In light of the unyeilding fervor over the various comments and meanings of soundbites and statements made by Rev. Wright, the less covered anger and bile by men like Rev. Manning, the repetition of legal imbalances in the Wesley Snipes, Sean Bell, and Megan Williams cases, and other items I wanted to ask a few questions.
This is not a test. This is simply questions to see what you know. It doesn’t matter what race you are, what country you come from, or what religion you believe.
Some questions I will answer, some I will leave for you to find out for sure. But I guarantee that one item on this post will be a blatant lie, though it is a lie that my readers have read in my posts before. That I will leave for the end to tell you.
Africans have been in America since at least 1619. In the 389 years since then can you name a war that Blacks have not fought in?
Today virtually all people of color with brown to black skin are called African Americans. 10 years ago we were known simply as Black. What were we called going all the way back in time to 1619?
How many songs made famous by Elvis Presly were not originally songs created and performed by Black singers/entertainers?
What group of people were the ones to find the means to cure the Bubonic Plague and to realize its source?
Where is the cradle of civilization found?
Who was Thurgood Marshall, and what did he do?
What year did the military stop segregation?
Who has done more for African Americans, Republicans or Democrats?
Have Blacks always voted Democrat?
Name 2 groups of Americans that the Constitution did not cover initially?
What is the original meaning of Cowboy?
What does Jim Crow represent?
How many Black colleges exist today? How many were started? When was the first?
Did Africans ever control Europe?
How many communicable diseases did the original American Indian tribes have?
How many treaties did the American Government break with the American Indians?
How many nuclear bombs have ever been used against people?
Name 3 Empires of the world that did not involve Europe?
Who created the 0 and thus all modern math?
Who are the Tuskegee Airmen?
What is my name?
Who founded Chicago?
Where was the city of Rosewood and how many were in it?
How many years was the South Carolina House run by a Black majority?
How much was the largest donation ever made by a Black American?
Now the point of all these questions is not to embarrass anyone. Nor is it to condemn any nation or people.
The purpose is to highlight the lack of knowledge that exists in America. I have no doubt that while most of these items are known historical facts, most are not taught in American classrooms, and I would bet not in European ones either. So how can so many believe they can have a realistic conversation about race in America when I doubt most can answer half these questions without going to Google?
In case you were wondering, here are some answers you may or may not have known (and I don’t profess that these are the only facts available or worthy of knowing – in fact they are the tip of an iceberg of information). Not every question is answered though. Some things need to be sought out to be learned best.
There has never been a war in America (even when it was a colony) that Blacks did not participate in. While history classes, movies, and popular books may overlook the fact African Americans have always fought for America, even when we were not recognized by the nation as people.
Prior names for African Americans go back to Black, Colored, and Negro (beyond the repulsive and ignorant N-word). That covers just the last 50 years. Only 339 more to go.
Elvis stole all his early songs (to my knowledge), and his manager advertised in newspapers to only buy the Elvis version. Or did you really think he wore blue suede shoes and knew about hound dogs back in the 1950’s?
The Moors, an African Empire, were the first to discover that cutting the blisters helped to increase the survival rate of plague victims, and that the cause was infected rats living in the squalid conditions of European cities.
The Euphrates River is known as the cradle of civilization.
Thurgood Marshall was a lawyer and Supreme Court Justice from 1963 to 1991. He was the first Black Supreme Court Justice (there has only ever been 2).
1948. That’s after WWII where African Americans did serve with honor.
For about 100 year Blacks voted with the party of Lincoln, Republican.
The Constitution did not cover women, Native American Indians, or anyone with more than 3/5ths African blood. Proving 3/5ths was harder to prove than you might imagine.
A cowboy was originally meant as a derogatory term to describe African Americans that worked with cattle in the field. As the number of Americans moving west increased and the need for cowhands rose the term grew to encompass Whites, and was later romanticized to exclude the Black it originally meant to describe.
After 1861, 20 Black colleges and equivalent institutions were created.
The Moors conquered and controlled Spain, Italy, Sicily and several other parts of Southern Europe and Northern Africa. This says nothing of the control and influence of Ancient Egypt over the Mediterranian countries.
To my knowledge there were no communicable diseases in the Americas until after European explorers arrived. Once they were here these diseases spread like wildfire.
The American Government broke every treaty ever made with a Tribe during the Wild West expansion and well after.
Only 2 nuclear bombs have ever been used against people. Both were in Japan. Hiroshima is the most famous, but Nagasaki was also bombed. At the time it was believed that use of nuclear bombs would be the only alternative to fighting WWII right up to the steps of Japan’s Emperor. 2 bombs were used to prove that the first was not just a luck invention and that we could reproduce the results at will.
While not the only Empires, better know ones are the Ottoman, the Mongol (of either Khan), and the aforementioned Moors.
The number zero can be traced to the Babylonians. But use in mathematics in Europe is traced from the Middle East and the Islamic religion.
As stated often in various posts, Vass is not my birthname. This is the one outright lie on this page or any post I have ever made. Vass is my legal alias though. Did you catch this?
Chicago was founded by Jean Baptiste Point DuSable.
6 years.
$20,000,000 by Bill Cosby to Spellman College.
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