Texas Historical Commission Removed Books on Slavery From Plantation Gift Shops

[atomheartbevo 89450]

Would love to put this in DT and see it defended, but it'll get moved here anyways.

https://www.texasmonthly.com/news-politics/texas-historical-commission-book-removal/

The Texas Historical Commission Removed Books on Slavery From Plantation Gift Shops

An agency spokesperson claimed that the move had nothing to do with politics. Internal emails show otherwise.

After visiting the Varner-Hogg plantation an hour south of Houston, amateur historian Michelle Haas was incensed by what she had seen. At an exhibit that details the farm’s use as a sugar plantation worked by at least 66 slaves in the early nineteenth century, she’d watched an informational video. To her mind, it focused too much on slavery at the site and not enough on the Hogg family, which had turned its former home into a museum celebrating Texas history. She’d also seen books in the visitor center gift shop written by Carol Anderson and Ibram X. Kendi, two Black academic historians who have been outspoken on the issue of systemic racism. Outraged, she emailed David Gravelle, a board member of the Texas Historical Commission, the agency that oversees historical sites at the direction of leaders appointed by Governor Greg Abbott. “What a s—show is this video,” Haas wrote on September 2, 2022. “Add to that the fact that the activist staff member doing the buying for the gift shop thinks Ibram X. Kendi and White Rage have a place at a historic site.”

Over the next eight months, Haas continued to email Gravelle, advocating for such books to be removed. In turn, Gravelle, a marketing executive based in Dallas, took up the cause internally at the Historical Commission, calling on agency staff to do away with the titles Haas didn’t think belonged at the gift shops. By November of this year, it appeared Haas’s demands were met. The Texas Historical Commission no longer sells White Rage by Anderson or Stamped From the Beginning by Kendi, or 23 other works to which Haas later objected, at two former slave plantations in Brazoria County, including Varner-Hogg. Among the literature no longer available for purchase is an autobiography of a slave girl, a book of Texas slave narratives, the celebrated novel Roots by Alex Haley, and the National Book Award–winning Invisible Man by Ralph Ellison. 

The Texas Historical Commission did not provide Texas Monthly with a list of titles no longer for sale. Chris Florance, a spokesperson for the agency, said many books were removed from the historical sites as part of an effort that he said was launched in March to reduce inventory as the agency transitions to a new point-of-sale software system. Emails acquired by Texas Monthly through an open-records request reveal, however, that Gravelle was concerned about the way those books presented Texas history and about potential attention from state lawmakers over what books were available for purchase. The emails also show that he had raised those concerns in February, before the agency decided to change its software system.

Haas, a graphic designer from Corpus Christi who sells Texas-themed merchandise, has spent years critiquing historical narratives about slavery. In 2006, she cofounded Copano Bay Press, an independent publishing house specializing in firsthand accounts of Texas history. She wrote and published 200 Years a Fraud, a full annotation of Solomon Northup’s 1853 memoir Twelve Years a Slave, which was made into an Oscar-winning film in 2013. In her book, Haas disputes Northup’s account of his life and argues that many U.S. histories are overly harsh to the South and do not acknowledge that slavery was “a socially acceptable and economically worthwhile practice worldwide at the time our thirteen colonies arose.” 

In 2022, Haas launched the Texas History Trust, a nonprofit advocacy organization that aims to fight back against what it describes as “historical societies, university history departments and authors who warp Texas history based on feelings, not the historical record.” She has protested the inclusion of so-called “woke ideology,” “neo-Marxist” influence, and critical race theory in Texas schools, even though CRT—a framework for examining systemic racism, for example in lending patterns—is not taught below the college level in the Lone Star State. 

Haas says that Gravelle, who declined multiple requests from Texas Monthlyfor an interview, was familiar with her before her September 2022 email about the Varner-Hogg plantation. According to Haas, Gravelle is listed on the Texas History Trust’s mailing list and has purchased books from Copano Bay Press. She felt confident that he would be an ally in her effort to get books she doesn’t like removed from the plantation site. “We don’t go yachting together or anything,” Haas said. “[But] he’s someone who’s friendly to us.”

Internal Texas Historical Commission emails reveal her assumption was correct. In the first week of February, a few months after Haas reached out,Gravelle emailed three of the commission’s board members, including the chairman, and two high-ranking staff members, citing concerns “about some of the books (and perhaps other items) and the interpretation at our sites that are not about accurate Texas history, but seem to wander off into present social issues.” Gravelle wrote that he was inquiring because he’d seen a video that questioned the sale of certain books at historical sites, an apparent reference to a recording produced by Haas and posted on the Texas History Trust’s YouTube channel in December 2022.

Rest of article: https://www.texasmonthly.com/news-politics/texas-historical-commission-book-removal/

 

[Paper_jam 831]

In a just world, or even in the Texas of 15-20 years ago, this would be a scandal that would force those THC commissioners to resign. In the Texas of today, nothing will happen.

 

 

[Blotto 23434]

1 hour ago, Paper_jam said:

In the Texas of today, nothing will happen.

 

I'm sure it will be celebrated as "good bull"

[elfenix 34172]

karen haas sounds like a bitch

 

doesn't twitter much, shockingly

 

Edited December 9, 2023 by elfenix

[achooloco 1065]

I’m sorry but … this Karen cunt from an unholy diseased womb Michelle haas bitched enough and shit got cancelled? While it’s easy to say, “hey government, get a backbone!” to these mongoloid level intelligent racists like Michelle haas, it is also true that the government folk need some kind of public backing. Michelle Haas needs to burn in an eternal damnation lake of fire but if the gov never hears from rational folk? OF course the squeaky wheel gets the grease.

michellle haas sucks a fat one but someone rational should have spoken up to counter that idiotic bs. 

Edited December 9, 2023 by achooloco

[Hawndoh 2382]

People like this is why I'm a math teacher and not a history, science, or language arts teacher. Or a librarian for that matter.

They are not all as diligent and active as this lady, but there are way more of these people than you might think.

I've known more than one history teacher that has moved out of Texas or left the profession completely in the last few years. Good teachers, too.

[Nice Guy Eddie 13414]

2-3 decades of GOP rule make this the expectation. Not to mention the made up controversy of CRT makes it an imperative for the GOP to erase anything bad that white people have ever done.

I had no idea that the state of Texas owns a former plantation. Something about that seems wrong.

Edited December 9, 2023 by Nice Guy Eddie

[Al Bundy's Napoleon Hand 13547]

Again, people who live to tell others that everyone doesn't get a trophy displaying an infantile ability to deal with any past shortcoming or failure they feel would reflect poorly on them.

[YGIFS 19449]

I'll let the historical and race relations experts, more learned than I, unpack this unsurprising development in a continuous line of bullshit.  But as a bibliophile, let me just say, race and history and politics aside..pulling "The Invisible Man" by Ellison from your shelves?  I mean that's a whole other literary nightmare by itself.  Even the most racist, vile assholes I know (and sadly, I know plenty)...at least agree, "Well Southern Pride aside, the man strung together a compelling narrative.  Though a Sooner Negro, he spun a good yarn."  

JFC.  This is how it starts folks.  We're literally on our way.  

Edited December 9, 2023 by YGIFS

[Fudge Nuggets 19151]

One person bitches about something and the PTB cave in to said lunatic. What the actual fuck?  Karen needs to be cancelled. 

[SimonBolivar 10932]

36 minutes ago, Fudge Nuggets said:

One person bitches about something and the PTB cave in to said lunatic. What the actual fuck?  Karen needs to be cancelled. 

It's an excuse to do things that are at best, against the currently accepted historiography and at worst, ahistorical.

The people that do real history, the AHA, sends letters all the time and they're ignored all the time. Here is one they sent to Texas in 2021:

Spoiler

The American Historical Association views with alarm several provisions in Texas House Bill 3979 (An Act Relating to the Social Studies Curriculum in Public Schools), recently signed into law by Governor Abbott.

In addition to the educational focus indicated in its title, this deeply flawed legislation adversely affects state institutions that present history to the public. One provision hinders the professional development of curators, administrators, and other employees in facilities such as museums, libraries, parks, and historical societies. Another would impede essential fundraising efforts on the part of those facilities. As a result of this law, historical programming for the public throughout the state could be severely compromised. This makes no sense in a state that has created such world-class history institutions as the Bullock Texas State History Museum, and whose history provides important lessons to residents and visitors alike. Not all teaching about history takes place in classrooms. The citizens of Texas deserve to learn an accurate account of the state's history when they visit the many public venues that sponsor exhibits, offer signage for historical sites, and show documentary films, among other forms of historical interpretation.

As stipulated in the law, in the process of offering professional development training, state employees are prohibited from including any concept that would make an individual “feel discomfort.” Professional development related to historical presentation is critical to the training and credentialing of historians and their colleagues in any venue where historical information is presented. To require that these individuals be shielded from any historical themes or events that cause them “discomfort” would be to outlaw the presentation of basic, incontrovertible facts related to the history of Texas (or the history of any state or nation, for that matter). If state employees who present historical information to Texans and visitors are not sufficiently knowledgeable about the less-admirable aspects of our history, they will not only offer flawed presentations; they also will be placed in the very uncomfortable position of not being able to respond to questions posed by thoughtful visitors.

Museums, historical societies, markers, and other venues of historical presentation enable members of the public to learn about and discuss difficult subjects. Professional development programs must help historians employed at these institutions follow historical truth wherever evidence leads them, regardless of the "discomfort" such a process entails. The integrity of our history is at stake.

The law further states that a state agency may not accept private funding for the purpose of “providing teacher training or professional development.” This provision would seem to prevent museums from accepting grants, subsidies, or other financial support from corporations or other private businesses. Many museums rely on private interests to train curators, underwrite major exhibits, and expand educational programming; this law would deny a critical source of funding

for those purposes. It would also deny corporations the opportunity to make philanthropic contributions and participate in an important aspect of civic culture.

The American Historical Association is chartered by the United States Congress “for the promotion of historical studies” in the United States. Fulfilling this charge requires a commitment to accuracy, even when the facts might be uncomfortable. In the AHA’s Standards for Museum Exhibits Dealing with Historical Subjects, the first principle states, “Exhibits should be grounded in scholarship, marked by intellectual integrity, and subjected to rigorous peer review.” Museums should engage with community stakeholders from the beginning of the process and should keep the diversity of their communities in mind. Work on controversial subjects should include competing points of view. And museum administrators should support their curatorial staff in producing work according to these standards.

This legislation clearly violates these standards, which are the foundation of professional history programming in the United States today.

Free and open inquiry is the hallmark of a democratic society. We deplore the effort of the Texas legislature to determine which historical subjects can and cannot be taught and learned. By hindering the professional development of public historians and restricting funding, this law would prevent state-owned agencies and facilities from presenting accurate views of Texas history, and would hobble fundraising efforts crucial to the vibrant state-sponsored public history sector. In so doing, this legislation will adversely affect not only K-12 students, but all Texans and visitors who want to learn more about the state's complicated past. As citizens in a strong, vibrant democracy, we should not be afraid to learn the hard truths that history teaches us.

The following organizations have cosigned this statement:

American Academy of Religion
American Association for State and Local History
American Society for Environmental History
American Society for Theatre Research
Association for Documentary Editing
Association for Spanish and Portuguese Historical Studies
Berkshire Conference on Women’s History
Center for Presidential History
Conference on Asian History
Forum on Early-Modern Empires and Global Interactions
German Studies Association
Immigration and Ethnic History Society
Latinos in Heritage Conservation
National Coalition for History
National Council on Public History
National Women's Studies Association
Organization of American Historians
PEN America
PEN America Austin
PEN America Dallas/Fort Worth
Roy Rosenzweig Center for History and New Media
Society for Austrian and Habsburg History
Society for the Study of Early Modern Women and Gender
Society of Southwest Archivists
Southern Historical Association
Texas TEACH Coalition
Urban History Association
Western History Association

 

Here is the most damning one that they've written in my opinion on Trump's 1776 Report:

Spoiler

Approved by AHA Council, January 20, 2021

 

The just-released “1776 Report” claims that common understanding of the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution can unify all Americans in the love of country. The product of “The President’s Advisory 1776 Commission,” the report focuses on these founding documents in an apparent attempt to reject recent efforts to understand the multiple ways the institution of slavery shaped our nation’s history. The authors call for a form of government indoctrination of American students, and in the process elevate ignorance about the past to a civic virtue.

 

The report actually consists of two main themes. One is an homage to the Founding Fathers, a simplistic interpretation that relies on falsehoods, inaccuracies, omissions, and misleading statements. The other is a screed against a half-century of historical scholarship, presented largely as a series of caricatures, using single examples (most notably the “1619 Project”) to represent broader historiographical trends.

 

The sections on the founders envision godlike men who crafted documents that asserted “universal and eternal principles of justice and political legitimacy.” Ironically, the report erases whole swaths of the American population-enslaved people, Indigenous communities, and women-the way the founders excluded those groups from the body politic in a wide variety of founding documents as well as actual public practice. In listing threats to the ideals of the nation, the report ignores the Confederate States of America, whose leaders, many clearly guilty of treason, initiated a civil war that claimed more than 700,000 lives-more American lives than all other conflicts in the history of the country combined. Instead, the authors focus on early 20th-century Progressive reformers and bizarrely suggest they were similar to Mussolini and other World War II European fascists. Of particular note is the implied condemnation of Progressive Era legislation-workplace health and safety legislation, regulation of the production of food and drugs, the elimination of child labor, and other social goods we take for granted today.

 

The report concludes with a full-throated assault on American universities, which, the authors claim, have produced what they call “deliberately destructive scholarship.” This scholarship is described as the “intellectual force behind so much of the violence in our cities,” including the “defamation of our treasured national statues.” The vast majority of targeted statues, as the AHA has noted before, honor either men who committed treason by violating oaths of office and taking up arms against the United States government, or whose main historical significance lay in their defense of slavery or other forms of white supremacy.

 

Written hastily in one month after two desultory and tendentious “hearings,” without any consultation with professional historians of the United States, the report fails to engage a rich and vibrant body of scholarship that has evolved over the last seven decades. Americans across the nation, perhaps including some of the commissioners, have encountered this history not only in books and classrooms, but also at museums, in national parks, and even in their homes as they watch documentaries.

Though it extols (narrowly defined) family and faith as the ultimate forces for good, the “1776 Report” also observes that the “bedrock upon which the American political system is built is the rule of law.” Yet its condemnation of contemporary social movements ignores recent efforts to undermine the legitimacy of the very institutions enshrined in the Constitution itself. 

The following organizations have cosigned this statement:

American Anthropological Association
American Association for State and Local History
American Catholic Historical Association
American Folklore Society
American Library Association
American Philosophical Association
American Society for Environmental History
American Society of Church History
American Sociological Association
American Studies Association
Association for Documentary Editing
Association for Spanish and Portuguese Historical Studies
Association for the Study of African American Life and History
Association of University Presses
Austrian and Habsburg History
Central European History Society
Chinese Historians in United States
College Art Association
Committee on Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, & Transgender History
Conference on Asian History
Coordinating Council for Women in History
Forum on Early-Modern Empires and Global Interactions
French Colonial Historical Society
Georgia Association of Historians
German Studies Association
Historical Society for Twentieth-Century China
Hungarian Studies Association
Immigration and Ethnic History Society
Middle East Studies Association
National Coalition for History
National Council on Public History
New England Historical Association
Oral History Association
Organization of American Historians
Phi Beta Kappa Society
Polish American Historical Association
Radical History Review
Shakespeare Association of America
Sixteenth Century Society & Conference
Society for Advancing the History of South Asia
Society for U.S. Intellectual History
Society of American Archivists 
Society of Civil War Historians
Southern Association for Women Historians
Southern Historical Association
Urban History Association
Western History Association

Quote

 

The American Association of University Professors, the American Historical Association, the Association of American Colleges & Universities, and PEN America have authored a joint statement stating their “firm opposition” to legislation, introduced in at least 20 states, that would restrict the discussion of “divisive concepts” in public education institutions. It is not possible to address divisions that exist, however, without an honest reckoning with their histories. “The clear goal of these efforts is to suppress teaching and learning about the role of racism in the history of the United States,” the letter explains. Education proceeds from exploration, facts, and civil debate. “These legislative efforts,” on the other hand, “seek to substitute political mandates for the considered judgment of professional educators, hindering students’ ability to learn and engage in critical thinking across differences and disagreements. . . . Americans of all ages deserve nothing less than a free and open exchange about history and the forces that shape our world today.”

In total, 155 organizations have signed onto the statement

Spoiler

June 16, 2021

We, the undersigned associations and organizations, state our firm opposition to a spate of legislative proposals being introduced across the country that target academic lessons, presentations, and discussions of racism and related issues in American history in schools, colleges, and universities. These efforts have taken varied shape in at least 20 states, but often the legislation aims to prohibit or impede the teaching and education of students concerning what are termed “divisive concepts.” These divisive concepts as defined in numerous bills are a litany of vague and indefinite buzzwords and phrases, including, for example, “that any individual should feel or be made to feel discomfort, guilt, anguish, or any other form of psychological or emotional distress on account of that individual’s race or sex.” These legislative efforts are deeply troubling for numerous reasons.

First, these bills risk infringing on the right of faculty to teach and of students to learn. The clear goal of these efforts is to suppress teaching and learning about the role of racism in the history of the United States. Purportedly, any examination of racism in this country’s classrooms might cause some students “discomfort” because it is an uncomfortable and complicated subject. But the ideal of informed citizenship necessitates an educated public. Educators must provide an accurate view of the past in order to better prepare students for community participation and robust civic engagement. Suppressing or watering down discussion of “divisive concepts” in educational institutions deprives students of opportunities to discuss and foster solutions to social division and injustice. Legislation cannot erase “concepts” or history; it can, however, diminish educators’ ability to help students address facts in an honest and open environment capable of nourishing intellectual exploration. Educators owe students a clear-eyed, nuanced, and frank delivery of history, so that they can learn, grow, and confront the issues of the day, not hew to some state-ordered ideology.  

Second, these legislative efforts seek to substitute political mandates for the considered judgment of professional educators, hindering students’ ability to learn and engage in critical thinking across differences and disagreements. These regulations constitute an inappropriate attempt to transfer responsibility for the evaluation of a curriculum and subject matter from educators to elected officials. The purpose of education is to serve the common good by promoting open inquiry and advancing human knowledge. Politicians in a democratic society should not manipulate public school curricula to advance partisan or ideological aims. In higher education, under principles of academic freedom that have been widely endorsed, professors are entitled to freedom in the classroom in discussing their subject. Educators, not politicians, should make decisions about teaching and learning. 

Knowledge of the past exists to serve the needs of the living. In the current context, this includes an honest reckoning with all aspects of that past. Americans of all ages deserve nothing less than a free and open exchange about history and the forces that shape our world today, an exchange that should take place inside the classroom as well as in the public realm generally. To ban the tools that enable those discussions is to deprive us all of the tools necessary for citizenship in the 21st century. A white-washed view of history cannot change what happened in the past. A free and open society depends on the unrestricted pursuit and dissemination of knowledge.

Signed,

American Association of University Professors
American Historical Association
Association of American Colleges & Universities
PEN America

The following organizations have co-signed this statement:

Accrediting Commission for Community and Junior Colleges
ACPA-College Student Educators International
Adelphi University Faculty of Color Network
African American Intellectual History Society
African Studies Association
Agricultural History Society
Alcohol and Drugs History Society
American Academy of Religion
American Anthropological Association
American Association for State and Local History
American Association of Colleges for Teacher Education
American Association of Community Colleges
American Association of Geographers
American Association of Hispanics in Higher Education
American Catholic Historical Association
American Classical League
American Council of Learned Societies
American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages
American Counseling Association
American Educational Research Association
American Federation of Teachers, AFL-CIO
American Folklore Society
American Humor Studies Association
American Library Association
American Philosophical Association
American Political Science Association
American Psychoanalytic Association
American Society for Engineering Education
American Society for Environmental History
American Society for Theatre Research
American Society of Criminology Executive Board 
American Sociological Association
American Studies Association
Anti-Defamation League
Association for Ancient Historians
Association for Asian American Studies
Association for Asian Studies
Association for Counselor Education and Supervision
Association for Documentary Editing
Association for Slavic, East European, and Eurasian Studies
Association for Spanish and Portuguese Historical Studies
Association for the Study of African American Life and History
Association for the Study of Higher Education
Association for the Study of Literature and Environment
Association for Theatre in Higher Education
Association of Academic Museums and Galleries
Association of African American Museums
Association of College and Research Libraries
Association of Collegiate Schools of Planning
Association of Governing Boards of Universities and Colleges
Association of Research Libraries
Association of University Presses
Association of Writers & Writing Programs
The Authors Guild
Berkshire Conference of Women Historians
Business History Conference
Center for Research Libraries
Central European History Society
Chinese Historians in the United States
ClassCrits
Coalition of Urban & Metropolitan Universities (CUMU)
College Art Association
Committee on Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, & Transgender History
Comparative and International Education Society
Conference on Asian History
Conference on Faith and History
Consortium of Humanities Centers and Institutes
Contemporary Freudian Society
Coordinating Council for Women in History
Council on Social Work Education
Czechoslovak Studies Association
Dance Studies Association
Executive Committee of the American Comparative Literature Association
Forum on Early-Modern Empires and Global Interactions
Freedom to Read Foundation
French Colonial Historical Society
German Studies Association
Higher Learning Commission
Hispanic Association of Colleges and Universities
Historians for Peace and Democracy
Historical Society of Twentieth Century China
Immigration Ethnic History Society
Indiana Association of Historians
International Society for the Study of Trauma and Dissociation
International Studies Association
Italian American Studies Association
John N. Gardner Institute for Excellence in Undergraduate Education
Keats-Shelley Association of America
Labor and Working-Class History Association
Middle East Studies Association
Middle States Commission on Higher Education
Midwestern History Association
Modern Language Association
NAFSA: Association of International Educators
NASPA: Student Affairs Administrators in Higher Education
National Association for College Admission Counseling
National Association for Equal Opportunity in Higher Education
National Association of Dean and Directors Schools of Social Work
National Association of Diversity Officers in Higher Education
National Association of Graduate-Professional Students
National Association of Social Workers
National Coalition for History
National Council for the Social Studies
National Council of Teachers of English
National Council on Public History
National Education Association
National Prevention Science Coalition to Improve Lives
National Women’s Studies Association
Network for Public Education
New England Commission of Higher Education
North American Conference on British Studies
Northwest Commission on Colleges and Universities
Ohio Academy of History
Organization of American Historians
Pacific Coast Branch-American Historical Association
Peace History Society
Phi Beta Kappa Society
Popular Culture Association
Radical History Review
Rhetoric Society of America
Roy Rosenzweig Center for History and New Media
Scholars at Risk
Shakespeare Association of America
Society for Austrian and Habsburg History
Society for Classical Studies
Society for Community Research and Action
Society for Ethnomusicology
Society for French Historical Studies
Society for Historians of American Foreign Relations
Society for Historians of the Early American Republic
Society for Historians of the Gilded Age and Progressive Era
Society for Historical Archaeology
Society for the Study of Early Modern Women and Gender
Society for the Study of the Multi-Ethnic Literature of the United States
Society for the Study of Social Problems
Society for US Intellectual History
Society of American Historians
Society of Architectural Historians
Society of Civil War Historians
Society of Transnational Academic Researchers (STAR Scholars Network)
Southern Association of Colleges and Schools Commission on Colleges
Southern Historical Association
Texas Association of College Teachers
United Faculty of Florida - University of Florida, NEA/AFT/FEA, AFL-CIO
University Film and Video Association 
Urban History Association
WASC Senior College and University Commission
Western History Association
Western Society for French History
Women in French
World History Association

 

Edited December 9, 2023 by SimonBolivar

[atomheartbevo 89450]

Author of the Texas Monthly article started a thread on reddit if you want to talk to him directly

 

Edited December 9, 2023 by atomheartbevo

[Satchel 6908]

Good grief. What in the world has happened to this state?

[SimonBolivar 10932]

4 minutes ago, Satchel said:

Good grief. What in the world has happened to this state?

It's the MAGA insistence that they are, in fact, experts about everything and that everyone that is actually an expert is evil because they disagree with me and my 150 closest friends on Facebook.

[DaysOff 7853]

Why I Hate Texas: A Insider's Guide to Everything Wrong with the Lone Star State Paperback – August 10, 2019

by Michelle M. Haas (Author)

2.7 2.7 out of 5 stars    5 ratings

 

This her?

[YGIFS 19449]

Middle-aged, half-minority, graphic designer from Corpus Christi somehow stumbled onto the Board of the Texas Historical Commission?

And what's this in her bio?  Beloved Cunt?  

[atomheartbevo 89450]

7 minutes ago, DaysOff said:

Why I Hate Texas: A Insider's Guide to Everything Wrong with the Lone Star State Paperback – August 10, 2019

by Michelle M. Haas (Author)

2.7 2.7 out of 5 stars    5 ratings

 

This her?

Does she push Lost Cause bullshit that slavery was “a socially acceptable and economically worthwhile practice worldwide at the time our thirteen colonies arose.”??

[elfenix 34172]

Just now, atomheartbevo said:

Does she push Lost Cause bullshit that slavery was “a socially acceptable and economically worthwhile practice worldwide at the time our thirteen colonies arose.”??

i thought these guys were against moral relativism.  was i wrong?

[SimonBolivar 10932]

She's quite the looney

https://copanobaypress-gallery.com/products/why-i-hate-texas-an-insiders-guide-to-everything-wrong-with-the-lone-star-state

 

[YGIFS 19449]

4 minutes ago, elfenix said:

i thought these guys were against moral relativism.  was i wrong?

I'm sure their working definition of moral relativism is about as accurate as their understanding of what "socialism" actually is.  

"How do you feel about woke, socialist, moral relativism in Texas history?"

-Uh...Biden and the workers own the means of history and wokeness while they're asleep in an immoral state of understanding of history and the free markets of our southern history and what have you.

Edited December 9, 2023 by YGIFS

[atomheartbevo 89450]

2 minutes ago, SimonBolivar said:

She's quite the looney

https://copanobaypress-gallery.com/products/why-i-hate-texas-an-insiders-guide-to-everything-wrong-with-the-lone-star-state

 

Quite the grift to put out a book with 250 blank pages.   Almost have to give her credit.  

[aggie08 21434]

Slavery existed. Slavery was bad. Here are some captivating stories about human perseverance in the face of hate.

Never thought the above would be considered "politically charged."

[bolverk 29405]

I know quite a number of folks who work at the THC, one of whom texted me this article Thursday night. She's not directly involved in this mess, but she's definitely "in the know," so to speak.

One of the advantages that the agency has traditionally been able to rely upon is strong support from political leadership and lively engagement from community volunteers from across the state who are all passionate about Texas history. Unfortunately, many are really interested in Texas hagiography and not Texas history.

At the top, you have the governor and the legislature. The governor appoints his buddies to the commission, which acts like a corporation's board of directors, keeping its thumb on the agency's executive director (CEO). Then, you have all the state reps and senators who typically support the various historical sites and other operations within their districts. Meanwhile, local volunteers do a bunch of heavy lifting to support these sites, including fundraising for their upkeep and whatnot.

In practice, this kind of structure is really great, but the educated, pointy-headed liberal experts who staff the agency often get hamstrung by it when the governor, the lege, and the volunteers only want the good side of Texas or their local history told.

Leading up to and immediately following the George Floyd murder, the agency had been pushing hard to diversify the voices telling the state's history. They actually had a great deal of success AND actual support from all the aforementioned groups. However, starting in 2021, those efforts began to receive notable pushback from the commissioners.

I think this aligns with a lot of efforts we've seen around the state (and nation) with conservatives, in general, getting their footing back and organizing efforts to push against progress and turn back the clock on civil rights and educational curricula. This is all part of the wider culture wars.

On this particular front, I'd advise getting involved in, or at least becoming aware of, what your local county historical commission is up to. This is a lot like the whole school board stuff.

For more info:

https://www.thc.texas.gov/preserve/projects-and-programs/county-historical-commission-outreach/what-are-chcs

https://www.thcfriends.org/

  

[Nice Guy Eddie 13414]

I think the only historic elements of a plantation are regarding the enslaved people from their place/era. Maybe there are some historic elements of architecture and the economy, but those seem connected with slavery as well. The former owners, or their lifestyle, of the plantation don’t even remotely matter to the history of a plantation. Seeing books on plantation owners would be akin to visiting Auschwitz and picking up a hitler biography.

what other books would be apart of a plantation museum gift shop?

Edited December 9, 2023 by Nice Guy Eddie

[bolverk 29405]

17 minutes ago, Nice Guy Eddie said:

I think the only historic elements of a plantation are regarding the enslaved people from their place/era. Maybe there are some historic elements of architecture and the economy, but those seem connected with slavery as well. The former owners, or their lifestyle, of the plantation don’t even remotely matter to the history of a plantation. Seeing books on plantation owners would be akin to visiting Auschwitz and picking up a hitler biography.

what other books would be apart of a plantation museum gift shop?

I haven't been to this particular site, but it came into the possession of the Hogg family and was eventually donated to the state as a historical site by Ima Hogg. So, I'm sure there's information about that family and that governor.

Here's a brief video on the plantation, and you can see how the THC likely portrays its history at the site.

 

[RDCanecutter 26284]

Slavery books at a plantation are Old Think. It's been 1,000 years since plantations were about slaves. Anybody who knows like anything? knows that plantations are about Bridezillas and receptions and Daddy lighting a big pile of money on fire so that bitch Katelyn shuts up about HER reception.

[Dnaguy 11777]

https://www.linkedin.com/in/michelle-haas-cbp?utm_source=share&utm_campaign=share_via&utm_content=profile&utm_medium=ios_app
 

 

 

[Dnaguy 11777]

https://instagram.com/sempertx?igshid=OGQ5ZDc2ODk2ZA==

[Brisketexan 104628]

What a cunt, I’m a state led by nothing but cunts.

I’m sure our resident conservatives will be by any minute now to defend a place that depended on slavery….getting rid of any book that mentions said slavery.

[Willfully Horn 7916]

7 hours ago, Dnaguy said:

https://instagram.com/sempertx?igshid=OGQ5ZDc2ODk2ZA==

Appreciate the address. 

[YGIFS 19449]

7 hours ago, Brisketexan said:

What a cunt, I’m a state led by nothing but cunts.

I’m sure our resident conservatives will be by any minute now to defend a place that depended on slavery….getting rid of any book that mentions said slavery.

Wait, I thought you were our resident conservative???