OPINION: A recent trip to the White House and ear hustling everybody’s conversations made me realize most folks don’t know anything about U.S. history.
Editor’s note: The following article is an op-ed, and the views expressed are the author’s own. Read more
I didn’t correct him, and frankly I’m sure he wouldn’t have taken my word as fact. And if I’m being honest, his confidence made me question my own set of facts. But that’s when I started listening to other people’s conversations as we filed through the White House. I heard people inaccurately identify presidents in the portraits hanging around. And I can’t tell you how many people thought Nancy Reagan was Queen Elizabeth. My 7-year-old was one of them, and I thought that was cute. The fact that he got a co-sign from an adult threw me for a loop. I also realized that the only presidents easy to recognize are Kennedy, Lincoln and Obama. I won’t say who, but somebody I know misidentified a portrait of Ronald Reagan as Franklin D. Roosevelt.
Similarly, it was fun to hear people’s inaccuracies about dates and instances in American history, especially since most of the things people were talking about had a placard explaining the time, date and circumstance of the thing people were wrong about. When was the White House burned down? Depends on who you ask, I suppose. I heard a family debating if it happened after the Civil War as a sign of protest or, oddly, before it was even built during the Revolutionary War. The right answer is 1814, which would be during the War of 1812. Who did it? Also depends on who is asked. That same couple debated this. Nobody was right. They must have a blast watching “National Treasure.”
To be fair, I also thought it happened in 1804 but quickly corrected that to my children once I saw the right information on a plaque in one of the staterooms. Look, I’m not saying everybody has to have a degree in U.S. history, and it’s especially not required to visit any monument or landmark in Washington. However, I do think most people have no idea when most stuff happened and are super excited to share the information we don’t know with anybody who will listen. I heard A LOT of misinformation while walking through the White House, and all of that information is going to be passed along. On purpose. There’s always a person in a group who is sure that they’re right about the thing nobody else has any idea about. Is that person right? Based on what I heard, probably not. But we all enjoy a confident response to a question.
At least, though, everybody could easily identify Barack and Michelle Obama. I guess all presidents and first ladies don’t look alike.
I’ll see myself out.
Panama Jackson is a columnist at theGrio. He writes very Black things, drinks very brown liquors, and is pretty fly for a light guy. His biggest accomplishment to date coincides with his Blackest accomplishment to date in that he received a phone call from Oprah Winfrey after she read one of his pieces (biggest), but he didn’t answer the phone because the caller ID said: “Unknown” (Blackest).
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