







































Aisthesis      Volume 16,  202543

Rewriting Racism with Prager University: How the Modern
Political Propaganda Outlet is Shaping Global Slavery 
Curricula within the American Educational System  

by Rachel Ledoux

Introduction
 Did Frederick Douglass, one of the United States’ 
most famous historical abolitionists, truly describe 
the system of slavery as a necessary “compromise to 
achieve something great: the making of the United 
States?”1 Of course not. Yet, for many students in 
the United States, this viewpoint from Douglas 
is all but a fact. !is diminishing statement is just 
one of the many historical inaccuracies peddled in 
educational materials, including videos, from the 
American political organization Prager University 
or PragerU. As Dr. Johnathan Zimmerman of the 
University of Pennsylvania put it, PragerU is not an 
educational tool, but rather a “political propaganda 
machine.”2 Narrated by popular political "gures 
like Candace Owens, these videos provide a prime 
example of the prevalence of revisionist history 
in classrooms across the United States. In Florida’s 
middle school classrooms, this rhetoric has become 
more prominent due to the implementation of 
PragerU as an educational resource for students. 
It is easy to overlook the broader rami"cations of 
these political propaganda materials, like those 
published by PragerU, disguised as “educational” 
resources. However, we must understand the impact 
of this content on the American educational system 
to combat this damaging trend of disinformation 
e#ectively. 
 Modern political propaganda like that of 
PragerU has retroactively changed the way slavery is 
viewed by discounting its severity, whitewashing the 
abolitionist movement, and labeling contemporary 
anti-racism as anti-Americanism. By analyzing 
myriad examples of this social messaging, this 

1 Timothy Sandefur, “Frederick Douglass: From Slave to 
Statesman,” PragerU, 2021, https://www.prageru.com.
2 Sarah Schwartz, PragerU, Creator of Controversial So-
cial Studies Videos, Now Has a Toehold in Schools. Ed-
ucation Week, September 18, 2023. https://www.edweek.
org/prageru.

paper demonstrates that many modern views of 
enslavement have been fundamentally reformed 
into less drastic outlooks by political propaganda, 
particularly within the educational system. I argue 
that a concentrated e#ort by the US government to 
address propaganda within the educational system is 
the only way to adequately combat this phenomenon, 
as the issue lies largely within the nationwide 
educational system and its historical curriculum. 
As long as organizations like PragerU are given a 
platform in American schools, there will never be an 
end to the spread of political propaganda regarding 
slavery and racism. !e United States must overhaul 
its current historical education curriculum, lest 
impressionable young people continue to be a#ected 
by propaganda.
 Firstly, we must combat these inaccuracies 
by exploring the history of race relations in the 
United States by examining the true conditions of 
slavery during this intense era of the United States’ 
oppressive history.

Historical Context of United States Slavery
 One of the key inaccuracies peddled by PragerU 
and similar organizations is a false equation of 
modern and pre-modern forms of slavery. As 
Candace Owens points out in “A Short History 
of Slavery,” enslavement has been used as a tool of 
historic oppression by dozens of cultures, from the 
indigenous Aztecs to the Roman Empire to the 
enslavement of African people in the Americas.3 
However, while it is true that slavery has existed in 
some form for most cultures throughout known 
human history, there is a notable distinction between 
these premodern and modern forms of enslavement. 
Both were brutal and torturous violations of human 
rights, but their motivating factors were drastically 
di#erent; particularly in regards to the role of race 
and perceived biological inferiorities.

3 PragerU, “A Short History of Slavery,” YouTube, 2021, 
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NO_wmixXBdE.



Rewriting Racism with Prager University

Aisthesis      Volume 16,  202544

 Premodern slavery was largely the result of 
warfare, with prisoners of war being enslaved by 
conquering forces.4 In contrast, modern slavery 
(which was centered primarily around the Trans-
Atlantic Slave Trade) combined a demand for unpaid 
labor with an intensely race-based hierarchical 
system.5 When we discuss the system of slavery 
used by the United States, Brazil, and countless 
other countries, we are referencing the modern 
form of slavery, not the premodern. To put it 
simply, premodern slavery came about as the result 
of social hierarchy, and modern slavery was the 
result of racial hierarchy. !e problem arises, then, 
when these two quite distinct classi"cations of 
enslavement are con$icted in a modern lens.6 !ey 
each di#er in a small, yet prominent manner, which 
has heavy implications on contemporary perceptions 
of slavery: the unique role of racial oppression in 
modern slavery. 
 !e United States is known for having especially 
brutal slavery when compared to countries like 
Brazil and South Africa,7 largely as a result of the 
lackluster legislation regarding the treatment of 
enslaved individuals by their masters and continued 
generational enslavement for the children of enslaved 
people. Slave owners in the early US (which were 
concentrated largely within Southern plantations) 
were free to treat their enslaved people as terribly 
as they chose with little government oversight 
or protections for enslaved individuals. One of 
the strongest motivating factors for this arduous 
treatment was the racial distinction between enslaved 
people and their masters; that is, the majority of 
enslaved people were black and almost all slave 
owners were white. Black people were deemed as 
biologically inferior due to their race, which allowed 
white Americans to justify this intense and torturous 

4 “Slavery before the Trans-Atlantic Trade,” Omeka RSS, 
2022, https://ldhi.library.cofc.edu/exhibits/show 
5 Janne Mende, “!e Concept of Modern Slavery: De"-
nition, Critique, and the Human Rights Frame.” Human 
Rights Review 20, no. 2 (December 7, 2018): 229–48. 
https://doi.org/10.1007/s12142-018-0538-y. 
6 Anthony Marx, Making Race and Nation. Cambridge, 
Massachusetts: Cambridge University Press, 1997. 
7 “American Slavery in Comparative Perspective,” Digital 
History, 2021, https://www.digitalhistory.uh.edu. 

treatment.8 For instance, enslaved individuals were 
deemed less intelligent and prone to violence, o%en 
likening them to wild animals. Similarly, social 
dominance theory was used to promote the idea 
that enslaved African people needed to be socially 
inferior to white people, due to a perceived need 
for hierarchy in any properly functioning society. 
According to this theory, societies with a reliance 
on hierarchical systems remained functional due 
to a fundamental need for one group to be socially 
superior, which is supported by the “inferior” social 
classes.9 !is view has evolved into contemporary 
racism, in which individuals of color are viewed as 
inferior due to perceived biological inadequacies 
and stereotypes. By erasing the role of this racist 
ideology in modern enslavement, contemporary 
political groups work against public awareness of 
racism in the present day. If modern slavery is falsely 
considered to be disconnected from race, we risk 
ignoring many of the modern e#ects of slavery on 
the black population of the United States. Now, we 
turn to how contemporary political propaganda 
organizations like PragerU are doing just this by 
downplaying the severity of slavery, both in actuality 
and on its present e#ects. 

Discounting the Severity of Slavery
 !roughout a majority of PragerU historical 
videos, undermining language regarding slavery has 
been a distinctive feature, which marks the content 
as biased, revisionist history. !e term “revisionist 
history” refers to the false reinterpretation of a 
historical event or time period, which is o%en 
achieved by challenging traditional academic views 
and narratives.10 One diminishing variation of 
this is the peddling of false information regarding 
enslavement in the United States. While PragerU 
has a trend of discounting language toward slavery 

8 “Scienti"c Racism,” Harvard Library, 2024, https://li-
brary.harvard.edu/anti-black-racism/scienti"c-racism.
9 Felicia Pratto and Andrew L. Stewart, “Social Domi-
nance !eory,” !e Encyclopedia of Peace Psychology, De-
cember 15, 2011, https://doi.org/10.1002/9780470672532.
wbepp253.
10 James M. Banner, !e Ever-Changing Past: Why All 
History is Revisionist History. New Haven, Connecticut: 
Yale University Press, 2021.



Rewriting Racism with Prager University

Aisthesis      Volume 16,  202545

(such as the aforementioned concept of slavery as 
a “compromise” for America11), we must recognize 
the distinction between downplaying slavery and 
spreading false information about the history of 
slavery. !e spread of disinformation has far more 
harmful manifestations. As such, scholars of modern 
race relations must understand the varying pieces 
of disinformation that organizations like Prager 
University may weaponize to push their political 
agendas.
 One of the most prominent and damaging ways 
that modern political propaganda undermines 
slavery is the spread of inaccurate statistics regarding 
enslavement in the early United States. As previously 
stated, the US implemented a particularly brutal 
system of slavery, both in terms of the treatment 
of enslaved individuals and the volume of people 
bought and sold within the slave trade. !e torment 
of enslaved individuals within the system is 
undeniable; however, the severity of their conditions 
is frequently diminished by political propaganda. 
Take, for instance, the PragerU video, “A Short 
History of Slavery.” In this video, Candace Owens 
states that approximately 350,000 enslaved people 
were forcibly brought to the early United States as 
a result of the North Atlantic slave trade system.12 
While this number is technically, presumably 
accurate (though there have been varying estimates 
for the exact population of enslaved people), it is still, 
ultimately, a misleading statistic. !e United States 
system of slavery was uniquely damaging as the 
descendants of enslaved people were also enslaved 
by default. For instance, if an enslaved couple had a 
child, that child would automatically be considered 
a slave belonging to the same master as its parents. 
As such, it is important to include the number of 
enslaved individuals who were born in the United 
States when estimating the total population, which 
recent estimates have placed at around ten million. 
!e PragerU estimate also fails to account for the 
thousands of enslaved Africans who died in the 
Middle Passage portion of the Trans-Atlantic Slave 

11 Timothy Sandefur, “Frederick Douglass: From Slave to 
Statesman,” PragerU, 2021, https://www.prageru.com. 
12 PragerU, “A Short History of Slavery,” YouTube, 2021, 
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NO_wmixXBdE.

Trade, journeying from the African continent to 
North America.13

 !is is one of the most damaging pieces of 
misinformation currently being shared by PragerU 
and other political organizations, as it not only 
undermines the severity of slavery in the United 
States but also rejects the lived experiences of 
enslaved people throughout US history. We can see 
a similar rhetoric surrounding modern revisionist 
perceptions of the Holocaust in the early 1900s.14 
During this era, over 6 million Jewish people were 
executed in a widespread genocide throughout the 
European continent, alongside members of other 
minority groups. In the present day, a major facet of 
the most prominent Holocaust-denying ideologies 
rests on diminishing the number of people murdered 
during this period. !e spread of this misinformation, 
such as claiming that the concentration camps used 
to execute Holocaust victims en-masse would not 
have been logistically possible despite all evidence 
to the contrary, only serves to diminish the reality 
of this period of ethnic and political torment. For 
both the slavery system of the early United States 
and the Holocaust, a great deal of power comes from 
the impact of the events on the a#ected populations. 
By denying the truth of these atrocities, modern 
political propaganda works to discount the severity 
of these systems of injustice.
 As Dr. Clint Smith put it, “!e history of 
slavery is the history of the United States. It was not 
peripheral to our founding; it was central to it. It is 
not irrelevant to our contemporary society; it created 
it. !is history is in our soil, it is in our policies, and 
it must, too, be in our memories.”15 We must work 
to combat attempts to undermine the severity of 
slavery in the United States, so we may preserve our 
history and honor the e#orts of those who fought 
to abolish slavery and achieve racial equity in this 

13 “Middle Passage,” Slavery and Remembrance, 2024, https://
slaveryandremembrance.org/articles/?id=A0032. 
14 “Explaining Holocaust Denial,” United States Holo-
caust Memorial Museum, 2024, https://www.ushmm.org/
antisemitism/holocaust-denial-and-distortion/explain-
ing-holocaust-denial.
15 Deborah Menkart, “Lessons for How the Word Is Passed 
by Clint Smith,” Zinn Education Project, November 10, 
2023, https://www.zinnedproject.org/news/lessons-how-
the-word-is-passed. 



Rewriting Racism with Prager University

Aisthesis      Volume 16,  202546

country—which were largely black Americans and 
other allied individuals. Unfortunately, despite their 
legacy and historical impact on race relations within 
the United States, these abolitionists are not free 
from the impacts of modern political propaganda, 
either. !e next section examines how contemporary 
political revisionism is whitewashing the abolitionist 
movement and defacing the traditional in$uence 
of black abolitionists throughout the history of the 
American system of slavery.

Whitewashing the Abolitionist Movement
 Another distinguishing feature of several 
PragerU videos on slavery? A false accreditation 
of the abolitionist movement to white European 
abolitionists. In “A Short History of Slavery,” for 
example, Owens expresses this exact sentiment, 
stating that white men “led the world” in putting 
an end to the practice of slavery.16 !is could not be 
further from the truth. !e abolitionist movement 
would, quite simply, cease to exist if not for the 
tireless e#orts of black abolitionists like Sojourner 
Truth, David Walker, and Frederick Douglas.17 
Crediting white Europeans for abolishing slavery is 
akin to crediting men with giving women the right 
to vote—that is, an outright denial of the resistance 
e#orts required to achieve that goal. Not only does 
it display a complete disregard for the work of black 
abolitionists, but it also ignores the fact that modern 
slavery arose as a result of white Europeans. !e 
role of white supremacy in the modern enslavement 
system cannot be overlooked. 
 It is also worth noting that, even if white 
Europeans were solely responsible for the 
abolitionist movement, the implementation of Jim 
Crow laws and other legislation that promoted 
racial segregation would have immediately undone 
any improved conditions abolition achieved for 
black Americans. !e legacy of slavery is still ever-
present in the United States as a result of the Jim 
Crow system, which was largely set in place by white, 
Southern legislators.18 It is impossible to argue that 

16 PragerU, “A Short History of Slavery,” YouTube, 2021, 
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NO_wmixXBdE.
17 US History, “African-American Abolitionists” Indepen-
dence Hall Association (Philadelphia, 2008).
18 Meghan Whit"eld. Unmasking Southern White Evangel-
icalism in U.S. History Education: Racialized !eopolitical 
Discourses at Work, May 29, 2024, 1–20. https://doi.org/1
0.1080/10714413.2024.2356493.

white people were responsible for the abolitionist 
movement due to the prompt implementation of 
these policies in its a%ermath. !ose "ghting for 
abolition were "ghting for racial equity and improved 
conditions for black people in America—most 
de"nitely not in the same category as those who saw 
"t to implement and protect the Jim Crow system 
for decades to come. !inking like this is not only 
harmful but unbelievable in the face of reality. !is 
rhetoric becomes even more damaging when paired 
with the contemporary equation of anti-racism to 
anti-Americanism. 

PragerU's Rhetoric of Anti-Racism = Anti-
Americanism
 !e Prager University website states that the non-
pro"t organization aims to “[spread] the message 
of freedom and liberty” to its millions of viewers, 
with an evident focus on domestic politics within 
the United States.19 As such, one of the major tenets 
of PragerU content aims to share pro-American 
rhetoric. While this is not outright harmful, the 
manner in which this message is distributed is o%en 
at odds with modern race relations in the US, as well 
as e#orts to increase contemporary accountability 
for America’s problematic history of racial injustices.
 To pull from PragerU’s “A Short History of 
Slavery” once more, Owens claims that, “if black 
Americans began to view themselves as partners in 
the American dream,” then racism would be defunct 
in the modern United States.20 Not only is this a 
horrendous outlook on contemporary race relations, 
but this is also a $awed perspective on the role of 
racism in the US. As we’ve explored, the United States 
was built on the system of slavery in many ways. !e 
belief that black Americans should simply ignore 
this reality is, to put it frankly, deluded. Likewise, 
the rhetoric that black Americans are responsible for 
modern racism by drawing attention to the systems 
of injustice at play is inaccurate at best and quite 
damaging at worst. !is outlook is also similar to 
the ideology of anti-racism being equivalent to anti-
Americanism in the present day. Accusing members 
of minority groups of hating their country because 

19 “About Us.” PragerU. Accessed December 8, 2024. 
https://www.prageru.com/about.
20 PragerU, “A Short History of Slavery,” YouTube, 2021, 
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NO_wmixXBdE.



Rewriting Racism with Prager University

Aisthesis      Volume 16,  202547

they dared to draw attention to systemic oppression 
is indicative of a broader hatred and disrespect for 
those a#ected by inequality.21 Patriotism is not, and 
shouldn’t be, likened to idealizing one’s nation. !is 
ideology undermines the very democratic principles 
that the United States was founded on. It is critical 
that the concept of Anti-Americanism, which refers 
to unfounded prejudice against the United States 
government or the American people, not become 
falsely con$ated with a well-founded criticism of 
America’s racist history and its legacy. !is issue 
is particularly prominent given the current state 
of polarization within United States politics. With 
young Americans being the primary target of this 
messaging, however, it is crucial that we examine the 
e#ect of this content on students within the United 
States.

Impact of this Messaging on American Students
 With American politics becoming even more 
divided due to political propaganda outlets like 
PragerU, young people have become one of the largest 
demographics caught in the cross"re. As the Prager 
University website states, sixty percent of its viewers 
on YouTube are under the age of thirty-"ve with up 
to "ve million views each day, which is re$ective of 
the rise of political propaganda content available en 
masse in the modern day.22 It is undeniable that this 
level of revisionist history would have a detrimental 
e#ect on young people in America, particularly those 
who are exposed to this content in their middle and 
high school curricula.
 !is expectation was re$ected in a 1998 survey 
of textbooks in middle and high schools across 
the United States, where Peter Kolchin, professor 
of an American history survey course, reviewed 
the presence of limited or revisionist history in 
educational materials.23 According to Kolchin’s 

21 Meghan Whit"eld. Unmasking Southern White Evangel-
icalism in U.S. History Education: Racialized !eopolitical 
Discourses at Work, May 29, 2024, 1–20. https://doi.org/1
0.1080/10714413.2024.2356493. 
22 “About Us.” PragerU. Accessed December 8, 2024. 
https://www.prageru.com/about.  
23 Peter Kolchin, “Slavery in United States Survey Text-
books.” !e Journal of American History 84, no. 4 (March 
1998): 1425. https://doi.org/10.2307/2568089. 

"ndings, several noteworthy trends emerged in the 
coverage of systems of enslavement during various 
eras of US history. For one, slavery was frequently 
explored as an “issue” of early American society—
that is, a point of contention among white political 
thinkers and a leading factor in the Southern 
secession of 1860, rather than a system of oppression 
in and of itself. Given the torturous nature of 
enslavement in the United States, it stands to reason 
that contemporary coverage ought to focus more on 
the lived experiences of enslaved individuals and 
the lasting legacy of slavery in modern America. 
Unfortunately, that is not the case in a vast majority 
of United States educational facilities. Similarly, 
Kolchin notes that modern history courses o%en 
fail to convey the concentration of enslaved people 
amongst slave owners during this period. While 
a majority of antebellum slave owners owned less 
than ten slaves each, about 75% of the enslaved 
individuals in the United States system belonged to 
masters with ten or more slaves. A small point of 
contention, once again, but an aspect of this system 
that is worth noting, as it contextualizes slavery as 
being a heavily industrial system, rather than being 
based on the individual level. To put it frankly, the 
United States has failed to educate its youth on the 
reality of enslavement in a myriad of ways, a problem 
no doubt exacerbated by the broadening in$uence 
of PragerU and other political propaganda outlets in 
statewide educational curricula, particularly within 
the midwestern and southern United States. 
 Now, as US President Donald Trump and several 
prominent conservative politicians have indicated 
interest in shutting down the federal Department 
of Education,24 alongside increasing numbers 
of banned books across the country,25 it seems 
impossible for these conditions to improve under the 
current administration. Nevertheless, this paper will 
attempt to provide a framework for the future in its 
"nal section.

24 Meckler, Laura. “Trump Wants to Get Rid of the 
Department of Education. What Would !at Do?” 
Washington Post, November 12, 2024.
25 “Banned in the USA: Beyond the Shelves,” PEN 
America, November 1, 2024, https://pen.org/report/
beyond-the-shelves/.



Rewriting Racism with Prager University

Aisthesis      Volume 16,  202548

Conclusion: Now What?
 !roughout recent memory, the United States 
has perpetuated racist ideology in both a systemic 
and social manner, with one of the most noteworthy 
topics being the legacy of slavery.26 Modern political 
propaganda has changed the way slavery is viewed 
in the contemporary era by diminishing its legacy, 
crediting the abolitionist movement to white 
leaders, and labeling modern anti-racism as anti-
Americanism. By exploring a plethora of examples of 
this social messaging, this paper aims to convey that 
many contemporary views of American slavery have 
been altered to appear less dramatic, particularly 
within the curriculum of the American educational 
system.
 !e United States is now tasked with repairing 
its portrayal of slavery in the educational sector, 
lest the true legacy of slavery be lost forever. !is 
critical shi% in the historical education curriculum 
must be both comprehensive and expeditious, 
especially as US political leaders begin to propose 
limits on the Education Department27 and American 
politics become even more divided due to political 
propaganda outlets like PragerU. As was discussed 
in this paper, the United States education system is in 
dire need of an overhaul, from its classroom materials 
and textbooks to its broader historical curriculum. If 
the United States aims to combat the growing trend 
of politically motivated historical revisionism, it 
must start with the education of its youth.
 !e educational system in Germany is a strong 
example of how this historical education can be 
presented e#ectively in the modern day. One 
of the most prevalent (and shameful) pieces of 
German history is the Holocaust, where millions of 
Jews, Romanis, communists, and gay people were 
persecuted by Adolf Hitler and the dominant regime. 
In the present day, Germany has implemented a 
strong historical curriculum to ensure that this 
genocidal period is remembered by the public.28 

26 Anthony Marx, Making Race and Nation. Cambridge, 
Massachusetts: Cambridge University Press, 1997. 
27 Meckler, Laura. “Trump Wants to Get Rid of the 
Department of Education. What Would !at Do?” 
Washington Post, November 12, 2024.
28 Vitale, Monica. “Holocaust Education in Germany: 
Ensuring Relevance And ...” US Department of Education, 
2019. https://"les.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/EJ1207646.pdf.

!is curriculum includes a thorough, truthful 
explanation of the role of the German public in 
perpetuating violent rhetoric and an inclusion of 
"rsthand experiences from Holocaust victims, 
such as Anne Frank and Elie Wiesel. South Africa 
is another example of a state with an e#ective 
historical education curriculum, through its Truth 
and Reconciliation Commission’s work within the 
education sector.29 
 While it is true that the United States’ federal 
government has little jurisdiction on educational 
curricula as it currently operates,30 it would be 
possible to support a more accurate historical 
curriculum without infringing on states’ rights 
to regulate their educational systems. !e US 
government is able to push for changes in curricula 
through funding, for example. If directed toward 
equitable policies for educators, placing greater 
emphasis on equitable practices when training US 
teachers, it stands to reason that more accurate 
historical curricula would follow. Unfortunately, 
it is unlikely that these changes will be prioritized 
within the current federal government. Regardless, 
it is undeniable that the historical curriculum in 
America is in need of an upgrade, whether the United 
States opts to follow these routes or not. Education 
reform is a critical factor in limiting the spread of 
historical revisionism in this country, particularly 
regarding slavery education. It will not be a painless 
correction for the United States to implement, given 
the current role of political partisanship in historical 
revisionism, but it must be done as soon as possible. 
If not, we risk forgetting the intense pain and legacy 
of slavery once and for all.

29 “Truth Commission: South Africa,” United States In-
stitute of Peace, accessed December 8, 2024, https://
www.usip.org/publications/1995/12/truth-commis-
sion-south-africa.
30 “Federal Role in Education,” U.S. Department of 
Education, accessed December 8, 2024, https://www.
ed.gov/about/ed-overview/federal-role-in-education.



Rewriting Racism with Prager University

Aisthesis      Volume 16,  2025

Bibliography

“About Us.” Prager University. Accessed December 8, 
2024. https://www.prageru.com/about.

“American Slavery in Comparative Perspective.” 
Digital History, 2021. https://www.
d i g i t a l h i s t o r y. u h . e d u / d i s p _ t e x t b o o k .
cfm?smtid=2&psid=3044.

Banner, James M. !e ever-changing past: Why 
all history is revisionist history. New Haven, 
Connecticut: Yale University Press, 2021. 

Blow, Charles M. “Using Frederick Douglass to 
Rationalize Slavery? In Florida, Yes!” New York 
Times, August 16, 2023. https://www.nytimes.
com/2023/08/16/opinion/$orida-prageru

Corso-Gonzales, Ryan “PragerU as Parasite Public.” 
Dissertation, University of Louisville, 2021.

“Explaining Holocaust Denial.” United States 
Holocaust Memorial Museum, 2024. https://
www.ushmm.org/antisemitism/holocaust-
denial-and-distortion/explaining-holocaust-
denial.

“Federal Role in Education.” U.S. Department of 
Education. Accessed December 8, 2024. https://
www.ed.gov/about/ed-overview/federal-role-in-
education.

Kolchin, Peter. “Slavery in United States Survey 
Textbooks.” !e Journal of American History 
84, no. 4 (March 1998): 14-25. https://doi.
org/10.2307/2568089. 

Marx, Anthony. Making Race and Nation. 
Cambridge, Massachusetts: Cambridge 
University Press, 1997. 

Meckler, Laura. “Trump Wants to Get Rid of the 
Department of Education. What Would 
!at Do?” Washington Post, November 12, 
2024. https://www.washingtonpost.com/
education/2024/11/12/trump-close-education-
department-proposal-explained/. 

Mende, Janne. “!e Concept of Modern Slavery: 
De"nition, Critique, and the Human Rights 
Frame.” Human Rights Review 20, no. 2 
(December 7, 2018): 229–48. https://doi.
org/10.1007/s12142-018-0538-y. 

Menkart, Deborah. “Lessons for How the Word 
Is Passed by Clint Smith.” Zinn Education Project, 
November 10, 2023. https://www.zinnedproject.
org/how-the-word-is-passed.

!e Colonial Williamsburg Foundation,“!e 
Middle Passage.” Slavery and Remembrance, 
2024. https://slaveryandremembrance.org/
articles/article/?id=A0032. 

PragerU. “A Short History of Slavery.” YouTube, 
2021. https://www.youtube.com/watch

Pratto, Felicia, and Andrew L. Stewart. “Social 
Dominance !eory.” !e Encyclopedia of Peace 
Psychology, December 15, 2011. https://doi.
org/10.1002/9780470672532.wbepp253.

Schwartz, Sarah. “Prageru, Creator of Controversial 
Social Studies Videos, Now Has a Toehold in 
Schools.” Education Week, September 18, 2023. 
https://www.edweek.org/prageru.

“Scienti"c Racism.” Harvard Library, 2024. https://
library.harvard.edu/scienti"c-racism.

“Slavery before the Trans-Atlantic Trade.” Omeka 
RSS, 2022. Low Country, South Carolina: Low 
Country Library Initiative, 2022.

“Truth Commission: South Africa.” United States 
Institute of Peace. Accessed December 8, 2024. 
https://www.usip.org/publications/1995/12/
truth-commission-south-africa.

US History, “African-American Abolitionists.” 
Independence Hall (Philadelphia, 2008.)

Vitale, Monica. “Holocaust Education in Germany: 
Ensuring Relevance And ...” US Department 
of Education, 2019. https://"les.eric.ed.gov/
fulltext/EJ1207646.pdf.

49



Rewriting Racism with Prager University

Aisthesis      Volume 16,  2025

Whit"eld, Meghan. Unmasking Southern White 
Evangelicalism in U.S. History Education: 
Racialized !eopolitical Discourses at Work, 
May 29, 2024. 

 

50


