The Unbearable Discomfort of History

article-cropped microphone August 20, 2021 by Karin Chenoweth, Tanji Reed Marshall, Ph.D.

In this fourth episode of Ed Trust’s new podcast, EdTrusted, Ed Trust’s writer-in-residence Karin Chenoweth and director of practice Dr. Tanji Reed Marshall discuss the cognitive dissonance many White Americans feel when learning about such events in American history as the Tulsa Massacre of 1921 and how that is leading them to try to suppress the teaching of honest history.

Joining them are:

  • Anneliese Bruner, great granddaughter of Mary Jones Parrish, chronicler of the Tulsa Massacre and author of an afterword to Parrish’s book, The Nation Must Awake (Trinity University Press).
  • Dr. Joel Cooper, professor of psychology, Princeton University, whose research has focused on cognitive dissonance and how it can be resolved.
  • Dr. Glenn Adams, professor of psychology, University of Kansas, who has done research on The Marley Hypothesis, which posits that people’s ability to recognize racism and racist systems is a function of how much history they know. It was so named because of the song, Buffalo Soldier, by Bob Marley and the Wailers, the lyrics of which include:

“If you know your history
Then you would know where you coming from
Then you wouldn’t have to ask me
Who the heck do I think I am”