ABSTRACT
The author argues that the U.S. history curriculum in high school maintains oppressive hierarchies of power and examines the ways the ideology of American exceptionalism informs history textbooks. This approach to history prevents critical thinking and whitewashes the narrative, presenting the violence of White supremacy as accidental and something of the past. American history is oversimplified and follows a linear trajectory of gradual progress. Students learn about successions of events, often delinked from each other. American exceptionalism suggests that the U.S. is a unique nation and that the problems of the past were confronted and resolved. The author proposes two theoretical tools, namely, “racial capitalism” and “settler colonialism” to study American history from the standpoint of subjugated groups. While American exceptionalism attempts to erase the history of violence, “racial capitalism” and “settler colonialism” foster critical thinking. The chapter shows that history cannot be understood as an abstract progression of events but is rather the result of power struggles between dominant classes and subjugated groups. What leads to progress in a society is not a deterministic dynamic as American exceptionalism would like us to believe. Instead, students should be taught that positive transformations in a society (i.e., the abolition of slavery, Reconstruction, or the recognition of Indigenous rights) are primarily the result of struggle and resistance by the subjugated communities.
