Bad choice of words on my part. They were obliterated into the minorities as we now see today, then shoved onto reservations and left to rot.

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Look, my whole point was that we are putting far too much emphasis on parts of American history that just WERE NOT important enough to justify the amount of time we spend on them. Sure the native americans were cool, it's neat to learn about their customs, government, etc - but that has little bearing on the UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, which didn't really exist until the Declaration of Independance, and the events leading up to that separation. There isn't any need to spend an entire month studying native americans in a class about American History. A brief summary is enough.

Same with African History. There isn't any point. African History doesn't really meld at all with US History until the slave trade, thus, there isn't any need to talk about it in an American History class.

The big problem in this idea is that YOU CAN'T SEE INTO THE FUTURE.

I think it would have but since history is contingent in nature and we can't assume anything.

People have enslaved their own for thousands of years and that was largely based on a class structure instead of the race. The one in America was based, at least in it's climax, solely on race and not much else.

The justification for slavery was that whites in general were superior to blacks, that they were a "lesser" breed of people, barely man and therefore, only suitable for being controlled by whites.

What the FUCK are you talking about.

I never said that.

I don't think that.

That wasn't even my point nor something I ever even touched on. Way to bring in a completely unrelated topic.

And now I remember you. You were the guy that thinks a black guy and a white girl aren't going to have any differences arising from culture.

The idea in teaching these is that they were precursors to the United States. An important part of understanding the history of any nation is knowing the things that caused that nation to come about. You certainly aren't arguing against learning about European colonial life, but I'll be damned if that wasn't pre 1776.

Tell me what you know about African history and culture. I have a lot of time, I can wait.

I'm not talking about West African culture. I'm talking about AFRICAN culture, you dumbfuck. As in, the continent of AFRICA. West African culture has much to do with American History. AFRICAN culture does not have much to do with American History.

I just about didn't include that redundant clause, but I didn't want to give you any reason to start up another bitch storm.

This is the second time in 10 minutes you have failed to actually read through a post.

If you want to fucking talk proportions, PROPORTIONALLY men and women are ~50/~50 in this nation. Why are American history textbooks like 99% about men?

Yeah I'm sure men are far more important and do a lot more shit than women.

You have be the most fucking stupid person I have ever met in my life. I'm not even going to give you the dignity of responding to your shit anymore. Way to completely miss the point.

Traditionally, men have written textbooks.

Then again, for awhile, any accomplishments that women made probably weren't recorded at all, so they're likely not to be reflected in today's textbooks.

American Colonial life is part of what caused our nation to come about. It existed HERE. In MAINLAND America. A fairly large part of the whole deal, but that's also something I think we spend a bit too much time studying.

Well, historically, the effort to differentiate the black slave came later. So one could say the modern understanding of the race differences is rather a result of the use of skin color as a marker in which to keep specific group under control, rather then the other way around. Although not all anthropologist would agree with that assertion. Others believe the root of this concept come earlier.

No, the justification for slavery was "we need cheap labor". It's just that, since most Africans at that point didn't speak English, and they didn't have guns, you're not going to get any bitching about human rights.

You don't even know history, who are you to say what's important and what's not? you think some religious pissing contest in England is actually important to American history. I mean christ.

Then there's no need for European history at all, since we're teaching a vaccuum.

Now you're just cherrypicking, eskimo.

America started on the backs of slaves.

Still want you to tell me what you know about African history and culture. Go ahead and be as lengthy as you want. Doublespace if it makes you feel better.

Accomplishments by women have been largely ignored in the past, or they took on the name of a man so they could recieve those accomplishments. Part of it is that we just don't know how much women did.

But also, by raw numbers, men have done a lot more in American History. That's not to deny the importance of women in American History, that's just simple fact. Men were just in better positions to do so because of the low position of women at that time in history.

Which proves my point. White men write the textbooks that are largely about white men.

And plenty of accomplishments that women did were recorded, most just don't know about it because they keep reading white man books. Just like there have been many different accomplishment by different races.

You brought up car worship as a viable cultural difference between whites and hispanics (and blacks (thx Alice)) that could adversely affect relationships. As in, you don't think any white people drive H2s.

Tell me about Africa, please.

Explain why the hell African culture needs to have an in-depth explanation in an American History class.

West African culture? Sure, plays a major part in a lot of American culture.