Week5_Dyana Lam_ASA150E

The reading for week five consisted of explaining how every aspect surrounding wars, whether it be the memories or the socio-political stances people took, never get erased. The author mentioned how as much as countries will seek to erase the history of certain aspects in a war, that type of silencing can make voices even louder. Truth finds its way to the surface, even if it takes decades to reappear. The reading directly touches and relates to the issue of our history being erased or lightened in the SEA community. Rarely growing up did I ever see the truth of the war in history books or taught by teachers. The large narrative that the U.S. has used to cover up the truth is what I knew was being taught to me. Just very surface level, the tip of the iceberg, untruthful, "truth". This is a serious issue for the SEA community because it takes knowledge, power, and truth away from individuals who definitely deserve it, given that so many of our family members have suffered at the hands of U.S. involvement.

The reading connects to the theme of the week because the author directly mentions how the truth of the war histories are typically "forgotten, suppressed, and invisible". The purpose of this is to not allow the public to look at the highest powers within this country negatively and keep people "pro-American". The reading connects to how little we were able to see what was and is going on in the Middle East. The media has become so censored and we never see drone killings or other atrocities the U.S. may be committing. Yet, the U.S. has been involved in the Middle East for years now and I feel like most people in the public know very little of the truth or what is going on there. People who are being victimized by this within those countries will eventually also have their memories and histories erased because the U.S. is already taking the steps to do it.

Who are the people writing history books taught in the public school system? Do they generally hire people who are ignorant and take a dominant narrative stance or are they told what to write and paid only if they do what they are told?