Teacher's end: the race, class, and gender malady
Over the course of time, historians have tried to downplay conservative doctrines and their influence on cultures. They commonly utilize race, class, and gender history in order to decide which facts to report and which to omit. Why is this ideology flawed?
In recent years, some historians have greatly emphasized race, class, and gender in their writings, as opposed to the white Protestant males who are the usual focus of history books. Rather than Thomas Jefferson and Patrick Henry, the emphasis is on the minorities — women, the poor, or people of other races. It is now about their thoughts, feelings, and actions from bygone times. This research venue once seemed fresh and innovative prior to critical race theory being commonly used during the early 2020s.
Unfortunately, a few of these historians selectively and creatively interpret these subjects, skewing reality. To them, what matters is "representation," not necessarily recounting the past accurately. In their eyes, arguments showing favoritism to some people groups, incorrect research, and strange interpretations are justified. With a nose-to-the-grindstone-publishing-academic-papers lifestyle glorifying their own social goals, they use faulty arguments, twisting facts to fit their flawed theories. Over-emphasis on race, class, and gender is just one of the many incorrect ideologies circulating today.
One infamous example of racial over-importance was the 1619 Project, which changed the year of our nation's creation to 1619 instead of 1776 due to enslaved people being imported to America before the Founding Fathers. The forced arguments that estimated our country to have been born in 1619 were later revealed to be completely wrong. The heritage of Indigenous Peoples' Day and Columbus Day led to a similarly intense argument. Christopher Columbus shaped history, but allegedly mistreated many Indigenous people during his discovery of America. Indigenous Peoples' Day was made as a replacement, while Columbus, Oh. had been sued to reinstate Columbus Day.
This ideology also leaves no room for moral factors (i.e., the Reformation, the Renaissance, or the Abolitionist movement) correlated to cultural progress, instead assuming history is strictly controlled by "misguided" or "oppressive" white people. Since humans are not just helpless pawns of their ethic group, but rather thinking, planning, feeling creatures with more complex motives, race-class-gender history soon became a faulty view.
It is highly important for people to educate themselves on history using materials penned by the Founders and key explorers. It promotes good cultural awareness to study topics about a particular class, race, or gender, but one cannot displace the Framers and other historical figures. The Founding Fathers, explorers, and all other people are positioned in a linear sequence of history and are interlinked. Students and instructors would learn much from doing their own historical research and seeing what all people wrote and believed.
Student's end: don't be like Dee
"Everyday Use" is a thoughtful short story by Alice Walker commonly used in college assignments. It debuted in 1973 and focuses on the Johnsons, a family of three. Mrs. Johnson is head of the household as "Mama," Maggie is the baby of the family, and Dee is the firstborn daughter.
Dee Johnson, presumably a teenager or young adult, now calls herself Wangero because she thinks that her current name is after someone who oppressed her, willfully forgetting that she was named after her grandmother Dee. She chooses an African name out of a professed desire to reconnect with her roots. Dee has always claimed to know style, but her definition of style is probably only based on her whims.
From childhood up, no one has ever said no to Dee. Dee has most likely gotten what she said she wanted immediately or fairly quickly, giving her no time to process what she truly wants. As a result, she just follows her impulses. The Wangero persona will likely disappear when another new trend appears in her neighborhood; she will demand the next new thing then. When Dee tries to greet Mama and her sister, Maggie, with an African expression, she is not fluent in the language. She gets bored quickly when Mama explains how far the name Dee goes back in the Johnson family.
Dee has no awareness of or interest in her family heritage and only wants to be in her own idealistic world. Dee had previously refused to own a quilt because they were not in style. The quilts are now in vogue, and she wants to impress whatever friends she has, so she pleads with Mama for the family quilts. Dee's entire purpose seems to be to follow her whims and impress friends without analyzing her own character.
Mrs. Johnson learns that Dee chases material things. She awakens to the fact that she does not have to cater to Dee's every whim all the time. She accepts and understands who she is: a strong woman capable of forming her own opinions and scared of no one. She does not have to be manipulated by Dee. When Dee blows up in yet another outburst, it is unlikely that Mama will run scrambling to placate her ever again. Dee's reign of terror is over as Mama declares her independence.
By the end of the story, Mrs. Johnson simply watches as Dee screams about the quilts being priceless and Maggie being unable to properly use them. Maggie offers to let Dee have Grandma's quilts. Mrs. Johnson draws the line there. She gives the quilts to Maggie, who makes a surprised smile; Maggie had previously not had anything special done for her. Then, she and Maggie smile and laugh as the latter puts on sunglasses and grins. Mrs. Johnson now has more time for Maggie because she has opted not to placate Dee anymore.
Some college students have chased trends with an empty mindset akin to Dee's. In time for summer 2026, college students have become interested in preventing a Google speaker from presenting his side of a story and setting up "Fat Studies."
Editor's Note: President Trump is fighting to ensure all of America's students get the education they deserve.
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