[img]583|left|||no_popup[/img]First of two parts
I just read a snippet from an old article in Essence magazine indicating that researchers have uncovered new information suggesting that Cleopatra may not have been black. This brought back to mind a piece by Dr. Earl Ofari Hutchinson from years ago entitled, Whose Black History To Believe? Hutchinson insightfully pointed out black history tends to be given either short shrift by traditional historians or is exaggerated beyond all recognition by historians of a more Afrocentric persuasion. His premise was that both approaches do a disservice to Africa American history. His analysis shows that African Americans would be better served by a more balanced interweaving of African American history into the fabric of American history as a whole.
While I am in agreement, let’s take the issue one step farther. We need to explore why so many of us feel the need to exaggerate our history. This game we find ourselves involved in distracts us from the bigger picture.
Why It Is Valuable
The significance of cultural history is that it contributes to the collective self-esteem. It brings cohesion by giving a group a common rallying point. A culture, much like an individual, is so much in need of a feeling of self-esteem that it manufactures its own history, which rarely resembles reality. For those reasons, much of history is a lie. History has been defined as “a lie agreed upon.”
For a concrete example, look at the Vietnam War. Having never lost a war to that time, the United States already had geared up for manufacturing a history to justify its presence in Vietnam, much like we are struggling with today in Iraq. The U.S. finally came up with what was called “The Domino Theory.” According to this concept, the North Vietnamese were merely fronting for Communist China. If the U.S. allowed South Vietnam to fall to the North Vietnamese, people in that part of the world would be slaughtered. The rest of the countries in the area would fall like dominoes to Chinese Communism.
If the U. S. had won the war, that lie would have become an official part of world history. Young children all over the world would have read it as gospel for eons. Since the U.S. didn't win, this would-be “historical fact” has been left without a home. Thirty-five years later, the lie stands as a glaring sample of how nations manufacture lies to justify their conduct.
The U.S. is not unique in fabricating. If Germany had won World War II, history of that war would have been written from a different perspective; if Great Britain had won the Revolutionary War, the esteemed forefathers of the U.S. would have been recalled as a group similar to the way the U.S. sees the Black Panther Party, or Cinque and the Symbionese Liberation Army.
An example of this principle at work on a cultural level can be found in the white culture's touting of Benny Goodman as the “King of Swing,” or Elvis Presley as “the “King of Rock ‘n Roll.” We know that is not true today. As time passes and no one is left to attest to the inaccuracy of such claims, these titles will become “historical facts” or factoids, something repeated so often it is seen as true.
We Are Playing a Game
The history game is just that. It is a game black Americans should play sparingly. Due to the unique position of the African American in legitimate modern history, we come to the game with a decided disadvantage.
The African American culture is relatively new; thus, our history is verifiable. African Americans don't have the machinery in place to effectively promote the hype necessary to fully participate in the history game. The game diverts our attention from what is important, getting on with building true viability as a people. Black participation in the game is an exercise in me-too-ism.
When I hear a discussion on black pride, someone always brings up Egypt, and whether Cleopatra was black. Black people must understand it does not matter. It is academic.
While it is good to stay in touch with one’s roots, the African American culture long since has ceased being purely African, even though the continent of Africa will always define the core of our being. Any – connection with Egypt and/or Cleopatra is remote. It's as though we're going around, hat in hand, desperately searching for a piece of history to call our own. We shouldn't place ourselves in that position. It is undignified.
We need to accept that we are a new culture. We stopped being Africans when it became necessary to adapt to the fields and ghettos of America. We are not merely Americans. We became more for our survival. We are a culture conceived in pain, delivered into turmoil, baptized in deprivation, and weaned on injustice.
Since adversity is experience, and experience translates into knowledge, we don't have anything to be ashamed of. The adversity we have experienced makes us more rather than less. As a young culture, we cannot hope to compete, lie-for-lie, with ancient cultures. Our history only now is being written. For that very same reason, we don't have to try to compete.
(To be continued)
Eric L. Wattree is a writer, poet and musician, born in Los Angeles. A columnist for the Los Angeles Sentinel, the Black Star News, a staff writer for Veterans Today, he is a contributing writer to Your Black World, the Huffington Post, ePluribus Media and other online sites and publications. He also is the author of “A Message From the Hood.”
Mr. Wattree may be contacted at wattree.blogspot.com or Ewattree@Gmail.com
