Comments on: Digging deeper: Finding the counter narrative

By: Melinda Troyka

Melinda Troyka — Mon, 05 Dec 2016 20:43:50 +0000

You made some really good points about counter narratives and master narratives. You’re right; America does not like counter narratives. Michelle Obama, for her words about slaves building the White House, was criticized by some even being called unpatriotic. It is scary how much of history is covered up just because it is not the preferred mainstream history (White History) or because it shows us as Americans in a bad light for the way we’ve oppressed others.

By: Haleigh Jacob

Haleigh Jacob — Wed, 30 Nov 2016 18:23:11 +0000

Cassie, I think what you wrote here is very insightful and gives a wonderful example of master and counter narratives and the powers they both hold. I agree with Michael in that we should be fighting for the revision of textbooks that only convey the master narrative. Its tough to come up with ways we can effectively accomplish this, but I think we need to be holding the authors of these texts accountable for the light they portray certain histories in. It’d be interesting to take a look into the process of writing a history textbook, but I wonder – are people of color involved in the writing process? Do they consider other perspectives in their writing? Are the texts based on purely factual information? What counts as pure fact? Is objectivity achievable? How much subjectivity should be allowed and whose subjectivity should it be?
I think these are all really relevant questions when discussing history in general.

By: mikopotato95

mikopotato95 — Mon, 14 Nov 2016 22:24:51 +0000

Our education system doesn’t much value the counter-narrative. Maybe the first step as white US citizens is to incorporate histories other than white histories into our education system, and if not that, actively educate ourselves as well as those around us in other histories. The school curriculum leaves so much out and so we don’t know how to even search for counter-narratives in our every day lives. I’m sure lot of people didn’t know that the White House was built by slaves before the first lady said anything about it. We don’t actively look for those counter-narratives and so are shocked to find them right under our noses. We never even thought to ask. I think it’s time to update our history text books for sure, but it’s also important to teach ourselves and the upcoming generation how to think critically about master and counter narratives.