"There's no question that the right-wing campaign to ban from American classrooms anything that might cause discomfort is dangerous. Anyone should be proud to belong to a nation whose heroes include Martin Luther King Jr. and Toni Morrison, two writers whom several school boards have banned. Along with a history of profound injustice, the United States has a long history of people who fought against it. Without examples of brave men and women who worked together to make progress toward justice, we will never have the will to make more. Those who cannot acknowledge past histories of progress are doomed to cynicism or resignation. Portraying all of American history as an engine of white supremacy, or all of German history as irrevocably poisoned by antisemitism, is bound to provoke backlash, and it already has. But even if it didn't, it wouldn't be true—and isn't the demand for historical reckoning itself a demand for truth?"
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Philosophers from the United StatesEssayists from the United StatesJews from the United StatesWomen academics from the United StatesPeople from Atlanta
Original Language: English
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"Historical Reckoning Gone Haywire", The New York Review of Books (October 19, 2023)
https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Susan_Neiman
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Susan Neiman
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