Why do people say history books are filled with people like me when they aren’t?

October 21, 2023 by Joshua
in Nonjudgment

I don’t learn of anyone like me in history books, but I’m told that’s all who is in them. I’ll link to a bunch of articles that history books are filled with dead white men. I’m told the best I can do is “shut up and listen.”

Why do people who don’t know me tell me who I am?

Should I think I’m represented because Hitler, Stalin, and Columbus were straight white men?

I don’t find people like me in history books. I see people today who aren’t white men who seem more like white men in history books than I do. Why should people having the same skin color and sex mean that they represent me? Society hasn’t treated me like them. We don’t share similar experiences. Why do people insist that we do?

I’m not saying we shouldn’t include more people and cultures that aren’t currently represented or that some groups aren’t overly represented. I’m saying that I read history books and see myself no more represented than anyone else. Yet people tell me I am. As a result, they’re only telling me they think they understand me but they don’t. Isn’t that the problem they’re trying to solve?


Here are some articles:

I have no more in common with these two people than you do. History books that include them represent you better than me.

Or this person:

Churchill

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