"For example, while you did say that you were taught that the Pythagoras theorem came long before he did, the theorem is still named after him"
Yes, you're right. But this is true of many different inventions. The abacus, widely viewed as a Chinese invention, was first developed in Mesopotamia for example. Don't get me wrong, I think hist…
"For example, while you did say that you were taught that the Pythagoras theorem came long before he did, the theorem is still named after him"
Yes, you're right. But this is true of many different inventions. The abacus, widely viewed as a Chinese invention, was first developed in Mesopotamia for example. Don't get me wrong, I think history should be taught accurately. But I also don't think it makes sense to get hung up on which skin colour was responsible for what.
In fact, we often make this mistake about people of the same skin colour. Thomas Edison don't invent the lightbulb, another white man named Joseph Swan did. Michael Jackson didn't invent the moonwalk, a black man named Bill Bailey did. We can't move past this idea that skin colour matters if we continually focus on it.
As for the idea in some countries that "foreign" or "white" = better, yeah, this is definitely a problem. A hangover from colonialism I think. And again, I think if we're going to move past this very harmful idea, we need to stop thinking about taking pride in the work of others because their skin is the same colour as ours.
So I agree with you (and J) that teaching history accurately is important. Fundamentally, we're just talking about telling the truth there. But I simultaneously think that we need to stop thinking of ourselves as represented by everybody whose skin is the same colour as ours. Racism will always exist as long as we think this way.
"For example, while you did say that you were taught that the Pythagoras theorem came long before he did, the theorem is still named after him"
Yes, you're right. But this is true of many different inventions. The abacus, widely viewed as a Chinese invention, was first developed in Mesopotamia for example. Don't get me wrong, I think history should be taught accurately. But I also don't think it makes sense to get hung up on which skin colour was responsible for what.
In fact, we often make this mistake about people of the same skin colour. Thomas Edison don't invent the lightbulb, another white man named Joseph Swan did. Michael Jackson didn't invent the moonwalk, a black man named Bill Bailey did. We can't move past this idea that skin colour matters if we continually focus on it.
As for the idea in some countries that "foreign" or "white" = better, yeah, this is definitely a problem. A hangover from colonialism I think. And again, I think if we're going to move past this very harmful idea, we need to stop thinking about taking pride in the work of others because their skin is the same colour as ours.
So I agree with you (and J) that teaching history accurately is important. Fundamentally, we're just talking about telling the truth there. But I simultaneously think that we need to stop thinking of ourselves as represented by everybody whose skin is the same colour as ours. Racism will always exist as long as we think this way.