ABSTRACT
Today, the dominant mythology of the United States emphasizes the country's early creation and development as mostly being about white courage, hard work, and commitments to freedom. Over nearly four centuries now, an estimated 60 to 70 million African Americans have lived under systemic white racism. Their enslavement, legal segregation, and contemporary oppression have had profound impacts not only on themselves but on many other aspects of United States. Bringing an honest account of white-on-black oppression and black resistance to oppression into the retelling and writing of U.S. history would require a dramatic change in that history's overall presentation and general interpretation. Over the long history of white oppression of Americans of color, racism has been systemic and foundational. Most of the white leaders of the American Revolution did not revolt for real democracy but to protect the economic and political institutions of a slavery-based society generating much white wealth and prosperity.
