Growing up in New York, I can strongly remember my 5th-grade Social Studies and American History teacher. His awkward demeanor always stood out to the class. Adorned frequently in hippy-ish dress and with an unforgettable voice, he constantly reminded our class that America was not always America. This admonishment was to bring to light the fact that America was founded on the original 13 Colonies. He drilled into us the American Colonization, which began in Jamestown before moving to Massachusetts and then to New York.<\/p>\n
My thoughts on colonialism have always initially centered on how America was once occupied by Indigenous people and the displacement that occurred as a result of colonialism. Extractive Colonialism was also a term I became familiar with in college. This type of colonialism centers on gaining raw materials from specific areas. Colonizers would displace indigenous people in the hope of extracting precious materials or goods. This has been a past practice in Asia and Africa, with recent documentaries and movies such as Between Two Worlds, based on the life of Spanish Soldier Gonzalo Guerrero, and \u201cThe Black Panther\u201d giving a more intentional light to colonialism and its ramifications.<\/p>\n
Biblically, as I look at the Babylonian and Assyrian conquests, history is extremely depicted by colonialism. In my estimation, colonizers displacing indigenous people to gain their resources is both fraudulent and heinous; however, this has historically been widely regarded as an accepted past practice. This problem remains persistent and prevalent today as countries engage in war and rumors of war with colonization as an end-game objective.<\/p>\n
My Beliefs with Ferudi<\/strong><\/p>\n As I wrestle with the complexities associated with the past, I can affirm that some of my beliefs mirror Ferudi\u2019s. He cites the burning of books as an example and how many hide under the banner of outdated to justify their actions. In a phrase coined The Ideology of the Year Zero, he describes the passion for rewriting history by abolishing or renaming something. [1] I do agree some things could benefit from a renaming or abolishing, however another truth exists, and that is self-centeredness can often be a culprit. Ferudi says the prevailing obsessive impulse to settle scores with the past is underpinned by a narcissistic tendency to evaluate history from the standpoint of contemporary cultural conventions.[2]<\/p>\n A second place of agreement landed me in the midst of Ferudi\u2019s take on Presentism. Are we victims of presentism? At times-yes. Ferudi cites that presentism encourages the narcissistic mode of consciousness that flatters its practitioners for being enlightened and aware, unlike those who inhabited the bad old days.[3] Something is to be said for an intentional pursuit of rapid change while simultaneously cutting the umbilical cord from the past. A detachment from the past is not always necessary, but it is harmful to the accomplishments, struggles, and pains felt prior. He also mentions the fueling of the cancel culture as a direct consequence of this mode of thinking. Presentism does have positive benefits, it creates a place for accountability to address historical wrongs and bring about policy changes.<\/p>\n How I was Challenged By Furedi<\/strong><\/p>\n My original perspective was the belief this book looked at the past with a singular lens. I am challenged to find a common ground that acknowledges the past without erasing things away in its entirety. There is an old saying in order to know where you are going, you must first understand where you are coming from. Being sensitive to the past and interpreting its significance is supremely subjective. There are many things that need to be bought back to remembrance. As he confronted the topic of language, I navigated within a polemic of sorts as I thought about the 1st Amendment and the rights surrounding Freedom of Speech. Also of note, the impact on younger generations; society is constantly pressured to forget. The pressure to forget has essential implications for how young people are socialized to acquire a view of the past. In effect, they are educated to forget and regard the past as a vast waistline where darkness reigns.[4]<\/p>\n Living in this culture, there is a movement designed to forget and remove much of the past. The past, in my perspective, does have a purpose as it creates a place and space for pause and reflection. Refusing to accept and address the past is a refusal of history. I also acknowledge there are forces at play engaged in a conscious movement to erase the past from history books. Addressing the history of the past is somewhat triggering for me as, living in my dark skin, I am reminded of the painful traumas and atrocities committed throughout American and world history. However ugly, egregious and, reprehensible these acts may have been, notwithstanding, the story still needs to be told.<\/p>\n [1] Frank Furedi, The War Against the Past; Why the West Must Fight for Its History (Cambridge, UK: Polity Press, 2024), 65. Growing up in New York, I can strongly remember my 5th-grade Social Studies and American History teacher. His awkward demeanor always stood out to the class. Adorned frequently in hippy-ish dress and with an unforgettable voice, he constantly reminded our class that America was not always America. This admonishment was to bring to light the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":202,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[3427,2967],"class_list":["post-40618","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-ferudi","tag-dlgp03","cohort-dlgp03"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40618","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/202"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=40618"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40618\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":40619,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40618\/revisions\/40619"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=40618"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=40618"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=40618"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\n[2] Furedi, 88.
\n[3] Furedi, 105.
\n[4] Furedi, 180.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"