And those specific ways have, throughout American history, systematically overrepresented the achievements of white men and underrepresented the achievements of women and people of color.

This is not a conspiracy.

It is not the result of active suppression, in most cases.

It is the cumulative result of thousands of decisions, made by thousands of different individuals in thousands of different contexts, each of which reflected the assumption — conscious or unconscious — that the people whose stories were worth telling were primarily white and primarily male.

Museum curators decide whose artifacts to collect and whose stories to feature.

Textbook editors decide which historical figures to include and which to omit.