A big issue in the U.S. today is not being educated on our nation’s history, especially on racism. Many people will choose their side of an argument without thinking twice. No research is done and nothing is known about the topic. Instead of jumping to conclusions, we should be educating ourselves on the issue at hand.

An important debate recently has been whether or not to take down Confederate Monuments. Some citizens believe that the monuments represent southern pride, but if they did their research, they would know it is so much more than that. The Confederate Monuments represent a dark and racist past, a part of our history that should not be put on display, and something we should not be proud of.

In the Civil War, the northern states in the U.S. fought for freedom of slaves, believing that owning a slave is immoral and wrong. However, the southern states, otherwise know as the Confederacy, fought to keep the right to sell and own slaves, and they despised the abolitionists. To keep Confederate Monuments would be representing the fight to keep slaves, which is inhuman.

The Civil Rights Movement is also often overlooked in our nation today. Martin Luther King Jr., along with other influential figures, worked essentially their entire lives to create equality between all races, especially black and white people. Fast forward to about 60 years later, the Black Lives Matter movement began. Because people are not educated enough on Black Lives Matter, they try to start movements like “All Lives Matter” and “Blue Lives Matter.”

Black Lives Matter started because of the discrimination of black people by some police officers. All Lives Matter and Blue Lives Matter began because the founders assumed that Black Lives Matter activists believed that all police officers are discriminatory toward black people, which is not true. If people don’t do their research and learn more about the Civil Rights era and the Black Lives Matter movement, they won’t understand the struggles people have gone through and still go through to be treated equally.

Being more educated on the history of the U.S. is important. Reading books or articles, going to museums and overall just trying to learn more about the subject will help with Americans make better decisions. The U.S.’s true history needs to be known, because without it we wouldn’t be the nation we are today.