Acedemic Whitewashing

In class a few days ago, Mr. Bolos brought up the concept of whitewashing, meaning skimming over or covering up touchy or less desirable subjects so they need not be discussed. I think it is worth noting that we rarely if ever do this in AS class. In fact, out of all previous social studies and history classes, our discussions have been the most frank and deep about subjects that some teachers would not feel comfortable having discussed in their classes. For example, the "diptych" that we examined and discussed was definitely a rather candid snapshot of what the perceptions, even by supposed historians, were like during slavery times. Mr. O'Connor also read us a section of the preface to a published history paper on the topic of "slavery and the negro race" that spoke of the "deterioration" of their race being inevitable and actually partially remedied by slavery. Many teachers would not like to look back at these expressions of awful prejudice that defined many historians and biological scientists of those days, but rather to "whitewash" the more disturbing attributes of slavery. I can say confidently that, for better or worse, those more touchy subjects make up many of our class discussions and that no whitewashing whatsoever occurs.