I Asked UCLA Students About Slavery
The results were better than I feared, but worse than I’d hoped.
A few weeks ago I published an essay: White People Didn’t Invent Slavery. The West Ended It.
But I didn’t just want to theorize about miseducation - I wanted to verify it for myself.
So I went to UCLA - one of the top public universities in America - and asked students four questions about slavery:
When did it start?
Who started it?
How did Europeans get African slaves?
Who led the first global abolition movement?
The results were better than I feared, but worse than I’d hoped.
Over 25% thought slavery started in America or Europe. Most didn’t know that Africans sold other Africans to Europeans - they assumed Europeans conquered the continent primarily by force.
Only one student could name the British Empire as the leader of abolition.
I don’t blame them. I didn’t know these facts until a few years ago either.
The American education system simply doesn’t teach this. Instead - as one student revealed - social media is filling in the gap.
This is how a selective history creates a selective morality. When you only teach the sins, you create shame. When you hide the redemption, you breed resentment.
Here’s a 6-minute highlight (and lowlight) reel of my conversations:
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