http://www.theroot.com/buzz/tea-party-dont-mention-founding-fathers-and-slaves What's this guy on? Criticism isn't "made up" if the history is accurate. It's one thing to be proud of and/or callous about the American slave trade, quite another to suggest that those who aren't are making up something. Didn't know whether this belonged in Education or P&CE, so I started here.
This IS a relatively new strategy- it's been only half a century or so since supremacist ideology justified itself to its followers. There really aren't as many options available to them right at this moment as there have been in the recent past, in terms of intimidation and violence. Changing minds through misinformation and PC whitewashing of America's ugly recent past hasn't been in vogue all that long.
I remember those naive early days when I took the Tea Party at its word that it was a grassroots movement aiming for better governance. Now I realize that the Tea Party is John Birch, KKK, McCarthyism, etc. cleaned up and reorganized for modern times. For the bottom feeders.
Cleaned up, reorganized and now working together! You're being very generous not to have dismissed their spoken words immediately, given the timing of their rise to infamy. That the most recent presidential election was the catalyst for their foolishness says everything that needs to be said about them. Not sure Tennessee's a big enough purchaser of the specific books (I'm sure they'll try to deny science again at some point, but I assume this is purely a history text- only issue ATM) to influence publishers. Rather than make a big fuss about it --again, related to our nation's president-- they could simply have piggybacked quietly on Texas' ignorance.
Thank God for intellectual safeguards such as double-blind submission protocol and peer-reviewed scholarship. I find many times that individual citizens, groups, and even political machines disseminate false or misleading information that while temporarily effective in the long run crashes under the impassable waves of reputable (and honest) intellectual contributions. History will return the favor and paint these bastards in the negative light that they deserve.
