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Wednesday, July 07, 2021

"Texas needs a rebranding away from racially charged myths," by Chris Tomlinson

Back in 2019, Chris Tomlinson, Houston Chronicle Staff Writer and co-author with Bryan Burrough and Jason Stanford of just published book, "Forget the Alamo: The Rise and Fall of an American Myth," makes it abundantly clear for people who may not read or know history or in the more common situation, were taught the wrong history, Texas needs to seriously look at its false brand and how distorted and harmful it is.

Not that historians haven't been regularly exposing the ugly truth of Texians' struggle for freedom to enslave others, but rather that this triumphalist myth of the American West may finally be in decline. This precise de-centering of whiteness is why we see this political frenzy to eliminate not just critical thought, but also to defend whitewashed versions of Texas and U.S. history, as well.

Once one learns the truth of Texas history, including slavery, genocidal campaigns, and wars of aggression against Mexicans and Native Americans, our mythic source of pride is appropriately tarnished. Admittedly, changing one's suppositions is no small thing. Yet still more corrosive is the wish to indoctrinate everyone based on the alleged supremacy of white people.

As we commence this week with Texas' special legislative session, we must push back against any proposal that would limit our youths' access to these dark corners of history that our state has occluded for much too long.

Do treat yourself to Tomlinson's interview on MSNBC with Joy Reid yesterday in "ReidOut."

-Angela Valenzuela

Texas needs a rebranding away from racially charged myths

Chris Tomlinson | Staff Writer | Houston Chronicle
April 10, 2019

Bob Owen, Staff-photographer / San Antonio Express-News


Every time I visit the Alamo or see Houstonians don cowboy garb for “Go Texan Day,” I wonder how much longer the long-tall Texan schtick of blazing guns, big hats, high boots and ethnic warfare will work as a state brand.

The adoption of the Western identity, after all, was an intentional rebranding of the state. In my book about my family’s five generations in Texas, "Tomlinson Hill," I describe how state leaders wanted to slough off the Southern, white supremacist identity that dominated until the 1940s when state leaders made Big Tex the new icon.

As Americans reassess our creation myths and tear down Confederate statues, Texans must also rethink our “national” brand. 

Should San Antonio spend $450 million to make the Battle of the Alamo its centerpiece? The whites who died were defending slavery as much as fighting for liberty. The Spanish mission has a 300-year history, so why should all the emphasis focus on 13 days that ended with a massacre that wasn’t much of a battle?

Does anyone still think the Texas Rangers’ genocide against Native Americans or massacres of Hispanics are things to take pride in? Cowboys are such a small part of Texas history. Dressing up as a slave overseer or a sharecropper would be a more honest statement about our economic history on the Houston Rodeo’s “Go Texan Day.”

Chris Tomlinson writes commentary about business, economics and policy.

chris.tomlinson@chron.com

twitter.com/cltomlinson

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