About that "when facts don't fit the narrative" thingy

Alabama's segregationist Governor George Wallace blocking the entrance to the University of Alabama to prevent two black students enrolling at the University of Alabama, 11 June 1963. Photograph: AP

 

Sigh.  So not only is today the 50 anniversary of the assassination of Medgar Evers it is also the 50th anniversary of the former Alabama Governor George C. Wallace's famous stand in the school house door  preventing Vivian Malone Jones and James Hood from enrolling in the University of Alabama. 

So what is the media driven narrative of the day......White Americans are the good guys of history.

The truth is, like everyone else, White Americans are a mix of good and evil.
That said, they are nowhere nearly as good as they imagine. That for several reasons:

1. American exceptionalism. They see themselves as being above history, the shining city on the hill, a light to all the world, what the whole world wants to be like. God is on their side. This goes back to the Puritans. They thought God was on their side too – as they burned peaceful Pequot Indians alive. Little has changed.
2. Moral blindness. To maintain their self-image as Basically Good they do not face up to the evil they do – which makes them yet more evil.
3. They write the history books - as winners do. But, as if basking in their own whitewashed mythology was not good enough, they also believe in the Teflon Theory of History:  that anything bad that took place over 30 years ago is Ancient History – it has Absolutely No Effect on the present.
4. They control the world’s biggest media machine – meaning they live in a land filled with their own self-serving lies and point of view.

Case in point, a quick Google Search regarding the Anniversary will take you A daughter's Struggle to Overcome A Legacy of Segregation: NPR and A view from the football office:  Assistant Coach remembers Stand in the Schoolhouse Door.  It's more about whites than blacks.  But that's to expected from the Alabama press.

On another note, I can't figure out how blacks can forgive and forget former Governor George Wallace's real sins,  yet some white American's (not to be confused with all) can't forgive Joe Reed for standing up and fighting for equal, civil and human rights and standing up for public education, and public school educators?

SMH