Comments on: Why write about history? Because it matters http://trueslant.com/aoscruggs/2009/08/19/why-write-about-history-because-it-matters/ a 21st century take on race, ethnicity and identity Thu, 04 Mar 2010 20:21:58 -0500 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.9.2 hourly 1 By: lmgipson http://trueslant.com/aoscruggs/2009/08/19/why-write-about-history-because-it-matters/comment-page-1/#comment-52 lmgipson Wed, 19 Aug 2009 21:28:26 +0000 http://trueslant.com/aoscruggs/?p=442#comment-52 I love inspiring brilliance! Thanks for this thorough piece and for the shout out! Let the record reflect that I believe history is very instructive, and I'm a history buff. My argument was that those who prefer to view U.S. life as perpetual progress along with those who've become tone deaf to Black references to our besieged and bloody past on these shores are always looking for an "out," and any discussion that begins with "back in the 19th century" allows them to be dismissive and charge irrelevance. In the end, it doesn't matter since sound logic and reasoning aren't what their ears are attuned to in the first place. History is not affirmation of their own self-serving agenda, one with its own reformist history as clean as snow. I love inspiring brilliance! Thanks for this thorough piece and for the shout out! Let the record reflect that I believe history is very instructive, and I’m a history buff. My argument was that those who prefer to view U.S. life as perpetual progress along with those who’ve become tone deaf to Black references to our besieged and bloody past on these shores are always looking for an “out,” and any discussion that begins with “back in the 19th century” allows them to be dismissive and charge irrelevance. In the end, it doesn’t matter since sound logic and reasoning aren’t what their ears are attuned to in the first place. History is not affirmation of their own self-serving agenda, one with its own reformist history as clean as snow.

]]> By: Caitlin Kelly http://trueslant.com/aoscruggs/2009/08/19/why-write-about-history-because-it-matters/comment-page-1/#comment-51 Caitlin Kelly Wed, 19 Aug 2009 18:44:53 +0000 http://trueslant.com/aoscruggs/?p=442#comment-51 Thanks for this. I think it's essential to know, share and reference history. One of the elements of the health care debacle right now is that it's the same-old-same-old, as Jill Quadagno decribed well in her recent book, a history of the many prior attempts going back decades to initiate something similar. However quaint it seems to some, knowing and talking about what happened 50, 100 or 300 years ago helps put things into a larger context. Change is rarely that quick. Thanks for this. I think it’s essential to know, share and reference history. One of the elements of the health care debacle right now is that it’s the same-old-same-old, as Jill Quadagno decribed well in her recent book, a history of the many prior attempts going back decades to initiate something similar.

However quaint it seems to some, knowing and talking about what happened 50, 100 or 300 years ago helps put things into a larger context. Change is rarely that quick.

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