This article is part of TPM Cafe, TPM’s home for opinion and news analysis.
This is a companion discussion topic for the original entry at https://talkingpointsmemo.com/?p=1317842
This is a companion discussion topic for the original entry at https://talkingpointsmemo.com/?p=1317842
Woodrow Wilson was in wide company in being a white supremacist at the turn of the 20th century, but he stands apart in having overseen the triumph of this ideology at home and abroad.
Yes.
Great article, Mr. Woodard (assuming you’re reading this).
Thanks.
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Wow, he was a real POS even in his time.
I know a few people who still think like him.
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I believe the author means Oliver Garrison Villard, not William Lloyd Garrison who was long dead by Wilson’s presidency.
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Please correct the President Taft defeated by Wilson was William Howard Taft (not Robert, who was one of his sons and someone who later sought the Presidency. He lost to Eisenhower at the GOP Convention). Historians should probably have caught that mistake. Thanks.
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POC know about Wilson.
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I read this over the weekend. An account of the human toll of Wilson’s segregation of the federal civil service.
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" Those living in the Axis powers’ former colonial possessions…"
If the rest of this article is as careless and mistaken as that statement…
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I got the typical American education that had zero information about Tulsa, Trail of Tears. Andrew Jackson, Woodrow Wilson, Christopher Columbus, etc., etc. etc. Maybe one sentence about Jefferson having slaves? I was raised in Los Angeles, so this wasn’t the knowledge twisting of the South.
Everything I have learned about the multiple horrors of American history has been basically self taught through reading, watching educational television and lately podcasts. It does not make me hate my country, but rather to hope that these terrible acts can be honestly revealed, discussed and used to make sure we don’t keep doing it over and over again. Bring on the reparations, the apologies, the truth and reconciliation. Burn the fake histories and replace them with books that discuss these things in context in a realistic and mature manner. Tear down the monuments to slave traders and genocidal conquerors. We can rise above our shame and be something truly good, but the first step is the truth.
As any recovering alcoholic can tell you, there can be no progress without a full and complete admission and acceptance of the harm he has done. I believe MAGA is code for resurrecting those history books of white washed bullshit, but we cannot do that. Thanks to all of the people taking videos of police cruelty and violence - they have started to expose a gangrenous wound to the air which is the only way to start curing this ubiquitous evil and denial in our country.
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You’re right, of course!
And on that cheerful note, welcome.
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The first Mrs. Wilson was SUCH a delicate Southern flower that she apparently physically recoiled from all the black people freely wandering about Washington, DC.
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Even when you are aware, the amount of information was slim. So the numerous incidents were only represented by a few iconic ones. That is not a complete picture. I never knew about Tulsa. Where did I first hear about it, in the prelude discussions to a science fiction series (Watchmen). That is a sad commentary.
There is a flip side on this also. The MAGA crowd, before they were MAGA has spent a great deal of time telling us what is wrong with the country, how sad we have become and tarnished what has been good. It is just what they decide is so terrible and repeatedly say so, has no reality. It is only what they think they want. There needs to be an antidote to that as well.
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But I will defend to the death my right to continue to refer to the building as Woody Woo. To me, that’s as sacred as the Tappan Zee Bridge, Sixth Avenue, and National Airport. And if I could, I’d bring back Idlewild. Wonderful name that just rolls off the tongue.
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Whenever I hear someone say they left the Democratic Party because, “It no longer represents me”…
It’s usually because the Democratic Party hasn’t represented them since about…oh…1919.
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Or 1964.
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The Democratic party needs to rid itself of some of its “heritage”. Like Jefferson, Jackson, and Wilson.
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I found the article to be disturbing and enlightening but also urge you to fix a couple of basic historical errors as they undermine an otherwise excellent piece. In the election of 1912, the Republican incumbent was William Howard Taft, not Robert Taft, who was his son and became the scourge of organized labor as the Senate leader in 1947-48. The United States fought in World War I against the Triple Alliance, Germany, the Audtro-Hungarian and Ottoman Empires, not the Axis, who were our enemies in the sequel.
As a 60-year old who has long been a lover of American history, I am outraged that none of these incredibly disturbing facts about Wilson were taught in American schools when I was a young student.
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He wasn’t worse than I thought. He’s always been number two on my list of horribles, right after Jackson. They set out to do the worst damage possible, and they exceeded their expectations.
Nice to see him given his due for a change.
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Yes, there are those.
(The writer is a journalist!)
Yes, you had to find it out for yourself – against the mainstream.
Howard Zinn wrote A People’s History for exactly this reason. You can recommend it to all and sundry. There’s even a version for kids.
And there are other books as well.
Oh, and welcome!
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More like 1948, Hubert Humphrey, civil rights plank, yadda yadda.
FDR was a hero to African Americans, but he did as little as he could get away with to directly address racial disparities and injustice. Luckily, as little as he could get away with was not nothing, thanks to Eleanor. She was a mensh.
The real divorce was final only after Reagan rejiggered the party to please them, starting in Philadelphia.
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