At first glance, racism in the United States is hard to understand, as one group against whom it is directed are people who created this country in 1776. It seems that Americans are discriminating against themselves.
However, upon a closer examination, the pattern of this racism becomes very similar to that seen in other countries. This racism is promoted by the Prussian education system—the current centralized education system in the United States that states started adopting in the 19th century. (For more information about this education system, see my other articles: “Why Are American Taxpayers Forced to Subsidize and Support the Prussian Education System?”, “The Inherent Flaws of the Prussian Education System”, and “What Has Happened to Our Great Universities?”)
This education system was created and brought here by very different people than those who created this country. Thus, as usual, this racism is about some groups discriminating against other groups, not about a group discriminating against itself.
The pattern of racism against the U.S. founders is very similar to racism in Prussia and other European countries (e.g., Russia) when they were ruled by a militaristic German aristocracy in collaboration with some ethnic minorities. That racism also was directed against local ethnic groups with repeated and often successful attempts to destroy their cultures and promote negative views against them. Racism was used as a tool to help some people rule over others.
The centralized nature of the current education system allows the distortion of history in schools and makes it hard for students to discover the truth, as everyone around them is taught the same. Even private schools use teachers educated in the Prussian university system. When everybody seems to be repeating the same ideas, we do not think that we need to question their truthfulness and check their correctness.
There are many distortions of history practiced in U.S. schools. Most Americans do not even know that their current education system, including their university system, is from Prussia, nor that Prussia was one of the most despotic European countries.
Our Prussian educators criticize American individualism and praise collectivism. However, the basic idea of collectivism is that morally good is what is good for my group. This belief promotes racism; it means that people who do not belong to my group matter less. Our Prussian educators forget to mention this.
Moreover, collectivism promotes the idea that one group member is responsible for what other members of the group do. Those who misbehave have an easier task in recruiting supporters if others of the same group expect to be held responsible for crimes, whether they join or not. Individualism promotes the idea that people are responsible only for their own behavior, making such recruiting harder.
Prussian educators blame the founders of the United States for problems that existed in America before the country was created (e.g., slavery). Maybe educators should instead blame the largely uncontrolled immigration to North America before the United States was created if they do not like what happened in this continent later.
Americans who created the United States built a country that provided better opportunities for honest people than existed before. They did not solve all world problems, but nobody has done that. Despite the very high cost of travel in the past, the United States was a popular destination for poor immigrants as it provided them with better opportunities.
Many of the people who had the most influence in creating the United States were from the native people of England. Our Prussian educators like to criticize the English. Educators differentiate between Americans and the native people of America, but they do not differentiate between English and the native people of England. They blame native English for what others did in England, pretending that all English were the same.
Different outsiders attained power in England throughout its history. For example, educators like to blame English for imperialism; however, it was Queen Victoria who became declared the Empress of India. At the time, the British Prime Minister was Benjamin Disraeli. Anybody with internet access and understanding of the English language can quite easily figure out that both these promoters of imperialism were not of the native people of England or even Great Britain. They were more closely related to those who created and promoted the Prussian education system. If we do not blame native Americans for what later immigrants did, then we should not blame native English for what later immigrants to England did.
The distortion of European history is not limited to England. Russia is another good example. Russians are blamed for many crimes that were committed by people of other ethnicities, as the truth does not make the creators and promoters of the Prussian education system look good. For many centuries before the creation of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR), Russian Empire was ruled by tzars who were not ethnic Russians and not even from other native ethnicities of Russia.
The examination of the ethnicities of the first Politburo of the Communist Party that created the USSR shows that the USSR also was not created by ethnic Russians. The majority of the seven members of this Politburo were not even of European ethnicities. Moreover, there is a shortage of ethnic Russians among the current rulers of Russia. However, Prussian educators like to ascribe the problems in Russia and the USSR to Russians, implying that ethnic Russians were causing these problems and distancing themselves from these problems.
The modern claims that minorities do not have power to discriminate against other ethnic groups do not make any sense. England and Russia are just two of many examples of countries that were ruled by minorities who took advantage of local populations. There are many such examples.
The Prussian education system took over U.S. education not because of its good quality, but rather because of government support and misrepresentation of this education system. That support created unfair competition and legal restrictions upon truly private, decentralized education. If we want to learn from history, we need to study it honestly and not let the Prussian university system control the education in history. Otherwise, instead of solving our problems, we make them worse by repeating old mistakes.
Our Prussian educators promote racism while claiming to do the opposite. Trump’s executive order about terminating all discriminatory programs (e.g., illegal DEI) is a step in the right direction, but it is not enough. The programs were created by “experts” prepared by our Prussian universities. These programs were a symptom but not the root of the problem. As long as the Prussian education system has special privileges, it can continue to distort the teaching of history and promote racism.
Dr. Dalia Marciukaityte is an associate professor of finance at Illinois State University. She is also a policy advisor for the Heartland Institute.
