Behar: American Kids Not Learning History; If They Did They Would Understand White Privilege

Joy Behar said Wednesday on ABC’s “The View” that American children are not being taught the history of slavery and segregation, so they do not understand “white privilege.”

The panel was discussing Olivia Jade’s apology for her involvement in a college admission scandal that resulted in her parents Lori Loughlin and Mossimo Giannulli, being sent to prison.

Behar said, “We know that white privilege is everywhere. I mean, Kellyanne Conway, who was just deplorable for the last four years, is getting a multimillion dollar book deal. The Situation from “The Jersey Shore” after his stint in jail went right back to “The Jersey Shore” show. Martha Stewart got her gig back. She is now setting tables everywhere. Not that I resent it. It’s just that’s the way it goes, and what I feel like is I understand my own white privilege. I always have. I just think about things like that all the time.”

She added, “I was a school teacher. Let’s remember that for a minute because I don’t think that kids in this country are learning our history. They’re not learning about slavery. They’re not learning about Jim Crow. They don’t understand the history of Black Americans in this country. If they did, they would then understand white privilege better. So my suggestion is start teaching this stuff. It’s deplorable, again, that word that they do not learn history, period. I mean, people who are young under 50 don’t know who FDR was. You know, they think that Paul McCartney was part of a group called ‘Wings.’ They don’t — you know what I mean? They don’t know stuff, and they need to learn.”

Follow Pam Key on Twitter @pamkeyNEN

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