Inacurate History (Was Sex, Race, America, and Disney )

[pbnesbit at msn.com]

--- In HPFGU-OTChatter at y..., "Ebony Elizabeth Thomas" <ebonyink at h...> 
wrote:

Susan (I think) wrote:
>The history channel and pbs and a bunch of other places has stuff
> >that is far more interesting, textured, informative and fun than 
the
> >crap that Disney is producing...
> 
> The History Channel?  Most of the "history" on that is indeed His 
Story--the 
> story of the Western European male experience over the past 500 
years.  I 
> certainly don't see much "diversity" on that channel!  I used to 
like "In 
> Search of History" a few years back, but even that doesn't come on 
regularly 
> any more.
> 
> I also hate to see history inaccurately depicted.  The winners 
write history 
> over to their liking... and the so-called "ivory tower" of 
historical 
> scholarship is but another cog of the machine that has dominated 
the world 
> for the past half millennium.  Read "Lies My Teacher Told Me", 
which won a 
> National Book Award, and exposed the blatant errors contained in 
most 
> traditional high school history textbooks and documentaries.

Thank goodness that's changing--slowly, to be sure, but it *is* 
changing.  My field is African/African-American slavery history.  In 
the past 10 or 12 years, some wonderful books have been written on 
this subject which seek to tell slavery history the way it 
was.  "Down by the Riverside" deals with the Artisan slaves, who were 
following a long African tradition of craftsmanship.  "Slave 
Counterpoint" compares and contrasts slavery in the 18th century in 
Virginia and South Carolina.  Some people seem to be surprised that 
Eli Whitney *did not* invent the cotton gin--it was invented by a 
slave (unfortunately, I don't know his name) on a Georgia plantation 
who had to deseed cotton every day; one slave could deseed 1 pound of 
cotton in 7 hours.  

I refused to see "Pocahontas" because they got the history wrong.  
John Smith went through a ceremony that signified good intent on the 
part of the "Powatans" (not what they called themselves, but what the 
English called them) and Pocahontas's saving of Smith was a part of 
the ceremony:  he didn't even write about it until some 20 years 
later.
> 
> >Susan again:  >And I will never give up my demands to have heros 
of both genders be
> >nonwhite...

It's really funny but most of my heroes and heroines are African-
American; Maya Angelou, Rita Dove, Martin Luther King, Jr...
> 


> Closing with a poem by Harlem Renaissance poet Claude McKay.  One 
of my 
> favorites... sums up the way I feel about this country of mine and 
my place 
> in it perfectly... I have my seventh graders learn it.  It's called 
simply, 
> "America".
> 
> Although she feeds me bread of bitterness,
> And sinks into my throat her tiger's tooth,
> Stealing my breath of life, I will confess
> I love this cultured hell that tests my youth!
> Her vigor flows like tides into my blood,
> Giving me strength erect against her hate.
> Her bigness sweeps my being like a hood.
> Yet as a rebel fronts a king in state,
> I stand within her walls with not a shred
> Of terror, malice, not a word of jeer.
> Darkly I gaze into the days ahead,
> And see her might and granite wonders there,
> Beneath the touch of Time's unerring hand,
> Like priceless treasures sinking in the sand.
> 
> --Ebony (who read *Aida* to her fifth graders today and thinks it 
would make 
> a great Disney movie--but again, isn't holding her breath.)
> 
> <>< <>< <>< <>< <>< <>< <>< <>< <>< <>< <>< <>< <>< <>< <><
> You've done it again, Ebony!!  Another poem I simply adore.  

Peace & Plenty, 

Parker (who thinks *Aida* would make a great movie.  Period.  (with 
Alfre Woodward as Aida.)