By Wendy Ellis, Tia Sheree Gaynor, and Laura Huerta Migus, The Columbus Dispatch, January 18, 2021
Six days into the new year, a mob of thousands of Trump supporters stormed the U.S. Capitol and attempted a coup, surrounded by symbols of white supremacy.
For centuries, narratives in the United States have projected an image of a democracy built on the promises of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. In reality, this narrative fails to acknowledge the incongruous truths of the country’s journey to becoming a superpower. The birth of our nation is romanticized in the stories of our first “Thanksgiving” and through plantation tours and weddings that celebrate a genteel antebellum south, while the truth of colonialism, genocide, and mass enslavement is systematically ignored and rarely discussed in history books or public forums.
As a society, we have to tear down the false narratives embedded in our history and see it for what it truly is: a pattern of intentional actions grounded in a belief in white supremacy and codified to ensure the superiority of white, heterosexual men. To effectively address systemic inequities, the truth of U.S. history must be told.
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