The Stories We Tell: How Society Shapes History to Serve Its Ideology
There’s an old saying: history is written by the victors. But the problem with that statement is that it implies history is static—that once written, it stays that way. The truth is, history is rewritten constantly, not just by the victors of the past but by those who hold power in the present. And more often than not, the way we remember and teach history serves a very particular ideology, one that upholds systems of power and oppression.
Take Christopher Columbus. My daughter homeschools our little ones, and she asked if I could take a stab at teaching American history to our 7 year old. As a reminder, I'm a certified and experience teacher...in English, Theater, Speech, and Reading. Not in history, but I am quite the history buff. Or so I thought. How much did I really know about the "discovery" of America? Turns out, not enough to teach it accurately.
For decades, American students learned a sanitized version of ol' Chris's story—how he bravely sailed the ocean blue in 1492 and “discovered” America. What was left out? The enslavement, brutality, and genocide of Indigenous peoples. I took the girls to the National Museum of the American Indian and found a book in the gift shop titled "The Lies My Teacher Told Me About Christopher Columbus." It analyzes over 22 textbooks used in the U.S. and compares them against what we actually know from first-person accounts, including Columbus's.
In the midst of my studying what has been omitted from the historic narrative, I'm perplexed and alarmed by current events. It's not lost on me that the facts about what was enacted on our indigenous people is not just an omission; it’s a deliberate shaping of history to serve a nationalistic and Eurocentric narrative. When you frame colonization as a heroic act rather than an invasion, you justify centuries of oppression that followed. And when history textbooks present this version as fact, generations grow up believing it.
The Power of Selective Memory
This is not just about Columbus. It’s about how history is remembered in a way that reinforces dominant ideologies. The Civil Rights Movement? It’s often boiled down to a few paragraphs about Martin Luther King Jr.’s dream, omitting his critiques of capitalism, policing, and war. Slavery? Too often framed as an unfortunate but necessary economic system, rather than an act of terrorism against Black bodies. Reconstruction? Branded as a failed experiment rather than a period of violent white resistance that dismantled Black political and economic gains (if you read my blog regularly, you'll remember that I went down the dark hole of reading about Reconstruction this summer).
When society chooses what to remember—and more importantly, what to forget—it shapes public perception in ways that justify existing inequalities. This doesn’t just happen in K-12 education; it’s embedded in our laws, policies, and institutions. And nowhere is this clearer than in the criminal justice system.
How History Shaped Mass Incarceration
The dominant narrative around crime in America is that it’s an issue of personal responsibility—bad choices made by bad people. But that narrative conveniently ignores history. It doesn’t acknowledge how Black Codes and convict leasing after the Civil War laid the groundwork for mass incarceration. It skips over the role of redlining, economic disinvestment, and over-policing in creating cycles of poverty and incarceration. It refuses to question how the War on Drugs, framed as a crime-fighting measure, was really a war on Black and brown communities.
If we don’t teach this history, we allow people to believe that our criminal justice system is simply about law and order, rather than a mechanism of racial and social control. And if that’s the case, why change it? Why reform something that isn’t broken?
The Role of Correctional Education in Rewriting the Narrative
So, what happens when the very people affected by these policies—incarcerated individuals—finally get access to education? Do they get a curriculum that challenges these dominant narratives? Or do they get the same sanitized version that serves the status quo?
Unfortunately, many correctional education programs focus solely on workforce training, avoiding topics that might encourage critical thinking about history, society, and justice. But imagine if that changed. What if history courses in prison covered redlining, the school-to-prison pipeline, and the deliberate criminalization of Black and brown communities? What if incarcerated students were given the tools to analyze the systems that led to their incarceration, rather than just being told to make better choices?
This is not just about education; it’s about empowerment. It’s about giving people access to a fuller, more honest history so they can challenge the narratives that have been used to control them.
The Fight Over Truth
The pushback against Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) initiatives in schools and workplaces is not just about politics; it’s about controlling the story. When states ban the teaching of African American history or restrict discussions of systemic racism, or make it illegal to use language acknowledging the existence of our LGBTQ+ communities, they're making a deliberate choice about what version of history should be remembered. And just like the old myths about Columbus, these choices shape society’s understanding of justice and equity for generations to come.
If we want a future built on truth and justice, we must fight for a history that reflects both. That means pushing for more inclusive education—not just in schools but in correctional education as well. It means challenging the narratives that justify inequality. And it means recognizing that history isn’t just about the past; it’s about the present and the future. And it certainly shouldn't include the dismantling of the US Department of Education.
The stories we tell shape the world we live in. Let’s make sure we’re telling them with facts and not fiction.
