Critical Race Theory: Last Week Tonight with John Oliver (HBO)

As a German, not feeling discomfort during history lessons sounds like an utterly alien concept... Sometimes feeling discomfort is important.

It must be frustrating being a reasonable and intelligent American, knowing you are slightly outnumbered by fools with maximum confidence and minimum intelligence.

As a British person, discomfort about history is kinda constant. Basically every country and ethnicity in the world was hurt by us at some point. And ignoring that entirely would just be unacceptable.

I watched the movie "The wave" (1981) at school when I was a teenager, and it really made me think how easy it is to brainwash people into discrimination.

HE'S BACK! Our favourite depressed pigeon in a suit is back!

Living in Indiana, a state that now has some of the most oppressive anti-CRT laws in the country, I learned about the trail of tears in 1st grade and the worst excesses of slavery in the 5th. Neither made me feel bad about being white, just left me wondering why Andrew Jackson is seen as a hero and the confederacy wasn't actively despised.

That woman said she doesn't judge people based on their skin color, only for the next thing to come out of her mouth was confirm her judgmental behavior. Judging someone based on how they dress is judging someone based on what they look like. What an idiot. She didn't even realize what she was saying. None of these people want to feel like they're bad people so they think just ignoring the problem and putting themselves on a pedestal is the solution. Good job John Oliver and team!

The entire point of history class is not only to educate the next generation on the history of our nation, but more importantly to teach them the lessons of the horrible mistakes this country has made so that they can learn and grow to know not to make those same mistakes again. So, yes, it IS going to get uncomfortable, but what history of any country is “comfortable”?

I am a german. When I was 12 I visited Israel with my family. A very kind elderly taxi driver picked us up from the airport and started small talk with us in exellent german. When we asked him were he had learned to speak german so well he replied 'during the war'. The light mood in the taxi instantly changed and we all fell silent. I remember vividly the discomfort I felt that day. My point is this: Some discomfort is meant to be felt.

As a German this discussion concerns me greatly. After WW2 the allies built an education system here where we learn a lot about the time between 1933 and 1945. Most schools will do a trip to concentration camps teaching children about the atrocities committed there. We learn a lot about that time and how wrong it was. And even with that we still have way too many racists here. But most people will completely avoid national pride. Our flags are only displayed by residents when there is some sport event (mainly soccer). Being proud of the achievements your nation has achieved will inevitably lead to accepting the current way things are because, after all, you're proud of yourselves. But not being proud will motivate to become better. The US' focus on national pride is something that stands in the way of major reform. It is hard to be proud of a country that is doing so much wrong right now. And you can't teach critically of a nation and at the same time make kids pledge allegiance to the flag of that nation. Hypocracy is one of these things that will make a child stop listening to you. National pride may have been useful in the past to rally support for your side in a war but in my opinion it has no place in our modern society. The first step towards reform is accepting that something is wrong.

For thanksgiving our teacher made a play about the pilgrims and Indians. Me, my brother and sister, were the only Native Americans in that school so we were dressed up as Native Americans and the other kids were the pilgrims. My mom pulled us out of school and we never went to school on the day of the thanksgiving play again.

11:00 the scary thing is he's right. When I was in junior high school we learned about the civil rights movement and heard Martin Luther King's speech and that's where the discussion of racism stopped so as a kid I just assumed that racism ended with the civil rights movement. They need to go beyond that in curriculums

I grew up the only black kid in class. I remember, in second or third grade, the teacher gave us an assignment about family seals or something. We had to present it and tell our history. I had no idea what she was talking about and I knew my family didn't have one. But my mom and I spent a lot of time getting our family tree together, some old family stories, etc, to present. So day of class comes, we're getting ready to present. I was so excited to share my history. We're going up one at a time. Comes my turn, the teacher skips me entire. She looked dead at me, got this panicked look on her face, and skipped me. And I KNEW it was because I was black. The thing is I don't think she meant to be disrespectful or uninclusive. I think she literally just panicked, didn't quite know what to do, and skipped me as a way to save me from not having anything to share. I was too young to really know what to do at the time. I wish I had been a little older because I would have spoken up and told her I wanted to share my history. I wish I had. It was important to me. But alas.

"Kids have questions ... and they deserve good answers" is a lesson a lot more adults could stand to learn...

My great grandmother was born in i885 in Abbeville South Carolina just twenty years after the Civil War. She shared many of the things that took place after slavery! My point, she had to live through that very disturbing period of time. If she could live through it as a child White children and others can surely learn about it...

As a half-German, half-English person I don't see how saying "I'm not going to talk about this because it makes me uncomfortable" could ever be a good idea. Germany talks about what it's done, and it is taught in our schools so it never happens again! That discomfort is essential to it not happening ever again, and I think we can all handle a little discomfort to make sure that the terrible mistakes of the past don't find opportunities to be repeated.

I’ve taught high school before, and I got to say that many teens love the chance to discuss controversial or political issues when given the chance. They’re forming their own identifies and beliefs, and are starting to notice that the simple narratives they learned as a child may not be entirely true. However, most teens don’t have the opportunity or environment to discuss those things, especially if those topics don’t fit their parent’s worldview. So a classroom that provides context and information on subjects, and a civil discussion moderated by a teacher is exactly the place to discuss things such as racism.

I find it funny that there is apparently a large cross-section between the group of people who like to ban certain books and teachings because it makes them feel bad and the group of people who argue that "facts don't care about your feelings".

I love that John called out “when was learning and growing as a person ever really comfortable.” I can only hope he keeps true to that narrative when discussing other topics.

We can't do better until we know better. And we can't know better until we learn from our past.