Plan B Forum

On the Jeopardy Teen Tournament. Fine, they are teens, but it's fucking Jeopardy, they are supposed to be the cream of the crop:


Final Jeopardy Answer: This country's first eight presidents were born in the U.S., the first native born president was elected in 1884, 37 years after independence.

One contestant responded "What is Canada?"

Another contestant responded "What is Canada the Philippines?

The third wrote "What is Mexico?"

Jesus H. Fucking Christ upside down on a bicycle on Calvary, even I, dumbass foreigner, know enough American History to recognize that there is only one country colonized by Americans that could possibly make sense, and even if I had never heard of Liberia, there isn't a level of stupidity that could justify thinking that Canada, Mexico, or the Philippines could be the correct answer.

I blame Betsy DeVos.







eta - I originally wrote "born in" rather than "elected in" 1884

Doesn’t surprise me in the least Liberia was almost completely glossed over in my history classes. If there is one thing Americans are good at it is ignoring our historical missteps.

Ouch.


Clearly American schools aren’t teaching the full history of American slavery.

It was a crossword answer yesterday. I guess I am an on the ball-peen hammer American.

Hell most of my Knowledge of Liberia came from a trivia question about what is the only other country with a capital named after a US President.

Scooter--I agree that the Philippines di not make sense, but I think Canada became self governing around the time of the question (was it in the 1860s?) and Mexico in the early 1800s, so the time frames roughly correspond. I would think few Americans or Canadians could recite the names of Mexico's first leaders (and whether they were presidents or where they came from), and ditto for non Canadians and their early leaders. Since these two countries border the US, it is not surprising that high school kids (cream of the crop or not) might have guessed their early leaders were presidents who were born across the border. I was surprised that no one thought of Liberia, but then I was the only one in my house who did as well (most were thinking of some Caribbean island). I would bet most of them just heard about Liberia in passing, if at all; hell, one was an 8th grader. I won't argue that nmore should be taught about it in school, if only to show the abolitionists were not as united or supportive of racial equality as they are sometimes portrayed, but it is a pretty small part of our history in the 19th century.

I dunno. If they were lovely Yvon Chouinard climbing hammers like the one I bought in 1972 I would not be offended by the comparison.

I wouldn't have got that. If Liberia had occurred to me (it didn't) I would have thought no, it became independent during the Civil War, not 1847, so it wasn't that. That much I did 'know.' I checked on Wikipedia; Liberia declared independence in 1847 but the US did not recognize that independence until 1862.

I like learning stuff. But these days, I doubt that that particular fact will reside in my brain more than a week.

Seems to me that Liberia has been in the news alot in the last decade or two. Usually along with other West African nations for terrible internal and international violence. Those stories always got my attention because the names of people and places seemed American, not so African. IMNSHO, that should bring more mental 'stickiness' to the data and more 'common knowledge' about Liberia compared to other African nations.

snailgate

To me it wasn't so much that they didn't think of Liberia; rather, it was the stupidity demonstrated by the ridiculous answers they gave instead.

Well if you eliminate Liberia who would be a “good” guess?

There probably wouldn't be one, but in the heat of the moment, I can get how someone might not have thought of it. Canada and Mexico were obviously wrong; I would have thought better of those giving those answers if they had given no answer at all. The person who said the Philippines was at least thinking of a place that had been a U.S. colony before gaining independence, but also should have recognized that it didn't make sense.

I don't think its that awful Scooter. I'm pretty well educated, and I don't know if I would have thought of Liberia -- it is a couple of sentences in the history books and not much more. There just generally isn't a lot of time spent on colonization that this nation did, either. It's inconsistent with our proud self-image as the embattled colonists who threw off the yoke.

The Philippines was a decent guess in the time allotted. I'm not sure what else would have been reasonable - the list is pretty small. Panama?

Yeah Panama and The Philippines would probably count as decent wrong answers. And seeing as you set your wager before you know the question I can see a Canada as a Hail Mary (The money is already lost at that point)

I'm not so sure that Liberia counts as colonization that "this nation" did. It was a private colonization of black people for black people by black people - it being thought that blacks in the USA, slaves/freed slaves, would never be truly free - back to Africa was thought to be a better option. Of course, it did lead to an elite of Americo-Africans lording it over the locals who were not asked if they wanted a "Liberia"... into the 20th century even; seems to be a human trait rather than a "white" one.

For many US whites, back to Africa was thought a good idea not so much for the benefit of blacks but as a way to clear 'em out and not have to deal with a large future population of freed slaves - a clearly coming trend to such as Lincoln.

Pity the kids couldn't get Liberia... have all these years of black studies been for nowt?

What?!

What what?

Meade--from what I recall, the colony was established by a society of abolitionists which included both free blacks and whites, and the idea went back to men like Jefferson and Randolph who thought it could be a convenient way to have ex-saves emigrate; and it was many of these wealthy white men who funded the colonies as they were established, in addition to US federal monies appropriated to establish the colonies (starting with the Monroe administration, which is why the capital is called Monrovia). The colonies were established privately (as most colonies of that time were), but most of the persons there were of American descent, which is what the question referred to.

Thanks. Good point about private colonization

Final Jeopardy answer, adults this time. Category is Political Phrases: Speechwriter Samuel Rosenman said FDR 'attached no importance to" this phrase, "two monosyllables" in a 1932 speech.

Responses:

What is "OK"?

What is "fear itself"?

What is "itself"?

Even if one didn't think of "new deal", at least demonstrate that you know what a two monosyllable phrase is, because none of them managed even that.