The Battle Over Memory: Public Schools,Racialized History,and the Future of American Democracy: Introduction to the Special Issue on Racialized History and Violent Extremism in Education
Restricted accessResearch articleFirst published online 2026
The Battle Over Memory: Public Schools,Racialized History,and the Future of American Democracy: Introduction to the Special Issue on Racialized History and Violent Extremism in Education
A growing number of educators and social science researchers no longer see violent extremism and racialized history as exceptional, marginal, or insignificant. Instead, there is an increasing consensus that extremist violence and racialized history have been central to U.S. history and currently affect students, teachers, schools, and curricula. Extremist violence and how it is framed, remembered, or hidden are inseparable from how racial categories and domination are created and sustained in the United States—who is defined as American, who is protected by law, whose suffering and exploitation is minimized, and whose violence is normalized or viewed as heroic.
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