Here and There

I’ve got this friend. He teaches English in Tokyo. He approached me in cyberspace (I know, I thought it was weird too....like a dream) some time ago, asking if I would be open to sharing a meal with one of his students that would be studying abroad in Boston. I eagerly obliged. Eventually, I started exchanging emails with the student. From them, it was apparent she was an eager learner and seeker of new experiences. While not fluent in English, she was able to convey to me her disdain for the Boston Red Sox and her love of the New York Yankees. This won me over instantaneously. As I would come to learn, everyone in Japan loves the Yankees because of Hideki Matsui.

Eventually, we found a date and time that worked for Mussolini and I, and Hitomi. I picked her up on my way home from work and the three of us walked from my apartment to the North End for some Italian. As Hitomi’s understanding of English seems a bit ahead of her ability to speak it, my girlfriend and I found ourselves carrying much of the conversation. We didn’t mind though, and she didn’t seem to either, which kept the dynamic of our little group relaxed and informal. She promises to tell us more about Japan the next time we meet.

Anyways, as she was very interested in learning the history of Boston, Charlestown and the North End specifically, I was able to indulge my rambling blah blah blah-ness. I think, and I’m not 100% sure, that Crispus Attucks was shot and killed in the North End, although I know he is buried in the cemetery on Tremont Street. I vaguely remember being told of Crispus Attucks when I was in school but what I do not recall, was race having ever been part of the lesson. Which, in a roundabout way, leads me to my point...

The death of Crispus Attucks was used to launch the war campaign in the Massachusetts. Is it not interesting and relevant then, that Attucks is said to have been portrayed as a white man for the purposes of the Revolutionary War's marketing campaign when he was known to be some combination of white, black, and native American descent? It is at least relevant and worthy of inclusion in the academic discussion of the revolution’s infancy, to mention the possibility that its engineers were prepared to send Attucks down in the annals of American history as a white man, because if the truth were known, the massacre would have been more of an incident and less of a massacre and rallying cry.

I can’t help but feel disappointed with the way- and this is only one of countless examples- I/we have been spared the “details” in school because when they didn’t mesh with the antiquated romantic notion of our forefathers to which we continue to cling. Truth and the pursuit thereof are implicitly considered subversive in American schools. Isn’t that a bummer? During all that time you spent with your nose in what you took to be a history book, you were actually just being conditioned not to question the official manifestations of American morality.

Ok, I’m stepping down off my soap box.