Admitting we are not perfect is a good place to start. Public school students get a sanitized version of US history. Few see the unvarnished truth until they get to college. We enslaved blacks in Jamestown in 1619 and did not end segregation until the 1954 Supreme Court decision of Brown vs the Board of Education.

That's neither "good nor great" just the simple facts.

That prolonged history of abuse affected our institutions and our concepts of race today.

https://medium.com/politically-speaking/conservatives-choice-a-white-washed-history-6fd22fef8b08