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Letter: The past offers lessons that reveal how the door of opportunity isn’t open equally for all

FILE - In this Tuesday, Nov. 10, 2020, file photo, a statue of Alexander Hamilton stands in Central Park in New York. A new research paper takes a swipe at the popular image of Alexander Hamilton as the abolitionist founding father, citing evidence that he was a slave trader and owner himself. (AP Photo/Frank Franklin II, File)

During the Utah Board of Education’s recent discussion of critical race theory, it was suggested that no one should blame today’s white students for slavery. I have taught American history at the university level for forty five years and never suggested that they assume that responsibility. Nor would any conscientious educator.

At the same time, I made my students aware that the United States has followed a policy of affirmative action for white folks since the 17th century. Federal and state power, repeatedly and consistently, has been exercised to defend white status. I have taught that we do not live in a color-blind society, either now or ever. Race was and remains a critical fault line in America. Having a white skin provides privileges with which we are so comfortable that we deny their existence. Rejecting cancel culture means that we not only remember things of which we are proud, but those difficult matters that demand redress. In other words, no one should hold white students culpable for the deeds of their forebears. Yet the past offers lessons that reveal how the door of opportunity is open wide for some but barely at all for others.

Robert A. Goldberg, Professor of History, University of Utah, Salt Lake City

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