That was a bit of hyperbole but you knew that. I have spent 4 years in New Orleans and there is huge amounts of racism in New Orleans if you just open your eyes. White cab drivers would tell you their personal beliefs on Blacks and use colorful language to express it. Heard many residents discuss their neighborhood compared to others and solely on the basis of race. Is the city or state racist? No But are there still a lot of Southern purists down there..... hell yeah. I got the same feedback from people living in Gulfport and Boloxi next door as well. I remember Tulane University had a big issue in with students displaying Confederate Flags in their dorm windows that faced the main avenue of the campus. Anyone who claims there still are not large clubs dedicated to the Confederacy and Antibellum ways and traditions are being obtuse on purpose.
Yeah, have you not seen the videos online where college aged people are asked history questions? The above is only evidence of the dumbing down of the education system. The dumbing down of our education system has well dumb the younger population down. Watch this video. The first guys answer to who was the first president was George W. Bush. The history major had no idea when WWII ended and missed the signing of the Declaration of Independence by 3 years.
How would you know ... unless you asked them? And why would you ask them? Would a Klansman ask another Klansman whether or not they liked Blacks? Some things are just understood between birds of a feather; and aren't discussed--because they don't need to be.
We are definitely getting dumber which makes no sense because information is more readily avaialble online. If I say something you never heard of, in 30 seconds you can have all the background info you need with just a quick glance at google... It is not just poor inner city schools with dwindling resources, even top notch public schools and private schools, they throw facts at the kids to spit back on tests and they never learn to critically think. You don't need to memorize what the Middle Passage is or 13th Amednment v. Emancipation to spit out 10 years later but if you teach them to think they will know that information by hard as part of analysis. My kid is pretty smart but I doubt he retains anything from U.S. history from 2 years ago because he is being bombarded with more info he has to memorize and spit back like a robot and then more again next year. I wanted to know about Thomas Jefferson so I bought the book by Jon Meachem. Our kids will spend 30 seconds reading a wikipedia entry.
How in the hell can anyone that grew up going to US schools not know the year 1776? The history major didn't know. Was Idiocarcy prophetic?
Sadly American history taught in K-12 public schools is no longer focused on dates - it is taught in context of societal trends. In fact, dates & years are rarely mentioned. For many students -- they would be lucky to know what century the Declaration of Independence was released in much less the actual year.