Post by Prometheus on Mar 1, 2023 22:52:43 GMT
It took a while for this to download... not a lot of seeders for the torrent, but I finally got a chance to watch it in full so that I can react to it rather than reacting to reactions.
My original intent was to format my reaction in the form of "this was right/This was wrong" but what I found most disturbing was how much of the narrative was "This just got skipped over in order to push an agenda."
Let me be clear: There were definitely ideas put forth that were absolute truth such as lynchings; the end of Reconstruction and the promulgation of Jim Crow laws; torture at the hands of authorities/jailers during the Civil Rights Movement of the 50's and 60's; and recent and current attempts to disenfranchise black voters.
The "Things it got wrong" were mostly because they "Skipped over stuff in order to push an agenda."
Let's just start at the beginning: Jamestown 1619. The British ship White Lion docked at Comfort Point in Jamestown looking to re-provision as they were out of food. The only thing they had to trade were African slaves the British had stolen from a Portuguese slave ship called San Juan Bautista. They traded 20+ slaves for food but they also didn't. They sold the 20+ Africans as indentured servants whom they expected to be freed at the end of 10 years, and in fact several were... but not all. And , in fact, the first black child born on British colonial soil was born free by law, but Virginians sort of liked having free labor so, slowly, over time, actual slavery became codified into law and many of the other colonies, particularly in The South, joined in. It also didn't help the Africans that Europe was no longer sending as many European indentured servants to the New World as before and cheap labor was needed.
So it's not simply a cut-and-dry "these people were sold as slaves," but it certainly helps push the following narrative if you think that.
Then there's a little interlude where the author, Nikole Hannah-Jones talks about her upbringing and her desire to learn more about black history in America: a noble cause which I applaud. The problem is that from k to 12 she had some shitty teachers in shitty school districts because the things she said she never learned were things I did learn... ten years before her. Not every school district was out there "whitewashing history" as she would have you believe. In fact, most of what I have been and will be talking about in this section seems like an obvious attempt to "blackwash history."
At one point Ms. Hannah-Jones talks about black disenfranchisement (prior to the 20th century) as if blacks were the only group disenfranchised and the only group upset about it. I'm sure that was news to Hispanics, Asians, and women, just to name a few.
When she talks about the Civil War she makes it sound like Black regiments were responsible for turning the tide in favor of the Union Army which couldn't be further from the truth, but it does back up the narrative that the US wouldn't be the US without black people.
She also goes on to say that "White people have never been targeted for their injustices towards blacks." My head almost exploded on that one. Whites are targeted all the time... particularly men... straight men... and often under the assumption that they are also some form of "Christian." I don't know why so many want to pretend this isn't happening or that it is right for it to be happening, but it's not right. It's discrimination on par with anything that modern whites are accused of.
"The Revolutionary War was fought to preserve slavery"
While I didn't hear those words precisely uttered, I did see how a little-known - and very singular - episode in American history was misrepresented to suggest it: Dunmore's Proclamation. Lord Dunmore was the British (Scottish to be precise) governor of Virginia at the time of the beginning of the Revolution. His attempt to keep Virginia out of the troubles was to threaten to free all the slaves if Virginia opted for independence.
Black slaves thought he was serious and even offered their help. Dunmore told them essentially to fuck off but then decided to use them. He created his "Ethiopian Regiment" and promised the volunteers their freedom if they fought for King George.
Yup. The people fighting to "preserve slavery" were black slaves duped into doing it by a conniving Scotsman. Hannah-Jones skips right over that part in her narrative to tell how the the Regiment even won their first engagement. She forgets to tell you that they were fighting AGAINST the "good guys" and she definitely skips over their next battle, which they lost, and she even more definitely skips over how they had to flee Virginia and how 63% of them died from a smallpox epidemic that only seemed to affect them.
The Revolutionary War wasn't fought to preserve an institution that wasn't under threat. Dunmore fabricated a lie of promising freedom to all black people if some black people would fight to keep them enslaved.
History needs to be checked and re-checked. That is for sure. But it needs to be taught without bias and that is something that "both sides" need to learn. "Whitewashing" and "blackwashing" both foment racial hatred to some extent or another. You can't fight racism by being more racist than the other "team" and that what I'm seeing here.
I don't know if I'm ready to watch episode 2 right now but I'll get to it soon.
Cheers!
My original intent was to format my reaction in the form of "this was right/This was wrong" but what I found most disturbing was how much of the narrative was "This just got skipped over in order to push an agenda."
Let me be clear: There were definitely ideas put forth that were absolute truth such as lynchings; the end of Reconstruction and the promulgation of Jim Crow laws; torture at the hands of authorities/jailers during the Civil Rights Movement of the 50's and 60's; and recent and current attempts to disenfranchise black voters.
The "Things it got wrong" were mostly because they "Skipped over stuff in order to push an agenda."
Let's just start at the beginning: Jamestown 1619. The British ship White Lion docked at Comfort Point in Jamestown looking to re-provision as they were out of food. The only thing they had to trade were African slaves the British had stolen from a Portuguese slave ship called San Juan Bautista. They traded 20+ slaves for food but they also didn't. They sold the 20+ Africans as indentured servants whom they expected to be freed at the end of 10 years, and in fact several were... but not all. And , in fact, the first black child born on British colonial soil was born free by law, but Virginians sort of liked having free labor so, slowly, over time, actual slavery became codified into law and many of the other colonies, particularly in The South, joined in. It also didn't help the Africans that Europe was no longer sending as many European indentured servants to the New World as before and cheap labor was needed.
So it's not simply a cut-and-dry "these people were sold as slaves," but it certainly helps push the following narrative if you think that.
Then there's a little interlude where the author, Nikole Hannah-Jones talks about her upbringing and her desire to learn more about black history in America: a noble cause which I applaud. The problem is that from k to 12 she had some shitty teachers in shitty school districts because the things she said she never learned were things I did learn... ten years before her. Not every school district was out there "whitewashing history" as she would have you believe. In fact, most of what I have been and will be talking about in this section seems like an obvious attempt to "blackwash history."
At one point Ms. Hannah-Jones talks about black disenfranchisement (prior to the 20th century) as if blacks were the only group disenfranchised and the only group upset about it. I'm sure that was news to Hispanics, Asians, and women, just to name a few.
When she talks about the Civil War she makes it sound like Black regiments were responsible for turning the tide in favor of the Union Army which couldn't be further from the truth, but it does back up the narrative that the US wouldn't be the US without black people.
She also goes on to say that "White people have never been targeted for their injustices towards blacks." My head almost exploded on that one. Whites are targeted all the time... particularly men... straight men... and often under the assumption that they are also some form of "Christian." I don't know why so many want to pretend this isn't happening or that it is right for it to be happening, but it's not right. It's discrimination on par with anything that modern whites are accused of.
"The Revolutionary War was fought to preserve slavery"
While I didn't hear those words precisely uttered, I did see how a little-known - and very singular - episode in American history was misrepresented to suggest it: Dunmore's Proclamation. Lord Dunmore was the British (Scottish to be precise) governor of Virginia at the time of the beginning of the Revolution. His attempt to keep Virginia out of the troubles was to threaten to free all the slaves if Virginia opted for independence.
Black slaves thought he was serious and even offered their help. Dunmore told them essentially to fuck off but then decided to use them. He created his "Ethiopian Regiment" and promised the volunteers their freedom if they fought for King George.
Yup. The people fighting to "preserve slavery" were black slaves duped into doing it by a conniving Scotsman. Hannah-Jones skips right over that part in her narrative to tell how the the Regiment even won their first engagement. She forgets to tell you that they were fighting AGAINST the "good guys" and she definitely skips over their next battle, which they lost, and she even more definitely skips over how they had to flee Virginia and how 63% of them died from a smallpox epidemic that only seemed to affect them.
The Revolutionary War wasn't fought to preserve an institution that wasn't under threat. Dunmore fabricated a lie of promising freedom to all black people if some black people would fight to keep them enslaved.
History needs to be checked and re-checked. That is for sure. But it needs to be taught without bias and that is something that "both sides" need to learn. "Whitewashing" and "blackwashing" both foment racial hatred to some extent or another. You can't fight racism by being more racist than the other "team" and that what I'm seeing here.
I don't know if I'm ready to watch episode 2 right now but I'll get to it soon.
Cheers!