AP World History Textual Analysis

It’s a typical Tuesday night, I’m munching on microwave popcorn and listening to big band jazz while studying for my AP World History history midterm, when a vexing pattern emerges from the blur of my notes. I see where a white man existed; a white man was a king, a white man fixed the problems, a white man traveled the world, a white man walked on the moon. My lined paper, filled with highlighter marks and pen lines turned thoroughly white and an air of Eurocentrism wafts from the textbook and bleeds through the paper. The famous quote states “History is written by the winners.” and in the United States public school system textbooks are becoming even more white washed than the picket fences of those doing the writing. Of course, this problem doesn’t exist solely in my textbook. Students and teachers across the country have been complaining of white-washing history textbooks. Collegeboard updated their US History course textbook the year I began the class. Their intent; to minimize racial tensions during the civil rights era, and use more passive language when Spanish conquistadors began expanding in the country. These textbooks marginalize and diminish the culture of non-european countries around the world and close to home.

We have the traditions of Native American tribes, the Mexican impact of immigration, and Spanish colonial and Anglo saxon culture. Traditions have been added, mixed and changed in the area since Columbian contact. I have been extremely lucky to have grown up here and have the chance to experience these flourishing traditions. From Puebloan feast days to farolitos lightings. I experienced a culture which is misunderstood and unjustifiably feared. Even New Mexico History classes, which should be filled with a wealth of information, focused on conquistadors, white settlers and the innovation of white