Stroll across a public square? See a statue.

Catch a NASCAR race on TV? See a Confederate flag.

Walk into a classroom? See a map of the world.

These all send a message – powerful beyond words, powerful without words. In summer’s heat and winter’s snow the statue may be saying, This was a great human being. Through times of trouble he (only occasionally she) led us to a better world. Now and for all time we honor and hold them high.

The flag – in stubborn denial of the fact that the Civil War ended long ago – still exalts the anti-values of slavery and oppression. If flying it once seemed an innocent pastime of people caught in a time warp, that changed when a twisted rope left in a garage signaled the damage a twisted mind can do.

If the schoolroom map that hits you in the eye happens to be the Mercator, the most widely recognized map of the world ever devised, its message is deeply divisive and distorting, as we will show in a moment.

A code-word of our time,

seems to have been invented to define some monuments, some flags, some maps. Not all, fortunately, but enough for public-spirited citizens in every country to pay attention ….

IS A HIGHER ETHIC TAKING OVER?

Two trends seem stand out in our time: a heightened awareness of injustice, and stepped-up readiness to get out of the spectator seats into the struggle for a better world. Together these make for progress in that most foundational of all relationships, which we call ethics. That, let’s agree, calls for celebrating!

Take statues first: do you approve removing statues of those who fought for slavery?

And statues of Christopher Columbus, revered for generations as a hero, now increasingly seen as more sinner than saint? How about Winston Churchill? Or Canada’s foundational figure, Sir John A. Macdonald, who blocked recognizing the land’s rightful residents – (he called them “savages!”) as founding peoples on a par with the invading foreigners? As for flying an outdated, divisive flag, NASCAR has belatedly banned it. Regarding racist maps, we focus here on progress being made and opportunities we now face.

What aspects of Britain’s past should be esteemed and what rejected – its expansionism, racism, colonialism, its “us-above-them-all” policies? What happens if you apply the same standard to the U.S.A. today?

What logical reason could there be for flying a pro-slavery flag at a racecar event?

If you see this as an acceptable image of the world, Sorry, friend, you’ve been brainwashed. For a brief video explanation, click the image below.

Oprah Winfrey knows enough about maps to realize that the example pictured above is among the world’s worst maps for most purposes. So she invited Jane Elliott, a highly regarded teacher, to her program. Part 1 of the video is the result; parts 2 and 3 are similarly important but outside our scope today.

A DISCUSSION LIKE NO OTHER

The Elliott-Oprah duo are not alone in rejecting the strangely popular Mercator image. A German scholar, Arno Peters, needing a fair-to-everyone world map and finding none, set about to create one. Introduced in 1974 and creating a stir across Europe, Peters’ map broke into North America and the English-speaking world in 1983 when Friendship Press (full disclosure: I was then its CEO) became its publisher for the English-speaking world. Result: a public conversation about maps and human meaning such as the world had never known. It touched on social diversity, fairness, “open the dam-doors; let justice roll down like water,” goal setting, an entrenched colonial mentality, racism, hierarchy in the human family … and how the world maps we show and use intersect with all of these.

Remarkably, the conversation grew like mushrooms overnight. Educators in public and private schools across a dozen countries soon came aboard. Program units of the UN endorsed it. Diplomats and academics replaced their Mercators and its derivatives with the Peters, fueling a cartographic revolution. Religious institutions including the National Council of Churches, the Vatican, the United Methodist Church, the Mennonites and the United Church of Canada became major supporters and customers through their networks. Humanitarian organizations including Doctors Without Borders, Ten Thousand Villages, Bread for the World, and Christian Aid adopted it. A management consulting firm found the map so useful that it self-transformed into ODT Maps Inc. The quest for understanding grew to the extent that I, just one person, gave academic lectures and popular presentations, was interviewed on radio, TV and in print in the U.S. and the U.K., Canada and Australia, Berlin, Bangkok and beyond.

When President Jimmy Carter was slated to receive the Nobel Peace Prize, he decided – wisely, I would add – to utilize this new map with its accurate, more justice-supportive image. But copyright restrictions then in place prevented it from being produced in the colors Carter wanted, so an alternate map was created, the Hobo-Dyer. Like the Peters, it presents all countries fairly and accurately and contributes to the ongoing discussion,

Every cartographer I know of rejects the Mercator as fatally flawed, even dangerous. Still, it is “the world” for many people. Any wonder that racism poses a problem when so many are regularly exposed to the Mercator’s racist propaganda (not too strong a term, I contend). After generations of being fed an image of “us” as super-sized, central and intrinsically important, and “them” as puny and hardly worth a second thought, is it any wonder a President Trump can dismiss “them” collectively as “sh**hole” countries?

In my opinion we’ll never move beyond our present problem until we get rid of the maps that warp how we see the world, then think and act in it.

Some people eagerly invest their energy in ridding the world of racist statues and street names. Some lobby against perpetuating a long-ago war and the flag that doesn’t know it’s over.

But the third approach may be the most effective: replace every Mercator with a more accurate, fair-to-all-people image of the world. As for outdated flags, NASCAR and the State of Mississippi have now acted to remove the problem. We applaud! As for statues, people are taking action in many countries ,,, in spite of the presidential edict in the U.S. that labels this a criminal offense. (It remains to be seen when the pushback will show itself.) But removing racist, harmful maps and using better ones is not only educationally effective but – if you’re American – will avoid getting you in trouble with the law. What’s not to love about that?