No history books used in public schools informed us about racial imperialism. Instead we were given romantic notions of the “New World,” the “American Dream,” America as the great melting pot where all races come together as one. We were taught that Columbus “discovered” America; that “Indians” were scalp-hunters, killers of innocent women and children; that black people were enslaved because of the biblical curse of Ham, that God “himself” had decreed that they would be hewers of wood, tilers of the field, and bringers of water. No one talked of Africa as the cradle of civilization, of African and Asian people who came to America before Columbus. No one mentioned mass murders of Native Americans and African women as terrorism. No one described the force breeding of white wives to increase the white population as sexist oppression. — bell hooks: Racism and Feminism (via cultureofresistance)

(Source: justtracey, via swintons)