The Oklahoma law being challenged in the courts and referred to in Patti Waldmeir’s column “A spiralling revolt over how race is taught in US schools” (Opinion, November 16) prohibits that individuals should be made to feel discomfort, guilt or anguish because of their race or sex.
Discomfort, guilt and anguish are three quite distinct concepts. I personally do not feel guilty about anything that happened before I was born regardless of the race, religion or sex of the perpetrators.
Nor do I feel guilty for any government actions that happened before I was old enough to vote. That does not mean that I should not work to repeal unjust laws passed before I could vote but that is quite different from guilt.
It would be quite acceptable to teach children and teens that they are not guilty for anything that happened before they were born.
Governments, institutions and corporations can be guilty for actions before any of their current citizens, members or owners were born, but individuals cannot. Whether children or teens feel discomfort or anguish for events that happened before they were born is a matter of individual personalities.
It is quite understandable that children and teens of any race should feel discomfort or anguish when studying slavery or the Jim Crow era that enforced racial segregation following the civil war. But they should not be made to feel guilty.
Bruce Couchman
Ottawa, ON, Canada
Letter: Don’t make children feel guilty for US racial history
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