clothes, and good medical care.”

Do I detect a hint of a Bush administration health care plan?

Comments

[gaylord500.livejournal.com]

I don't know. I can see how it's useful to as an example of a different perspective. While the authors of this booklet have a particular agenda, and the school has an explicit educational agenda, the booklet's use as described in the article's compatible with something harmless/helpful going on. "The Lost Cause" is quite a popular myth.

Showing Birth of a Nation could be as useful classroom tool. It doesn't mean everyone who screens, watches, and is capable of debating the ideas of it supports the KKK.

[avram]

Yeah, I considered that. I’m just not sure the school’s actually telling the truth about how they’re teaching the book.