The Oversight of Racism as Depicted in Gone with the Wind

Loewen’s “Lies My Teacher Told Me” introduces us to a new aspect of American history and the different topics that have been glazed over or taken out of context. “Gone With the Wind”, the fifth chapter of this novel, gives insight on the way racism has been overlooked in textbooks. Although slavery is mentioned a few times in certain books, the actual racist manners of society are often not shown or emphasized. One idea Loewen mentions is the “magnolia myth.” He claims it is utilized by many textbooks and explains how it encompasses the belief of social harmony in slavery. It is based around the illusion that slavery didn’t do any harm to either party, white or black. Many brought this up to disprove the harshness of slavery and make it seem less cruel than it was. Loewen highlights this to illustrate how slavery and racism are disregarded and are sometimes even covered with false ideas of “social harmony.”

Loewen defines racism as inhuman and sees it as an abomination to our country and its history. He believes that racism stemmed from two events in history: taking over the indigenous people and stealing their land and enslaving the Africans to work for them. Loewen’s opinions on slavery don’t change my opinion, because I had originally agreed with his morals on slavery. However, it did give me more insight on how severe the time period was, and how neglectful current textbook authors are with the information that the public should understand about our dark past. The relationship between slavery and racism is very prominent in American history. However, this idea is not accentuated in textbooks. To avoid becoming controversial themselves, they talk about slavery without racism. But this does not accurately portray how slavery was, and how Africans were treated by the others in America.

In the chapter, it states, “Textbooks cannot show the influence of slavery on our foreign policy if they are unwilling to talk about ideas like racism that might make whites look bad. When textbook authors turn their attention to domestic policy, racism remains similarly invisible.” (Loewen, 152) Loewen’s words illustrate how slavery is now seen as more condensed or more as a temporary problem. Without mentioning the full picture or racism and injustice, slavery becomes a “temporary problem of the past” for the people of the United States. And this is what Loewen was trying to convey. Loewen suggests many things to allow textbooks to reconsider and redress their ideas of slavery. He claims that textbooks illustrate slavery as a problem of the past, and doesn’t go over the long-lasting effects that it still has on this country. Taking out racism to make things uncontroversial also misrepresents slavery and erases racism from the timeline. But we are not only affected by trying to silence slavery and keep it in check. Before the Civil War, America was too busy dealing with securing borders to prevent fugitive slaves that they lost its foreign and domestic policies. Unfortunately, this is a common theme in United States history. Becoming so preoccupied with a trivial matter like securing borders, that everything else goes into chaos. In conclusion, Loewen’s chapter, “Gone With The Wind” accentuates the key problems concerning the separation of slavery and racism in textbooks. I agree with his interpretations of slavery and how it cannot be fully understood without taking into consideration the racist behavior of America. Without talking and learning about racism in the past, we aren’t able to fully able to understand or speak knowledgeably about the subject.