One of the mistakes that America has made and has tried to correct is the mistake of discrimination, and racial discrimination has had the biggest impact on America.

Racial discrimination has dictated where people lived, what jobs they could have,where they can go to school, and much more in history.

We can avoid those awful truths of the past from manifesting themselves again in our lives by just learning history.

Some may argue that history is too “white washed” or that U.S. history puts too much emphasis on slavery. Those that argue history is whitewashed may point to the idea of Columbus being the first person to discover America is taught in the classroom.

Although personally I don’t believe it is historically accurate to teach that  Columbus was the first European to step foot on America, let alone discover it. His coming to America had a profound impact on the region, its people and the world that should be taught in history class.

Those that say we place too much emphasis on slavery in U.S. history do not want students to learn about America’s dark past. By limiting what students are taught, they never learn about the evils of slave labor and the racism that was in at the time and that still exists in America.

Now saying that, we should be careful about learning history in an Eurocentrist view. That is just looking at history through the lense of a western civilization or European. We need to look at history through several different lenses so Europe doesn’t get all the focus. Even though Europe does deserve some attention because of its heavy impact on the world. We should also look at history through the African, Asian and American view. By American I mean like South America, and North America.

When we learn about other cultures and look at history through their lenses, we learn more about the world. In doing so, we will limit racism, and eventually eradicateing it from the world.

I’m not saying that one view of history is better than another, and I’m definitely not saying that history can’t be manipulated into institutionalizing racism.

All that I’m saying is that history is so valuable, because it teaches us about the past mistakes so hopefully we don’t commit those same mistakes.

Those who are knowledgeable about the past, and present will stay free in the future. If everyone can do that, then the idea of racism will cease to exist.