Implementing true black history in the American school system
In three months time we will be in a new decade where much of the impossible will become ordinary, and what is now technologically advanced will become nothing more than a household accessory. Though we are moving forward in technological advances, I believe that the history of Blacks in America will still cling to the old teachings of slavery, and that Blacks came to America on slave ships. From the time I was playing hid n’ seek on the playground, to learning about the true meaning of the Wizard of Oz in A.P U.S history, I have been taught that since I am a Black American my ancestral heritage is filled with nothing but slavery. I did not have room to question this history, because there was no one to give me another account of my history. My mother was taught that she was a slave and I never got the chance to ask my grandmother where I truly come from. I did not learn about the different side to Black American history until I stumbled upon a video series on Youtube entitled “The Untold Black History”. I have decided to further my investigation on the claims about Black history to see if they were valid and found much of the black history being told to millions of Black children is far from the truth. I examined three sources, all with a different point of view on this topic, and concluded my argument that schools in America need to revise its history of Blacks in America.
In my first source, the author agrees that there are lies being told about Blacks in America and is blatant about his opinion. Robert Strongrivers', who is the President of the National Olmec American Heritage and Research Committee, main arguments are found online though a web page of his under the URL pointingbird.tripod.com. He also has a video online which is just an audio-video form of the writing on his page. What he believes is that Black indigenous people were on American soil before any other civilization. He supports his ideas by getting at the very details or man words including: America, Indian, Native American, indigenous, American Citizen, and Illegal Alien. He also goes over the history that most Blacks are told, and then goes on to tell why it is not true. An example of this is when he talks about the slave trade system that went on in America. In most history classes, one learns that Africans were merely sold by other Africans to go to be slaves in America, and this is how the Black population began. Robert tells a different story which is as follows,
“Much of the so-called African Slave Trade was fabricated. There was no trade! An independent source showing that the so-called Indians on the Eastern Seaboard (also called Terra Nova), were Moors, is a book called; "Africans and Native Americans", by Jack D. Forbes. He shows in the book how many so-called Native American Indians were sold into slavery in Africa and Europe. This is the opposite direction in which we were t aught the slave trade went in. These Native Americans or Indians were classified as Negroes and Blacks in the slaves books of Seville Spain and elsewhere. On page 29 he says; " slaves from Terranova show up in the slave markets of Seville and Valencia very soon after 1500. For example; in Valencia during the period to 1516, we find in 1503 Miguel, Manne, in 1505 Juan and Pedro, in 1507 Antonio and Juan Amarco, in 1515 Ali, now Melchor, in 1516 Catalina. ... They were all classified as Negroes...” If we were first brought to North America around 1619 or even 1555, for that matter, then how were they taking slaves from Newfoundland, to Europe? Keep in mind that one of the "Native Americans" even had the name "Ali" and all were classified as Negro once they reached Yalencia. How did a Native American in 1515 have the Moorish name "Ali"?” (Robert Strongrivers)
Robert concludes his online article by saying that America hides the true history of Blacks in order to protect a land that would belong to many Blacks because of their indigenous rights.
My second source has no textual backing, nor any references to back his or her claims. It is a video posted by Salsassin on Youtube.com that claims to debunk the notion that there are Black Native Americans. I could not tell whether it was a male or female narrating the video, because it seemed to be in a computerized voice. What this video claims is basically the opposite of what my first source claims. The video states that it was illogical, and almost impossible for an African to travel to the east coast of America at the time (Salsassin). The claim is that the Africans would not have needed to travel outside of where they were because traveling for leisure was not something people did back then (Salsassin). The video claims that people only traveled in pursuit of trading goods and that since the only known land was already found there was no reason to try and sail to find another. In the end, the video claims that it is not fair to Native Americans to have their history stripped from them, and claims afrocentrics, people who seek black historical truth, are just crazy deranged people much like a typical hippie in the 70's.
My third and final source is one that used conclusive scientific and anthropological evidence to back his claims. Dr Ivan Van Sertima, a professor from Rutgers University, has a doctrine in African Studies and dealt with this topic thoroughly in his documentary, "They Came Before Columbus". He argued in a factual tone that Blacks or Africans did exist in Meso-America, and backed it up with video proof as well as historical and anthropological proof. He said that there was not only Black in the Olmec civilization, but that they were the prominent leaders, and the original Olmecs (Sertima). He explained that the depiction of the Olmec sculptures had helmets on because of the time they had discovered the Americas. It was during an age of war, where Egypt was at war with Asia, and they had to be prepared for battle at any time. He also explained why the symbol of Mexico today, is the same symbol for Egypt today this being because early Mexicans came from Egypt ( Sertima).
I believe the most credible source to be Dr Ivan Van Sertima because of the information that is able to be found on him, and the fact that he has a doctrine in what he is arguing. I think Robert Strongrivers' credibility is a little shaky, since he has almost no background information on him, and some of his material is a little arrogant at times. I do find him to have some credibility due to the fact that he does have sources for his arguments. The least credible that I found was the argument from Salsassin, the host of the YouTube video that claims to debunk that Blacks were in America before anyone else. Not only was one of his arguments a lie, the one where he claims there are no currents from Africa to America, but the way it is presented is very informal. It was almost as if it was done purely for entertainment purposes, rather than scholarly purposes. This author also had no references or citations to back his claims and seemed to be more of him giving his opinion, rather than fact which could be backed by another source. In the end, I believe that the history that is being taught to children all over America needs to be revised to include the discoveries in Meso America, and the history of the Olmecian people. I do not think it is fair to teach one child that their ancestors were the owners of another child’s ancestors, especially when it might just not be true.
Citation:
Robert Strongrivers. 1999-2000. LOST FEATHER. Retrieved from http://pointingbird.tripod.com/lostfeatherintl/id5.htm
Salsassin. (2009, September 05). Olmec were Indigenous Americans, not African [Video File]. Video posted to www.youtube.com/watch?v=YKimQ8qaC- g&feature=related
Dr. Ivan Van Sertima . (2009 January 10). They Came Before Columbus [video]. Video posted to https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IywJ1DGuecY