Video: Virtual Talk With Donald Yacovone Author of  “Teaching White Supremacy: America’s Democratic Ordeal and the Forging of our National Identity”

On Thursday, February 23, 2023, Rokeby Museum held its third annual Black History Month Lecture. Donald Yacovone, a lifetime Associate at Harvard University’s Hutchins Center for African And African American Research discussed his recently published book Teaching White Supremacy: America’s Democratic Ordeal and the Forging of our National Identity. 

In his book, Yacovone shows us the clear and damning evidence of white supremacy’s deep-seated roots in our nation’s education system through a fascinating, in-depth examination of America’s wide assortment of texts, from primary readers to college textbooks, from popular histories to the most influential academic scholarship. Sifting through a wealth of materials from the colonial era to today, Yacovone reveals the systematic ways in which this ideology has infiltrated all aspects of American culture and it has been at the heart of our collective national identity. 

Following his talk, Yacovone talked with the museum’s staff and answered participants’ questions. 

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