2024-01-15
28 分钟Have you ever recalled a story only to have someone point out "that's not how it went"? Well, what happens when what we misrepresent are our historical narratives? David Ikard is a Professor of African American and Diaspora Studies at Vanderbilt University. In this episode, he talks about the societal and personal dangers of inaccurate history knowledge, and uncovers the real story of one of history’s most iconic figures. For the full text transcript, visit go.ted.com/BHTranscripts
Ted audio collective.
Hey, everyone.
How to be a better human is still on our season break, but we wanted to share a special episode from the archive today.
This is a conversation with Professor David Eitgard, and we are going to be back with all new episodes in season four starting next week.
You're listening to how to be a better human.
I'm your host, Chris Duffy.
Growing up, I remember learning a pretty standard by the book explanation of american history, which means that now, as an adult, I'm frequently surprised to find out that the stories I thought I knew I actually had all wrong.
For example, I always thought that the story of Rosa Parks was of an older woman who decided that she'd had enough, and she refused to give up her seat at the front of a bus to a white man because she was tired after a long day of work.
But as today's guest, Professor David Eichard, explains in his talk at TEDx Nashville, that is not how things actually happened.
Here's a clip.
I am the proud father of two beautiful children.
When Elijah was in the fourth grade, he came to me, came home from school bubbling over with excitement about what he had learned that day about african american history.
Now, I'm an african american cultural studies professor, and so, as you can imagine, african american culture is kind of serious around my home.
So I was very proud that my son was excited about what he had learned that day in school.
So I said, well, what'd you learn?
He said, I learned about Rosa Parks.
I said, okay, what did you learn about Rosa Parks?
He said, I learned that Rosa Parks was this frail, old black woman in the 1950s in Montgomery, Alabama.
And she sat down on this bus, and she had tired feet.
And when the bus driver told her to give up her seat to a white patron, she refused because she had tired feet, and it had been a long day, and she was tired of oppression, and she didn't give up her seat, and she marched with Martin Luther King, and she believed in nonviolence.