The first video below is a clear and to-the-point six-minute American history lesson. It is the duty of privileged white Americans, such as myself, to educate ourselves and others to the truth about Black history. There is a movement afoot at this time by Republicans, who seem to think lying is the way to go about most things, and especially about elections, to prohibit schools from teaching the truth about our past. They have laws that they’ve already proposed to this effect. This would be wrong and have a devastating effect on our civic understanding of our country and democracy. All Americans need to know the whole truth, even if it doesn’t fit with our traditionally Pollyannish notions about our past. Even though some of that truth is ugly. Knowing these ugly truths can push us to not repeat them and to fix problems that still exist. These truths about our history explain much about life in America today.

What follows is this no nonsense half hour by John Oliver on the same subject.