Henry Louis Gates, the NYT, and the Afrikan Holocaust
"No other group is dissuaded from learning about its ancestry as much as black people are dissuaded. Even groups whose ancestors immigrated voluntarily came from poor countries. Their homelands weren't just poor, they were often oppressive. There would have been no immigration if that were not the case. Yet the New York Times doesn't tell anyone else to forget about identifying with their place of origin. Only black Americans are told to wise up and be grateful for what the system has meted out to them.
"Not content to make light of African Americans attempts to connect to Africa, the New York Times had to add the piece de resistance. They had to call Henry Louis Gates.... Gates is definitely shrewd. He has gamed a system that confers top dog status on only a few black faces. Journalism schools teach courses like Gates 101 and grade students on their ability to get in touch with Gates when in need of a handy quote about black people.
"Several years ago Gates proudly showed the world how little he knew in the PBS documentary series Wonders of the African World. In the slave trade segment, Gates' only moment of anger was directed at an Ashanti prince. If Gates wants to wax righteously indignant, he should interrogate a member of the Brown family of Brown University. The Brown fortune was made through slavery, as were many others. Gates ought to give a Brown descendant the third degree on camera.
"In the Times article Gates gives us this nugget of wisdom: 'The myth was our African ancestors were out on a walk one day and some bad white dude threw a net over them. But that wasn't the way it happened. It wouldn't have been possible without the help of Africans.' A real historian might have added that there would have been no slave trade without a demand from Europe and America."
Visit The Atlantic Slave Trade and Slave Life in the Americas: A Visual Record.
Comments
is believed by so many people it's not funny. This is why I advocate "right knowledge" of the subject matter. Knowing that some Africans were involved in our enslavement is instructional to our people and allows us to further identify those that would betray us. Sellouts, and I mean that literally, helped get us here and sellouts are willing to continue to make a buck off of us.