Tagged: ahistorical

“Not to rain on our Thanksgiving Day parade, but the story of the first Thanksgiving, as most Americans have been taught it, is not exactly accurate. Blame school textbooks with details often so abridged, softened or out of context that they are rendered false; children’s books that distill the story to its most pleasant version; or animated Thanksgiving television specials like “The Mouse on the Mayflower,” which first aired in 1968, that not only misinformed a generation, but also enforced a slew of cringeworthy stereotypes. High school textbooks are particularly bad about stating absolutes because these materials ‘teach history’ by giving students facts to memorize even when the details may be unclear, said James W. Loewen, a sociologist and the author of “Lies My Teacher Told Me: Everything Your American History Textbook Got Wrong.” ‘That mind-set pervades everything they talk about and certainly Thanksgiving,’ he said.”

Source: Maya Salam. “Most Everything You Learned About Thanksgiving Is Wrong.” The New York Times. November 21, 2017. https://nytimes.com/2017/11/21/us/thanksgiving-myths-fact-check.html.

“An educator in a system of oppression is either a revolutionary or an oppressor.” — Lerone Bennett, Jr.

although the STATUE OF LIBERTY is supposed to be symbolic of FREEDOM, she’s actually just another SLAVE SHACKLED IN CHAINS like you & I!

Statue of Liberty in NYC in 7th grade

I took the above photo of Statue of Liberty in 1997, when my seventh grade class took a field trip to VA, New York City, Philadelphia and Washington D.C..

Well, late last week, I saw someone post some information about the statute that I had never been taught in the classroom or by the tour guides when I visited the landmark: the French originally modeled the Statue of Liberty off of a black, female slave. In one of the original drawings for the statute, there were chains hanging from her left hand, and her feet were chained as well. The white powers that be in our post-Civil War America opposed and wanted all racial references to slavery to be removed. However, the architect insisted the chains remain and although none of Lady Liberty’s chains are visible from the ground level, she still has the chains on her foot!!

Close-up-of-broken-shackles-on-Statue-of-Libertys-right-foot-Lady-Liberty-axe-chains

libertyslavechains

A couple days ago, I watched this incredible Gil Noble interview with Dr. Joy De Gruy. In the beginning of the 2009 interview, Dr. De Gruy discussed her recent visit to both Ellis Island and the Statue of Liberty, and used this trip to provide a powerful lesson on the reasons why we cannot ignore the REALITIES OF RACE/RACISM or pretend to be “colorblind” in a society that is HIGHLY RACE CONSCIOUS.

I included three out of the five clips that are on Youtube and I encourage everyone to watch them all. [I started the second clip near the 8 min mark where she picks up this topic again…but watch the entire thing. Also, watch the entire third clip because she shares a great story about Thomas Jefferson.]

Stop thinking you are free! As demonstrated by the Statue of Liberty: just because one cannot see the chains, it doesn’t mean they do not exist. Sometimes, in order to see them, you simply have to change your perspective or shift your paradigm. And the only way we will permanently remove these heavy ass chains, is by discovering the truth about our history and who we are as a people and liberating our powerful, black minds!

“There a people now forgotten discovered while others were yet barbarians, the elements of the arts and sciences. A race of men now rejected for their black skin, and woolly hair, founded on the study of the laws of nature those civil and religious systems which still govern the universe.” — Count C. F. Volney

Source: Dr. Yosef ben-Jochannan. The Myth of Genesis and Exodus and the Exclusion of their African Origins. pg. 3. 1974 (citing C. F. Volney’s Ruins of Empire, London, 1800?, p. 17; originally published in French about 1792 C.E. at Paris, France. Volney was with Napoleon Bonparte when he invaded Egypt, with the intent of capturing it for fellow French imperialists.)

“Bale feels the time will come when another film about Moses will be cast with a North African or Middle Eastern actor. ‘To me that would be a day of celebration. For the actors it would be wonderful. It would be a wonderful day for humanity, but also for films and for storytelling in general,’ he said.”

If Kemet (original name of Egypt) meant “land of the blacks” and in Exodus chapter four, verse six, it states:

And the LORD said furthermore unto [Moses], Put now thine hand into thy bosom. And he put his hand into his bosom: and when he took it out, behold, his hand was leprous as snow

how could ANYONE believe and/or portray all of the kings, gods and other religious figures in the film as white, while making sure that all slaves are depicted as black? [If the miracle was that God turned Moses’ hand white as snow, then clearly Moses’ hand (and body) was of color.] Based on the director’s casting choices, Scott Ridley is basically perpetuating a very dangerous myth that people of African descent have made no contributions to civilization and that we have been slaves all of our lives! That is FALSE!!! Hence one of the reasons for the film’s backlash.

So, yes Bale, it would be a “wonderful day for humanity” if the TRUTH became more important than MAKING A PROFIT, so we could ALL stop having our realities shaped and distorted by a bunch of European myths and lies. Although Bale seemed a little more sensitive to the issue of historical accuracy, the arrogant ass director’s response to [black] people being offended by the fact that he and Hollywood are continuing to make millions by whitewashing/rewriting history and exploiting/misappropriating our culture, is that we need to “get a life.” Smdh!

Source: John Carucci. “Scott, Bale Defend Choice on Exodus Casting.’ Associated Press. December 8, 2014. http://www.philly.com/philly/entertainment/movies/20141208_ap_29866a953d034ab891d2fd87a79ff54b.html?c=r.