Hillary Clinton Goes Back to the Dunning School

[Truprogressive85]

by : TA-NEHISI COATES

Clinton, whether she knows it or not, is retelling a racist—though popular—version of American history which held sway in this country until relatively recently. Sometimes going under the handle of “The Dunning School,” and other times going under the “Lost Cause” label, the basic idea is that Reconstruction was a mistake brought about by vengeful Northern radicals. The result was a savage and corrupt government which in turn left former Confederates, as Clinton puts, it “discouraged and defiant.” snip...

Yet until relatively recently, this self-serving version of history was dominant. It is almost certainly the version fed to Hillary Clinton during her school years, and possibly even as a college student. Hillary Clinton is no longer a college student. And the fact that a presidential candidate would imply that Jim Crow and Reconstruction were equal, that the era of lynching and white supremacist violence would have been prevented had that same violence not killed Lincoln, and that the violence was simply the result of rancor, the absence of a forgiving spirit, and an understandably “discouraged” South is chilling.


I have spent the past two years somewhat concerned about the effects of national amnesia, largely because I believe that a problem can not be effectively treated without being effectively diagnosed. I don’t know how you diagnose the problem of racism in America without understanding the actual history

Read the full article : http://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2016/01/hillary-clinton-reconstruction/427095/

[JustAnotherGen]

1. Can't wait to get home and read this

Coates is someone I like to take my time with.

[JI7]

2. isn't this what we are always hearing. racism is always due to white people not being treated well

[Nitram]

3. There's a lot of speculation and presumption in this article about Clinton's views...

...on Reconstruction and the causes of Jim Crow and lynching. The evidence is very weak that the view Coates assigns her is accurate. In fact, it would be impossible to build a solid case against Clinton in such a short piece. And the idea that a man of Lincoln's political powers and insight might very well have found a way to mitigate the excesses of the South's attempt to re-subjugate the population of ex-slaves is not far-fetched. If anything, it smacks of the optimism and idealism for which Bernie is known.

[JI7]

4. it's not really about Clinton herself. so white people would behave better

If only Lincoln or sanders or whoever was president ?

What does it say about white people ?

[Nitram]

5. Huh?

We're talking about the federal government's policy towards Reconstruction aren't we?

[JI7]

6. and the treatment of blacks

[Number23]

7. Very interesting piece

Although I'm not sure how Coates' makes the jump from Hillary's comment to the Dunning School, since I'm equally confused what Hillary is referring to when she says that Lincoln "forgave and reconciled," I guess it's a bit of a wash.

An interesting read.

[wildeyed]

9. My take, she was trying to recreate that Obama feeling of unification

and reach toward the middle voters in the GE. I watched it live, and it looked to me that she got lost in the answer and gaffed a bit. I do believe that Coates is right about her not having a great grasp of the history. When she stumbled into the Reconstruction comment, I shook my head a bit, but she also sounded a bit confused, so maybe she just misspoke? I need to re-watch, but can't find that part anywhere.

She NEVER gets lost when she talks policy. But that is also a strength. The narrative thing, not so much....

[steve2470]

8. Secretary Clinton was wrong! Here's her quote:

Last night Hillary Clinton was asked what president inspired her the most. She offered up Abraham Lincoln, gave a boilerplate reason why, and then said this:

You know, he was willing to reconcile and forgive. And I don't know what our country might have been like had he not been murdered, but I bet that it might have been a little less rancorous, a little more forgiving and tolerant, that might possibly have brought people back together more quickly.

But instead, you know, we had Reconstruction, we had the re-instigation of segregation and Jim Crow. We had people in the South feeling totally discouraged and defiant. So, I really do believe he could have very well put us on a different path.

http://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2016/01/hillary-clinton-reconstruction/427095/

original quote here: http://cnnpressroom.blogs.cnn.com/2016/01/26/cnn-iowa-democratic-presidential-town-hall-rush-transcript/

My views below:

If Reconstruction had been longer-lasting and much more thorough, segregration and Jim Crow would NOT have occurred. My understanding of history is that the white American people were tired of war and conflict, and did not want to continually force the south to be socially just with the freed slaves. It would have taken much more Federal intervention with troops. President Grant did some intervention but it was not enough. By 1877, Reconstruction was over and the federal troops all came home.

Sorry Secretary Clinton, you are wrong and you owe the African-American community an apology and a restatement of your views.

[wildeyed]

10. Is there a link to her making the actual comment?

I would like to re-watch that portion. She needs to clarify.

I would also like to see her pushed harder on what her plans are for making certain that her economic proposals are equitable. She has a great small business plan, but how do we know that it will be distributed equitably to black and female owned businesses?

Are community banks better more likely than big banks to give minority owned businesses a chance?

What about making sure that community owned banks actually HIRED minority bankers? I did a deal with one recently, and it was all white men, one who tried to make a racist statement to my (white male) partner. The SBA loan officer was the lone white female. They are more small business friendly, but it seemed just as male/white-centric as the big bank we applied to first. Sigh.....

That is just one snapshot, but it is not good. And since this discussion came out of reparations and the argument that redlining was as damaging as any of the better known racist government policies, and was instituted by a progressive president, seems like a good place to start. Clinton is not going to support reparations either, but she can be pushed to clarify how she plans to monitor her programs for bias.