 In that movie, the three civil rights workers get killed in the first five minutes; for the rest of its two hours the movie portrays not a single civil rights worker or black Mississippian over Nike Online USA the age of twelve with whom the viewer could possibly identify Instead, Parker concocts two fictional white FBI agents who Air Max 2011 play out the hoary "good cop/bad cop" formula and in the process doublehandedly solve the murders. In realitythat is, in the real story on which the movie is basedsupporters of t nike air max 97 he civil rights movement, including Michael Schwerner's widow, Rita, and every white northern friend the movement could muster, pressured Congress and the executive branch of the federal government to tbrce th nike air max 2009 e FBI to open a Mississippi office and make bringing the murderers to justice a priority. Meanwhile, Hoover tapped Schwerner's father's telephone to see if he might be a communist! Everyone in eastern Mississippi knew for weeks who had committed the murder and that the Neshoba County deputy WATCHING BIG BROTHER -227 sheriff was involved. No innovative police work was required; the FBI finally apprehended the conspirators after bribing one of them with $30,000 to testify against the others.57 American history textbooks offer a Parkerlike analysis of the entire civil rights movement. Like the arrests of the Mississippi Klansmen, advances in civil rights are simply the result of good government. Federal initiative in itself "explains" such milestones as the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Voting Rights Act of 1965. John F. Kennedy proposed them, Lyndon Baines Johnson passed them through Congress, and thus we have them today. Or, in the immortal passive voice of American History, "Another civil rights measure, the Voting Rights Act, was passed." Several textbooks even reverse the time order, putting the bills first, the civil rights movement later.58 Only American Adventures and Discovering American History show the basic dynamics of the civil rights movement: African Nike USA Store Americans, often with white allies, challenged an unjust law or practice in a nonviolent way, which then incited whites to respond barbarically to defend "civilization," in turn appalling the nation and convincing some people to change the law or practice. Only the same two books celebrate the courage of the ci nike air max 180 vil rights volunteers. And only Discovering American History tells how the movement directly challenged the mores of segregation, with the result that some civil rights workers were killed or nike air max shop beaten by white racists simply f nike air max 90 current or holding hands as an interracial couple or eating together in a restaurant. No book educates students about the dynamics that in a democracy should characterize the interrelationship between the people and their government.59 Thus no book tells how citizens can and in fact have forced the government to respond to them. Instead, textbooks tell us about the outstanding leadership of John F, Kennedy on civil rights. The Challenge of freedom provides a typical treatment: President Kennedy and his administration responded to the call for racial equality. In June 1963 the President asked for congressional action on far-reaching equal rights laws. Following the President's example, thousands of Americans became involved in the equal rights movement as well. In August 1963 more than 200,000 people took part in a march in Washington, D.C. This account reverses leader and led. In reality, Kennedy initially tried to stop the march and sent his vice-president to Norway to keep him away from it because he felt Lyndon Johnson was too procivil rights. Even Arthur 238 ?LIES MY T E A C H E R TOLD ME Schlesinger, Jr., a Kennedy partisan, has dryly noted that "the best spirit of Kennedy was largely absent from the racial deliberations of his presidency."60 The damage is not localized to the unfounded boost textbooks give to Kennedy's reputation, however. When describing the attack on segregation that culminated in the 1954 Supreme Court decision, Triumph of the American Nation makes no mention that African Americans were the plaintiffs an nike air max tn d attorneys in Brown v. Board of Education or that prior cases also brought by the NAACP prepared the way.61 Today many black students think that desegregation was something the federal gov nike air max 360 ernment imposed on the black community. They have no idea it was something the black community forced on the federal government.62 Meanwhile, young white Americans can reasonably infer that the federal government ha nike air max women s been nice enough to blacks. Crediting the federal government for actions instigated by African Americans and their white allies surely disempowers African American students today, surely helps them feel that they "have never done anything," as Malcolm X put it. Textbooks treat the environmental movement similarly, telling how "Congress passed" the laws setting up the Environmental Protection Buy Nike USA Agency while giving little or no attention to the environmental crusade. Students are again left to infer that the government typically does the right thing on its own. Many teachers don't help; a study of twelve randomly selected teachers of twelfth - grade American government courses found that about the only way the teachers suggested that individuals could influence local or national governments was through voting.63 Textbook authors seem to believe that Americans can be loyal to their government only so long as they believe it has never done anything bad. Textbooks therefore present a U.S. government that deserves students' allegiance, not their criticism. "We live in the greatest country in the world," wrote James F. Delong, an associate of the right-wing textbook critic Mel Gabler, in his critique ofAmerican Adventures, "Any book billing itself as a story of this country should certainly get that heritage and pride across." American Adventures, in conveying the basic dynamic of the civil rights movement, implies that the US. government was not d nike air max trainers oing all it should for civil rights. Perhaps as a result, Adventures failed Delong's patriotism test: "I will not, 1 can not endorse it for use in our schools,"64 T nike air max wright he textbooks' sycophantic presentations of the federal government may help win adoptions, but they don't win students' attention. It is boring to read about all the good things the government did nike air max 95 on its own, with no dramatic struggles. Moreover, most adult Americans no longer trust the government as credulously as they did in the 1950s, Between about 1960 and 1974 revelation W A T C H I N G B I G B R O T H E R ?329 after revelation of misconduct and deceit in the federal executive branch shattered the trust of the nike air max shop American people, as confirmed in poll after opinion poll. Textbook authors, since they are unwilling to say bad things about the government, come across as the last innocents in America. Their trust is poignant. They present students with a benign government whose statements should be believed. This is hardly the opinion of their parents, who, according to opinion polls, remain deeply skeptical of what leaders in the federal government tell them.
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