Hacker News Reader

Comment by TaylorAlexander | Hacker News Reader

Yes even going back to Pearl Harbor, President Roosevelt rewrote his drafts of his speech to obscure the fact that the Philippines, a major site of the attack, was also a US colony.

"How to Hide an Empire", Daniel Immerwahr

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZaKOOqXDnqA

View on HN

I was really surprised to find out, as an american, standing with feet on the ground in Manila, near age 30, having grown up in the US and gone to public schools, that the Philippines had been a US Territory off and on, on par with Puerto Rico, for about 50 years starting around 1898. There's even a big obelisk in the center of Union Square in San Francisco commemorating this event, it turns out.

None of this was ever covered in public schools. I realize there's a lot of history to cover and kids can only absorb so much, but when people talk about "only focusing on europe and the middle east" it's good to have a couple of concrete examples. The Philippines actually has a larger english speaking population than the UK. Anyways, it always seemed that the Philippines got conveniently swept under the rug when discussing things like WW2 and American Imperialism.

Yes certainly. I recently started listening to the audiobook A Peoples History of the United States and there is a LOT of history we don't cover. Right now I am listening to a talk by Noam Chomsky about inequality and it's remarkable that the top % of the wealthy that have control over the country also do not go to public schools. It's as if we have a second school system for the subservient class.

Public schools in some districts are terrible. If you can afford to send your children to private school, that’s an easier option than changing the entire public school system in your district (unless you’re Bill Gates).

Both you and the person you are replying to are correct. I don't know if you were trying to refute their claim.

Of course it goes without saying that even the public schools in Medina, WA (home of Bill Gates and Jeff Bezos) are some of the best in the nation.

Gates sent his kids to local private schools.

And went on to try to change the education system?

Why do you think they are cancelling AP classes in San Francisco and California under the guise of social justice? It's to further weaken the underclass since the rich don't even go to public school.

> Why do you think they are cancelling AP classes in San Francisco and California under the guise of social justice?

Can you document this? I'm a southern California resident, and I keep hearing stuff like this from people online, but I know no local examples of this at all.

https://edsource.org/2021/california-math-guidance-sparks-ne...

https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2021/07/why-univer...

I read the first link and some supporting links like “a pathway to equitable math instruction”:

https://equitablemath.org/

This is…. Reprehensible

Quite dystopian.

Equal opportunity is a universal value that everyone can agree to strive for.

Equalized outcomes is a dystopian nightmare (equity).

The move to blur the lines between these two concepts is disturbing.

In what way?

As sibling wrote very well:

“ Equal opportunity is a universal value that everyone can agree to strive for.

Equalized outcomes is a dystopian nightmare (equity).”

https://www.thestranger.com/slog/2020/01/24/42658513/seattle...

Having gone to high school in California, we never covered Mexican-american or Spanish-american wars, civil war focused almost exclusively on slavery. 90% of WW2 was about Japanese internment or how racist nuking Japan was. History of Communism was never mentioned for obvious reasons.

The public schools (at least in Washington State) are run by the teachers' union, which is the most powerful political entity in the state.

The teacher's union does not dictate the curriculum.

Typically the state legislatures dictate what is in the curriculum broadly, sometimes extra specifically, and the administrators and teachers create their lessons to satisfy the legislation.

How does the teacher's union suppress subject matters in the history department?

> the state legislatures dictate

It's very hard to get elected in this state without a teachers' union endorsement.

It doesn't follow that they suppress Filipino colonization, is there some example of teachers union demanding of legislators that they pass laws like that?

It's also hard to get elected without people voting for you, or funding for political campaigns.

The Army ran out of Native Americans to massacre, so they arranged another indigenous group to terrorize for the next several decades. (It really was the same racist officers doing the same racist shit.) Some Filipinos had thought USA military would join them in overthrowing Spanish tyranny, but they soon discovered the actual intent was to replace Spain. Decent Americans like Mark Twain were horrified, but the war media was full of lies about subhuman savages who needed American government so most Americans had no idea. Plus ça change...

In this context should point to the War Prayer https://warprayer.org/ which Twain probably wrote in response to the Spanish-American war.

Hmm, don’t know what school you went to, but in my American public school they certainly covered the Spanish-American war, and the consequent status of the Philippines. Spanish colony, turned over to the U.S., taken over by Japan, independant after WWII ended.

An excellent source for USA/Philippine history, and other history is Dan Carlin's Hardcore History podcasts. This one in particular for that topic: https://www.dancarlin.com/product/hardcore-history-49-the-am...

But all his podcasts are phenomenal

Interesting, thanks.

I just read this post on Popehat[0] recounting an event while Ken White was working for an LA federal judge back in the day. He was brought to a ceremony conducted by Judge Ronald S.W. Lew where numerous, VERY elderly Filipino WW2 veterans were granted US Citizenship. This was promised to them in addition to veteran's benefits by FDR in exchange for recruitment into the war effort, and after the war quietly swept under the rug by the congress.

[0] - https://www.popehat.com/2020/07/04/the-fourth-of-july-rerun/

Reply on news.ycombinator.com