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Who Get's to Tell Which Stories? - Blog Post 2 - Peter

The two men walking in the film American Perspective: Another View said a few things that really resonated with me. The first is that when we (American students) are taught about the World Wars, the 50s and 60s we are only taught through one lens: White American middle/upper class. On of the men in the clip says that theatre gives us a "medium for our OWN voices and not being spoken for." This got me thinking about the lens in which Native American relations, the Atlantic Slave Trade, the Civil rights movement were taught to me. Who was writing the literature we used in classrooms? Was it historian with Native American or Africana studies backgrounds writing these chapters or Eurocentric focused general historians? Who should be telling which parts of history? The answer to this has a profound impact on the way in which these topics are taught to students. Today, the topic of Critical Race Theory is a heavily debated subject on whether or not it has a place in schools. Arguments opposed to CRT claim that it teaches hate to students. While if taught improperly this could be a possible repercussion, but if done in the correct manner CRT will enlighten students on the reality of race relations in the US and will help make them better world citizens for having multiple perspectives. If one doesn't understand the history of race relations in the US how can one possibly understand the inequities we face today let alone address them? Below are signs made advocates for CRT. 




Comments

  1. Lindsay Adamson LivingstonFebruary 21, 2023 at 2:44 PM

    This is a great connection, Peter. Conflicts over who gets to tell the "official" history of an event remain as salient--and controversial--as ever. What do you think are the possibilities for performance to be a means of intervening in these national conversations? That is, do you think performance is a viable way to move people toward an acceptance of a broader version of US (and world) history? In contrast, how has performance been used to close off the possibility of heterogeneous narratives?

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