History, Russian Meddling, and a Future Potential Election Loss
Americans often say things like, “History doesn’t matter.” Americans often allow conservative politicians or people with conservative cultural/political agendas to write and distribute history textbooks. We are creating a group of Americans who do not know history, and our ignorance is putting our democracy in peril.
Does anybody remember those School House Rock commercials? I remember them. When watching the ancient after school specials, those little gritty commercials came on with a catchy Seventies jingle in order to teach. They taught history, civics, and government. Those were the days! We were morally instructed by the afternoon movie and filled with American pride by the commercials.
Now, School House Rock and after school movies are a thing of the long ago past. Recently, my students shared with me that they do not even watch regular television. That’s old technology for old folk. They get all of their entertainment via streaming services.
These are the same students who have also never heard of the real Rick Ross, who have never heard any LL Cool J songs, and cannot name their state senators or representatives. While Russian meddling in our elections is absolutely nothing new, it is increasingly becoming a whole lot easier.
Russian meddling occurred during the Cold War. It’s occurring now. The difference between now and then is the medium. During the Cold War, Soviets and Communists used leaflets and newspapers to display America’s shameful race relations before the world. It is during the Cold War, when America’s segregationist policies all but guaranteed Communists a moral victory (if not a real, practical one), that Mississippi became a poster child for all that was wrong with America. But that’s another posting.
It is easier for Russians to meddle in America’s elections, because our students simply do not know anything about America. They know nothing about REAL American history, how our representative democracy works or about our tortured racial past. We have allowed conservative politicians or those with a conservative agenda to carefully remove certain facts from our history textbooks. We have turned our heads while our public schools have been on a test-taking agenda, and classes that do not garner them an “A” rating from the state are understaffed or cut. Most of the time, this includes not only the arts, but also classes like history, civics, and minority/gender studies. And while this ignorance may better serve one political party over another, it is hurting democracy as a whole.
Let me give you a case in point. During one of the Democratic debates, I was outraged at how the candidates attacked the front runner, former Vice President Joe Biden. I’m not saying that I’m a Biden fan or even a Democrat. What I was outraged about is how these politicians would use the ignorance of a certain age group to talk about the 1994 Crime Bill.
Yes, my students asked me about that bill the very next morning during a sweltering 8 o’clock class. I asked my students had any of them heard of the War on Drugs. Of course the answer was no. I asked them had they heard of mandatory minimums. Of course they had not. I asked if they’d even heard the slogan, “Just Say No.” With much laughter, they told me “no.”
Of course they sat and tried to figure out my age as I related stories to them of how we had assemblies for the First Lady’s “Just Say No” campaign. After they laughed, I explained to the students that back in the dinosaur days, before the time of ubiquitous cell phone use, America experienced a crack epidemic. It was much like today’s opioid crisis, except that the drugs were illegal and most of the users were Black. It was the 1980s, black-male-on-black-male homicide sky-rocketed and Black folk were strung out on a drug that the church simply did not have an answer for. It was during that time that our president, Ronald Reagan, declared a “War on Drugs.” Several bills were passed that seemed to skirt the Constitution and created a nightmare of criminality and long prison sentences for Black males (almost exclusively).
The Comprehensive Crime Control Act of 1984, along with the Anti-Drug Abuse Act of 1986, re-instituted the death penalty, established mandatory minimums, and created a discrepancy in sentencing for crack cocaine and powder cocaine. The War on Drugs and its legislation militarized the police, seemed to target Black males with a scalpel, and devastated entire neighborhoods. It DID NOT establish more resources for those struggling with drug addiction. It DID NOT help reform the penal system. It DID NOT make any neighborhoods safer. It exploded the prison population and made Black males the modern-day face of criminality and dysfunction.
Ten years later, the 1994 Crime Bill was Congress’ attempt at a “correction” of the very racially-biased bill of 1986. Then, the Republicans won midterm election and took the country back to the original 1984 and 1986 bills.
Confusing? It’s called retrenchment. And it is simply a rolling back of hard-won rights. Confusing? Yes, to the students who did not live through that time, have never heard of any of these things at home or school, and who only have what current politicians and bloggers have to say about such things. I told the students that not only are Russians targeting African Americans and planting divisive rhetoric in our social media accounts, but our politicians are also weaponizing their historical ignorance to win points at the poll. And they are wrong. Dead wrong. The average politician knows what retrenchment is and some may have participated in it. Those who have fought against retrenchment knows how confusing and devastating the dog fight can be. Why knowingly and willingly throw out things about the 1994 crime bill, which was already a correction on a horrible bill, for points in a poll? That’s a very cheap trick, and worst, it is taking advantage of young people who have no strong history departments, no School House Rock, and no first-hand experience of the real situation.
Alas, this was a Composition 101 class. I could not get into the concept of retrenchment as deeply as I would like. It’s okay. Some of the students became obsessed with Rick Ross, and they are still researching him and the crack epidemic (sometimes, right through my lecture). I could be angry at them, but I’d rather have them informed than led astray by Russia or our own politicians.
Actually, this comes from my Composition 101 class. As always, if you like this article, press the hands to the left. Or, you could enroll in one of my classes.
