The subtext to this video clip appears to be that any negative representation of non-white people in children's books is in itself an act of racism. Forgive me for being non-hypocritical, but surely on that basis any negative representation of white people should also be regarded as an act of racism.
Now please take a few more moments to watch this cartoon which features in the 2002 film Bowling For Columbine.
Did you spot the negatives?
At 0:25, it is claimed that white settlers in North America killed ALL the natives and thereby wiped out a race of people. This is a gross distortion of the truth. There are in fact roughly three million native Americans living in the United States of America, and the figure rises to above five million if people of mixed descent are included. It is also not mentioned that many native Americans served alongside white men in the frontier wars.
At 0:34, it is claimed that white people in North America burned witches. Can anyone think of more than one instance of this? The witchcraft trials in Massachusetts in the years 1692 and 1693 were the result of an outbreak of fungal alkaloid poisoning in the area of Salem Village, and resulted in the deaths of fewer than forty people.
At 0:50 it is claimed that white settlers in North America were afraid of doing any work. There were in fact never more than fifteen states of the USA in which slavery was permitted, and it is ridiculous to suggest that slave owners never did any work.
As it happens, Michael Moore - the man behind the film - is from Michigan, which was never a slave state. Are we to assume that the state of Michigan was founded by people who were afraid of doing any work?
The claim that white people went to Africa and kidnapped thousands of black people is grossly untrue. Imagine if you will that you are the captain of a slave ship, and that you have arrived at the western shoreline of the sparsely populated continent of Africa. Would you seriously expect to find thousands of black people - or any black people - standing conveniently on the beach waiting to be kidnapped?
Having found no one on the beach to kidnap, you will be unwilling to go inland in search of people to kidnap because you are afraid of dangerous creatures which may be found in that ill-explored continent. You will also be afraid of being killed by African people who object to being kidnapped. You may have guns, but you could easily be outnumbered by spear-throwing natives who will have guns as soon as they have killed you and your companions.
So how are you supposed to obtain any slaves? Here are the facts.
Slave ships did not arrive at beaches. They arrived at ports. The slave ship captains bought slaves from slave traders at the ports, and the slave traders in turn bought the slaves from slave-takers. Slave ship owners and captains tended to be Jews, and slave-takers tended to be black. African tribes would sometimes attack other tribes and take captives to sell as slaves, and sometimes African kings would sell their own subjects to the slave traders. Slave owners in North America included many white gentiles, but were disproportionately either Jews or blacks.
Therefore to pretend that North American slavery was purely the fault of white people is grossly unfair, and could be construed as racism.
I could point out other faults with the cartoon, but I think my point has been made.
Related previous posts include:
Are you a racist?
Black violence: a black woman speaks out
An Indian nationalist speaks out
The reader might also care to read these essays about slavery:
Slavery and White Guilt
Hidden Facts about Slavery in America
No comments:
Post a Comment