By Robert A. Scott

“Defund the Police” became a familiar slogan after the killing of George Floyd by Minneapolis Police in May 2020. The idea was not new but a long-standing argument that municipal police departments had become militarized with weapons and tactics borrowed from the Army. Advocates argued that a portion of police budgets should be diverted to community policing and social services. The cry became a focal point in the tensions between conservatives and liberals.

These tensions were further exaggerated by the current rallying cry from the right to ban books about race and to defund schools and colleges for teaching about slavery. They claim that certain books and lessons make other students feel uncomfortable when discussing racism, colonialism, and slavery.

Further, they claim that certain authors, mostly Black or liberal in perspective, are anti-American and un-Christian. The Center for the American Way of Life in Washington, D.C., working with the Idaho Freedom Foundation, was successful in advocating for multimillion-dollar cuts to Idaho universities for teaching about social justice issues, i.e., racism and other forms of discrimination in history and literature classes.

Another of the center’s claims is that American institutions and corporations are caught up in identity politics. In this view, institutions are “woke” if they are alert to injustice and discrimination in society, especially racism. The allegation is that students are taught to hate the United States and that the only lens used to examine U.S. history is that of marginalized groups.

Still other critics, such as former Florida Gov. Rick Scott, actively talked about cutting liberal arts courses and programs in favor of career preparation. They think of higher education as a preparation for jobs, not the advancement of knowledge, skills, and abilities for living a life as well as earning a living.

The attacks on higher education institutions ignore the missions of universities to create new understandings based on evidence, curate what has been thought and said, and criticize the status quo by asking “Why” and “Why not?” Universities are places where the probing of ideas through critical analysis can be disruptive because the goal is to find the truth based on evidence-based research. They are places that put a premium on science and evidence, even when long-held beliefs and opinions are challenged.

Educators want students to have the skills and abilities to question assertions and assumptions and to distinguish between facts, opinion, and belief. They want graduates to be prepared as citizens, not just as consumers.

Another example of pushback from conservative voices concerns the removal and renaming of monuments and memorials dedicated to Confederate generals who committed treason by fighting against the Union.

Monuments and memorials are expressions of values. They are constructed to commemorate people who are seen as exemplars of those values, a form of myth-making to honor the past. The naming of military bases for those who fought to preserve the system of slavery was an attempt at perpetuate the myth that the war was really about state’s rights. Today, book banning is argued to be a matter of local school board control over what ideas can be taught, another version of state’s rights.

Some who criticize the teaching of this past apologize for our early founders by saying that they knew no better. However, during George Washington’s first year in office, the Society of Friends (Quakers) petitioned the U.S. government to ban slavery, an initiative they started in 1696. And 106 years before Woodrow Wilson segregated the federal workforce, Britain had already passed the Abolition of the Slave Trade Act. The fact that many people, including those elected to high office, benefitted from the slave system does not negate the active and public opposition to it throughout the land.

When professors of history and textbooks discuss the history of slavery, it is to tell the whole truth, not the partial truth of American ideals partially fulfilled. The study of history is an examination of memory in all its forms. We study history and historical analysis to learn what came before, whether in politics, norms of behavior, or science and technology. History is necessary to understand art and social policy as well as law and philosophy because history is the study of context as well as of text.

We need a national reconciliation with our history if we are to “to create a more perfect union”, as stated at the founding of our nation. The truth might hurt but should be cited in honor of the ideals of democracy. These truths are neither unpatriotic nor “politically correct.” They acknowledge that historical accuracy is a virtue and that our country was founded on ideals that were virtuous in aspiration if not always in action.

America was founded by people seeking freedom who then proceeded to deny freedom to others. We must own up to this past. The study of history helps us think in terms of time, to understand how societies change. We should fund the police appropriately, honor the rule of law, and fund schools and colleges not only for career preparation but also for citizenship. This requires the teaching of history and critical analysis. We must know our history and know how to engage it.

Robert A. Scott Ph.D. is president emeritus at Adelphi University