Leftists complain fervently that American history taught in schools is always inadequately progressive. This week, time writer Olivia Waxman expressed her disgust for students teaching about Helen Keller learning about her childhood, rather than her activities as a left-wing adult activist, which co-founded the American Civil Liberties Union and early support for NAACP Birth Control . She was a member of the Socialist Party and read its Karl Marx.
Sascha Cohen, who teaches American studies at Brandeis University and wrote the 2015 TIME article, “Helen Keller’s Forgotten Radicalism,” argues that Keller’s involvement in workers ‘rights can help students understand the roots of workers’ rights and inequality issues that still exist today.
However, Amanda Prestigiacomo of the Daily Wire was amazed that Keller was being dismissed as “just another privileged white person”:
“[T]o Some black disability rights activists, like Anita Cameron, Helen Keller is not radical at all, “just another, disabled, privileged white person” and another example of the story that tells the story of privileged white Americans, “TIME reported Tuesday.
“Critics of Helen Keller cite her writings as reflecting the popularity of now-dated eugenics theories and her friendship with one of the movement’s supporters, Alexander Graham Bell,” TIME added. “The American Foundation for the Blind Archivist Helen Selsdon says Keller has moved away from that position.”
Conservatives fired back. Mary Vought tweeted, “You have to be kidding me,” said Mary Vought. “The mob that woke up is now following Helen Keller because she is white. No matter what progress she has made for people with disabilities. “Donald Trump Jr. replied to Vought:”[T]Hey, now we’re canceling Helen Keller because she’s white. You can’t make up this crap anymore. You can never be woken up enough. “Ted Cruz said” insane “.
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