Before we turn to the Republican’s continued attempt at denialism and whitewashing of history, let us reflect on a few things that happened this week that can’t be denied.
A shout out to Marjorie Taylor Greene, aka MTG, the spawn of Sarah Palin, for not being a holocaust-denier. How am I certain about this in the age of disinformation, fake news and denialism?
This is what she said about forcing a person to wear a mask.
“You know, we can look back in a time in history where people were told to wear a gold star and they were definitely treated like second-class citizens, so much so that they were put in trains and taken to gas chambers in Nazi Germany,” Greene said. “And this is exactly the type of abuse that Nancy Pelosi is talking about.”
After public outcry over her statement, she doubled down:
“Vaccinated employees get a vaccination logo just like the Nazi’s forced Jewish people to wear a gold star,” Greene tweeted. “Vaccine passports & mask mandates create discrimination against unvaxxed people who trust their immune systems to a virus that is 99% survivable.”
Once again, I want to give a shout out to MTG for acknowledging the holocaust. But MTG, your logic is a bit off. You see, masks are mostly to protect others, so a carrier of the virus won’t kill someone; in reality, anti-maskers are more like the Nazis, not the Jews!
And MTG what’s with the “gold star” thing? The Jews stars were yellow, not gold. Didn’t anyone ever get you a box of Crayola Crayons? Big difference between yellow and gold. Gold stars are for children who behave in school or take out the trash. Are you winking and promulgating the trope that Jews were killed because they were such successful people, you know, the “money” people,” and had all the gold?
In the realm of there is no denying it, no matter how much The Don screams witch hunt, the Attorney General of NYC, Cy Vance, has opened up a grand jury investigation into The Don and his cronies. My memory tells me that in the good old days, witch-hunts didn’t end well. I’m betting that Cy Vance and his partner in anti-crime, NYS Attorney General Letitia James, would not be convening a grand jury if they didn’t have a shitload of damning evidence. Keep denying, screaming and whining about the witch-hunt Don, as you no longer have the bully pulpit of Twitter and no one can hear you. See you in court!
Now let us return to denialism, or “no way did that shit ever happen”. What better way to start off than by watching this iconic scene of denialism from “Monty Python and the Holy Grail”?
In my last piece “Gee, Gosh and Golly,” I wrote about the Offals continue denial of the January 6th insurrection, which they have reframed as spirited tourist event. Given this rewriting of history in plain sight, it is not surprising that the Offals are not backing a congressional investigation into WTF happened.
Rumor has it that one senator said: “Look, you know how many tourist events there have been at the Capitol since I have been senator? If we investigate this one, it will open a pandora’s box. Republicans are not going to waste their time investigating tourist events. We have to put our energy into making sure this tourist event is just a blip in the history books, just like slavery.”
Republicans are currently in an uproar over the idea that schools would consider including critical race theory in the curriculum. What is critical race theory? It is simply an attempt to look critically at the skewed narrative of history written by white people.
In other words, the idea that black historians and scholars can weigh in on telling the story of America, so what students are taught reflects the reality of America’s history, is beyond the pale. The effort to suppress this effort is just another example of white people oppressing black people. It is the white patriarchy continuing to whitewash America’s original sin of slavery.
In Texas, proposed legislation could limit the ways in which teachers can explain how racist thinking in the 19th century influenced the drafting of laws. Another bill would create an “1836 Project” promoting what it calls “patriotic education” about the state’s history. This bill would look at creating displays in parks and museums and come up with a pamphlet to be given to anyone getting a Texas driver’s license. This measure would gloss over the history of slavery and campaigns of anti-Mexican violence in Texas.
Lawmakers in states including Louisiana and New Hampshire have introduced similar bills that would essentially limit, or even prohibit, teaching about the legacies of slavery and segregationist policies that endure to this day.
For instance, students would not be able to get course credit for volunteering with a civil rights group or advocating for the rights of immigrants. What? That’s right. If your child wants to volunteer and advocate for immigrant and/or marginalized communities, they better do it on their own time. Maybe they should have volunteered to work for the NRA?
It is rumored that one state legislator from Texas became apoplectic when discussing The 1619 Project to discuss how slavery shaped U.S. history. Ranting and raving in the state capitol building he said:
“Slavery, slavery and slavery.” Black Lives Matter, blah, blah blah. That’s all these folks want to talk about.
America is the greatest country in the world and all these people want to do is denigrate it. It is time to stand up for America, not drag it down by talking about slavery. Just like the tourist event of loving patriots on January 6th was co-opted into a narrative of an insurrection for political gain for those who hate America, the narrative of slavery has been distorted as well. From where I sit, bringing black people here from Africa in 1619 was the beginning of the cruise industry.
And how the hell did the story of the Tulsa massacre come out after all these years? The hundred year anniversary of the destruction of Black Wall Street. Please. And we also have to listen to all the hubbub about Juneteenth.* I’m fed up! I propose to this legislative body that we deal with this nonsense by proposing Texas just remove the month of June from the calendar. And while we are at, how about we get rid of February as well, as that is Black History month.”
*Juneteenth is the oldest nationally celebrated commemoration of the ending of slavery in the United States. On June 19, 1865, a Union General rode into Galveston, Texas to announce that the Civil War had ended, and slaves had been freed.
The Grand Offal Party 