Tag Archives: Egypt

03

Oct. ’21

True History Is Not Pretty

There have been a lot of fuss about teaching history in school. In particular, what is taught about history. I agree with only one thing in history and that is some, if told correctly and factually, will be too sensitive for very young children. However, the rest of us, child and adult, does not really know the bare bones of factual history.

               History have been distorted for hundreds of years and, today, it is still happening. For instance, I am presently halfway into reading “The Underground Railroad” by Colson Whitehead, who won a Pulitzer Prize. It is a fictional novel because the people names are fictional, but the story is one of many like it. It is a story that is not in history books and probably will never be.

               Remember, I have only read about a half of the book, so far, and many parts I remember being told to me when I was a child, even the sensitive parts. As kids, we had to know what was out there against us. Like it has been for thousands of years, what took place years ago is passed on orally. This is still done in many parts of the world today, however, many young people do not want to hear it or call it a bunch of bullxxxx. It is said that those that do not study history is doomed to repeat the same mistakes (another say is ‘doomed to failure’).

               In the start of the book, that I mentioned, it starts by telling what the slaves on this plantation were doing and how they were treated, in gruesome detail. This is factual and young children cannot deal with the descriptions without having nightmares or worst. Regardless of what have previously been told, being a slave was a nightmare. Besides the labor, all sorts of atrocities were meted upon the slaves. This certainly would not be in a history book. Much of the atrocities are too egregious for young people to hear. At the time of these things happening, the young children had to be taught what to do, say, and act to keep them as safe as possible. Most of the time it did not make a difference. It happened anyway.

               Situations of this sort not only happened to American slaves but some of it happened to American Indians and others around the world, especially if they were dark skinned. History books do not properly portray Egypt as it should because most of what is written distort the truth and the truth is seldom pretty. Even the truth about Ireland is distorted, including the surrounding areas.

               A few days ago, I saw a picture of a Woolworth store in Facebook and the question was does anyone remember the store. If you remembered the store, it showed how old you were. I remember it for a different reason. I grew up during segregation and I participated in sit-ins and peace marches. Only part of the truth is mentioned in the history books. Most of the full stories are never told. Only the glorious portions are ever told and just a tiny portion of the bad.

               Many people say that was then and this is now. I say, just a few years ago a man in Texas was dragged behind a car with a rope tied around him until there was only a very small piece of him left. That is now, history is now, true history should be taught but with caution to the child’s age. Again, history is not pretty but we are attempting to teach something that is beautiful.

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04

Jul. ’20

We Endured

THIS AN EXTRA TEGA227…THIS IS AN EXTRA TEGA227…THIS IS AN EXTRA TEGA227

Last week a fellow chapter member of the Tuskegee Airmen Association, Inc. Sent me an article from the New York Times (NYT Opinion by Caroline Randall Williams, You Want a Confederate Monument? My Body Is a Confederate Monument https://www.nytimes.com/2020/06/26/opinion/confederate-monument-racism.HTML). After reading the well written article, all sorts of additions went through my mind and I decided to share a few thoughts with you.
Most White people claim to know history and especially the struggles of the Black person. They say they can feel our pain and sorrow. I don’t think they realize how deep it goes because most White people can trace their ancestry, most Black people cannot. They do not really understand why we can only trace our DNA to a country or area. They do not understand how painstakingly our history and culture was removed as if it never existed. We were told we were nothing, never would be anything and never had anything until they came along to save us. History does not bear that out although they tried to erase and/or distort history.
Against our will we were bought to this country in chains with untold many dying along the way. We were forbidden our language, it was forbidden to teach us to read and write, it was forbidden to gather in groups except to slave in the hot sun and, not least, to speak unless spoken to and it was always with a bowed head. If any law, written or unwritten, spoken or unspoken, we were whipped, beaten, shot, butchered, or hung. The women were constantly raped, and the offspring were either kept for the fields or sold. We were taught the Bible and christen ways although the White people did not uphold those values. After learning the christen way, we could only go to our church unless a White person was there to observe. The offspring, although some were indistinguishable from their White owners, were told that one drop of Negros blood made a person Black no matter the color of their skin. Humm…there are not many White people that do not have a drop of Black blood in their veins. I know some that went to school with me and later passed for White.
This country was built on the backs of Black people. There would not be a United States of America without the labor or ingenuity of Black people. Why did I use the word ingenuity? Let us think back to the days of the Pharoses and beyond. These people were not as Elisabeth Talyor, who portrayed Cleopatra, they were Black people, living in Egypt on the continent of Africa. The oldest operating library in the world is in Alexandria, Egypt. Plato, Socrates and many others studied and received advanced education there. The world still does not understand how the pyramids were built nor why they are still standing, just to name a few things.
As I said in recent blogs and a few before those, we Black people have endured a lot and is still enduring. We have endured inferior education and had to learn more than the White person to obtain a job. While obtaining a job, we received lower pay for the same or more work than the White person and a promotion is out of consideration. I could go on and on but, in a nutshell, the Black person gets shafted in everything that goes on simply because they are Black. We have endured a lot and, still, all that is said is for us to stop complaining because they are working on it and to suck it up. It is the same thing that have been said for years and years and, maybe, more years to come. However, we will endure.

 

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16

Feb. ’19

Black History

I will hit upon, just a fraction, a topic that would take a book to cover. Black History. This is a topic that some would say there is just a little of because they are ignorant of or just don’t want to see the facts. I say this because for many, many decades other races have attempted to quench Black History, a history that goes to the beginning of mankind itself.

I’ll start with Lucy. You know, the oldest bones ever found, and the bones were found in Africa, a continent of Black people. But, let us go to Egypt where the Pharaohs were, and pyramids are. Egypt is on the continent of Africa, Black people. Therefore, the Pharaohs were Black as well as all the people. Moses was found floating in a basket and the Pharaoh reared him as his own and the people never knew any difference. Therefore, Moses had to have been Black. Moses was Jewish, and Jesus, King of the Jews, had to have been Black.

Everyone remembers Socrates and Plato, great men. Most people don’t know that they studied at Alexandria which is in Egypt, which is in Africa, a library that is still in operation today. That mean Black men and Black institutions taught these men, men that others say are greater than the teachers (I truly doubt that), in the oldest library still in existence today.

The Black people of Egypt were so good in math and other things that the Pyramids and other things still exist today. Building, mortuary, writing, and many other things were honed by Black people. They even dabbed in pharmaceuticals, some still used today (one is aspirin). These were not ignorant nor lazy people. Other races of people constantly call them dumb, ignorant, non-human, incapable of learning anything, and on and on and on. We are harming ourselves today and only a few is taking advantage the inherent heritage that is within Black people.

When you look at the modern people, there are many, many Black people that show the brilliance that was given freely to others for thousands of years. No one wanted to be with nor work with Black people although Black people normally gets the hardest, dirtiest work but the job gets done with perfection. Remember all the wars the USA have been in and Black people have always been there (Buffalo Soldiers, Tuskegee Airmen, to name only a couple). We had a President of the United States, although through eight years of office the Republican Party stated over and over that they will not work with or approve anything that he did, and I personally think he did a fantastic job with the opposition against him. Now they are undoing everything he did, whether good or bad, just because he got it pass Congress somehow.

Black people seldom get the credit they deserve when the credit is due. Most good accomplishments are claimed by someone other than the originator. I have seen a lot of credit given long after the person is dead, seldom to a living Black person. It is the same as giving flowers to someone that have died. I rather smell the flowers while I am alive, I can’t smell them when I am dead. It’s the same with Black History, let me read it or hear it now. Let me be proud of my forefathers now. Let us teach the children about our greatness now, later is too late, Black History is now.

 

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