This is a fascinating glimpse into the fragility of white people in the face of historical accuracy. A few years back, I went to the new Visitor's Center at Gettysburg (I had been to the old one), and I was heartened to see that they had centered slavery in their explanation of the Civil War. Nevertheless, I'm sure (white) people wanted to keep "politics" out of their Civil War fetish. Don't talk about slavery...at a Civil War museum...
If you are going to understand America's development, you have to center slavery. Why was Jefferson able to sit back and read political theory and do scientific work? Because he had hundreds of people working for him who he owned. Jefferson is a man of tremendous contradictions. No bigger contradiction is his commitment to human liberty while owning slaves. To ignore this is to ignore a real understanding of history.
But for some people, they don't want history, they want myths. They want to be made to feel good.
That's a willing embrace of ignorance to bring comfort. I can't think of a better illustration of a certain segment of white America.
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