Quote:
Originally Posted by wittynickname
This is a huge point that often goes overlooked. I think it was mentioned earlier in this thread (though it may have been the Charlottesville thread) that Germany does a fantastic job of acknowledging the stain of their history, while not celebrating the ugliness of it. But they don't hide it, they don't pretend Hitler and the Holocaust never happened.
The US likes to celebrate Thanksgiving Day and then tucks all that "genocide of the Native Americans" under the rug. They like to celebrate Lincoln freeing the slaves, but pretend Americans weren't the ones doing the slave buying/selling/trading. There are awful parts of American history that you don't learn unless you research well beyond what you're taught in school. We refuse to face our flaws as a country, and so we can't ever move past them.
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Yeah, I shake my head when people rant about 'where did all this racism and hate come from in America' or 'this isn't America'...yes, yes it is. Racism and hatred are a very real part of the culture of America and denying it doesn't make it go away.
Canadians have a similar flaw...we don't realize how in the 1700-1800's there was huge institutionalized actions that killed thousands of First Nations peoples. It was bad, maybe not as bad as other places, but we have a pretty huge cultural blind spot about that history. It messes with our self-narrative of polite, peaceful people who treat various cultures with respect.