Was your history whitewashed? A quiz

OPINION: Take theGrio’s short quiz and find out if your historical knowledge is infected with Caucasity.

Editor’s note: The following article is an op-ed, and the views expressed are the author’s own. Read more opinions on theGrio.  

Are you dumb?

Being dumb has nothing to do with a lack of intelligence. A mathematical genius can easily fail a seventh-grade math test if they were taught that 1+1=11. When it comes to the past, absorbing and accurately regurgitating the stories, dates and events does not necessarily mean that you know history. Even if you fulfilled your school’s history requirements by learning facts curated by the finest white scholars available, you might still be wrong.

History is subjective. When curriculums are formulated, approved and taught by white teachers who were educated in white schools by white educators, there is a chance that they are perpetuating a whitewashed version of history. And, unlike math, science and language arts, the information they choose to minimize, erase and fabricate is as important as the lessons they teach. While people might eventually correct their own grammatical mistakes, mathematical errors or scientific inaccuracies, many people stubbornly refuse to accept that they were taught to regurgitate lies, misinformation and cultural bias. When someone like Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis — the Temu version of Donald Trump — certifies miseducation as the official state policy, the problem snowballs.

Thankfully, we’re here to help.

To help examine your historical knowledge, theGrio has created a short quiz based on the researchers at the Black Lived American Council of Knowledge (BLACK), in conjunction with the People Eliminating Overtly Preposterous Lies in Education (PEOPLE).

Good luck. 

1. Who discovered America?

1. It almost definitely wasn’t white people.
2. Leif Erikson, if you’re only considering white people.
3. Christopher Columbus, but only if you count white people who never set foot in America.
4. “American” means “white,” so…

2. The first Africans arrived in America in:

1. 1513, when Juan Garrido arrived on the U.S. mainland at the same time as white people.
2. 1526, when enslaved Africans built the first permanent settlement on the U.S. mainland.
3. 1528, but Mustafa Azemourri was Muslim, so …
4. 1619, because the people who enslaved them spoke English.

3. I learned history from:

1. White people
2. People who learned their history from white people.
3. Textbooks written by white people for a curriculum approved by white people.
4. A curriculum authorized by Ron DeSantis, the Founding Fathers and Jesus.

4. Slavery …

1. Existed in every culture since the beginning of time.
2. Wouldn’t exist if Black people didn’t sell slaves.
3. Was not frowned upon like it is today.
4. Is easier to say than “America’s unique color-based, constitutionally approved, perpetually inescapable, race-based human trafficking system that reduces human beings to chattel.” 

5. My ancestors came to America because:

1. The European aristocracy suppressed their social mobility and economic opportunity.
2. The Roman Catholic, Eastern Orthodox and Anglican churches oppressed the religious freedom of Puritans, Pilgrims, Jews, Irish Catholics and Quakers.
3. Authoritarian monarchies deprived them of political liberty, individual rights and self-government.
4. White people wanted slaves. But not all white people. Knowing that my ancestors were deprived of their social mobility, economic opportunity, religious freedom, political liberty, individual rights and self-government might give me a “victim mentality.” 

6. What did the Founding Fathers do about slavery?

1. If the Declaration of Independence represents America’s founding, then 41 of the 56 signers participated in it.
2. They introduced zero executive orders, official proposals or bulls abolishing slavery. pieces of legislation, executive orders or proclamations.
3. It is the only political issue they said they didn’t like but never actually did anything about.
4. Laugh.

7. Who owned slaves?

1. On the eve of the Civil War, 1.6% of the population 
2. If you only include slaveholding states, it’s 5.67%.
3. If you count free families who were legally allowed to own slaves, it’s more like 30.8%.
4. 99.3% of slaves were owned by white people.

8. Which group has committed more acts of organized terrorism?

1. Antifa.
2. Critical race theorists.
3. Black identity extremists.
4. White people.

9. Who freed the slaves?

1. Abraham Lincoln, who said: “My paramount object in this struggle is to save the Union, and is not either to save or to destroy slavery.”
2. The white Union soldiers who fought in a war that was not about destroying slavery.
3. The legislators who amended the Constitution that protected slaveowners.
4. The enslaved people freed themselves.

10. Critical Race Theory …

1. Examines political, social and economic structures through the lens of race. 
2. Makes white kids uncomfortable by blaming white people for stuff that white people did.
3. Is anti-white propaganda in books written by white people and taught by teachers who are 79.3% white.  
4. Must be stopped before white people get comfortable examining social, political and economic structures through the lens of race.

11. Martin Luther King Jr. said:

1. “We must also realize that privileged groups never give up their privileges voluntarily.”
2. “We can never be satisfied as long as the Negro is the victim of the unspeakable horrors of police brutality.”
3. “Many of our white brothers are concerned only about the length of life, their preferred economic positions, their political power, their so-called way of life.”
4. “I have a dream,” yadda yadda yadda… “color of their skin,” something something “content of their character.” 

12. In my history book: 

1. “Native American” refers to any of the culturally diverse and geographically distinct indigenous peoples of North America.
2. “Black” includes enslaved laborers, free Black Americans, Africans, Caribbean immigrants and anyone of African descent
3. “Hispanic” includes some indigenous people of North America, some people of African descent and some Caribbean immigrants  
4. English enslavers, Dutch colonizers and Spanish human traffickers are not called “white people” because it might make me feel uncomfortable.

13. Which political party is the most racist?

1. The white supremacist domestic terrorist-affiliated Democrats, who fought to strip Black people of their constitutional rights under the guise of states’ rights.
2. The white supremacist domestic terrorist-affiliated Republicans currently fighting to strip Black people of their constitutional rights under the guise of states’ rights.
3. Depending on the era of history, it’s whichever party calls itself “conservative,” “patriots” or “real Americans.” 
4. White people are technically a political party. 

14. When was America great?

1. When the headright system and Indian Removal Act gave white people free land.
2. When you could build a fortune using a government-protected, constitutionally enforced system of free labor.
3. When New Deal policies created the white middle class by providing jobs, interest-free loans and government handouts. 
4. When anyone could achieve the American dream through hard work, freedom and rugged individualism. 

15. How many times was America “invaded”? 

1. When British forces captured and burned Washington, D.C., in 1814.
2. Mexico technically owned the land they attacked in 1846 but we still call it an “invasion.”
3. Alaska’s natives still claimed ownership of the territory during the “Japanese invasion of America.” 
4. This all happened after white people “settled” in America and “colonized” the land they didn’t own.

16. Which one of these is an example of systemic racism? 

1. Segregation.
2. Redlining.
3. School-funding disparities.
4. Anti-white affirmative action policies put in place to address the effects of segregation, redlining and school funding disparities. 

17. Most white Americans did not support: 

1. The anti-lynching movement.
2. The Civil Rights Movement
3. The Black Lives Matter movement.
4. Anything Black.

18. America isn’t a racist country because:

1. We ended slavery. OK, we were later than other countries and immediately instituted Jim Crow, but still …
2. We passed the Civil Rights Act and the Voting Rights Act! OK, most white people vote for the party that’s actively trying to dismantle them, but stil l…
3. We elected a Black president! OK, we elected an openly racist white supremacist immediately after that but still …
4. You’re the real racist.

19. Which one of these is historically accurate? 

1. 70% of Black people live in majority Black neighborhoods.
2. 71% of Black children attend schools that are racially segregated.
3. Nonwhite school districts receive $23 billion less than white school districts.
4. Black neighborhoods, segregation and nonwhite districts exist because of white people.

20. What is history?

1. A chronological record of significant events (such as those affecting a nation or institution) often including an explanation of their causes.
2. The past considered as a whole.
3. The whole series of past events connected with someone or something.
4. Whatever white people want it to be.

Answer key:

Yes.

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Michael Harriot is a writer, cultural critic and championship-level Spades player. His book, Black AF History: The Unwhitewashed Story of America, will be released in September.

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