Two White Guys

History- Whose Story?

"The story is that Vasco Nunez de Balboa was the first man to see two oceans...the first man to see two oceans, from a mountain in Panama."
"What, were the natives blind?" - Eduardo Galeano

Anyone who writes or teaches history has a point of view. No one can include everything that happens; sheer volume makes that impossible. So historians need to be selective, and in doing so, they write their version of the past. First, see if you can identify the two white guys; then use some of the suggestions for lessons with your class.

White Guy A was born to money.
When he was 21, his father, a renowned stock manipulator and bootlegger,
gave him one million dollars.
White guy B's family was often broke. He lost his father,
a coal miner, to lung cancer when he was 7.

White Guy A went to 10 different prep schools in 6 years.
He was accused of cheating on exams at least twice.
White Guy B left school when he was 13 to work and help support his mother.
He was involved in his first labor action as a warehouseman when he was 17.

A served as an attorney for the infamous McCarthy committee.
He gained national prominence because of family connections.
B worked his way up in local unions, eventually becoming
a powerful union leader, who negotiated sweeping raises and benefits
for his rank and file workers.

Person A supervised the wiretapping of Martin Luther King's phone.
Person B was an admirer of King, calling him a great organizer.
A did everything he could to have Cuban leader Fidel Castro murdered.
B sent money to support Castro during the Cuban revolution.

Mister A's ideas were the inspiration for the infamous School of the Americas.
Mister B became a strong and persistent voice for prison reform.

A is remembered as a hero and inspiring leader.
B is remembered as a liar and criminal.
Who are they? The answer may surprise you, and if it does, think about why it does.

White Guy A - Robert Kennedy



White Guy B - James Hoffa

Hoffa, of course, was no angel, and Kennedy evidently came to have real feeling and sympathy for the victims of the American economy. But traditional history makes Kennedy a "good guy" and Hoffa a "bad guy." Whose point of view is this? Is there an anti-labor bias involved? Why are Kennedy's shortcomings usually explained away, and Hoffa's emphasized? In short, who is Telling the Story, and Why?

This video introduces us to the Uruguayan historian Eduardo Galeano, whose classic trilogy, "Memory of Fire," chronicles the history of native and working people in the Americas, and their resistance to the takeover by European colonialism. Listen especially to his take on immigration, among other things.