Whose History is American History: Critical Race Theory, Attempted Erasure, and Historical Memory in Antebellum

• In Event: Black History, American History and Miseducation

Abstract

In September 2020, then-President Trump issued an executive order banning diversity trainings in the federal government. In the years following, critical race theory has been invoked as “divisive” and therefore a threat to the fabric of the nation. As these parties insist on the creation of courses that focus on the Constitution and the founding fathers as a counter measure, these attacks on CRT constitute an attempt to recreate the grand narrative of American history, re-centering the voices of white men.
Although these debates in the political sphere have re-emerged more fiercely in the last 5 years, conversations around textbooks and the teaching of slavery have been ongoing. In the wake of this, filmmakers Gerard Bush and Christopher Renz wrote and directed Antebellum (2020). The film traces Veronica’s struggle to escape bondage. As Veronica escapes the plantation, the film reveals that she and the others have been held captive in a Civil War (re)creation park. As she desperately rides towards freedom, white families are shown to be happily entering the park, looking forward to the states-rights view of the Civil War.
Employing the horror genre, Antebellum offers a lens through which those historical forces of oppression and the erasure of Black humanity born through chattel slavery in the US, set to act upon Black Americans at any time, are made literal for viewers beyond a Black audience, revealing the high stakes of revising our historical narratives for all Americans.

Authors

• Cassandra L. Jones, University of Cincinnati

• Omotayo Banjo, University of Cincinnati

• Mia Morales, University of Cincinnati