Six Ways to Rewrite History IV
Cherry-picking
Like if you want using the keys below; only I can see who you are.
Another riff on the Nicole James column
Only Africans Were Slaves!
Really; from supposedly rational people, primarily in internet “discussion groups” where wrong-think like my insistence on the possibility that non-Africans were also slaves is cause for sanction and derision. There was a black slave trade, certainly, but there was also a white slave trade. The Ottoman slave trade under Muslim rule included European captives with a number taken as children as a blood tax. The Barbary slave trade included the sale of white Christians by slave traders until the 19th Century, and the descendants of these slaves still live in the Caribbean.. My earliest ancestor in the Americas came to Virginia in chains, indentured for life, as were many of his Irish compatriots. But “indenture” here is a misnomer, as few of these poor souls, working in horrid conditions, survived to the end of their terms. NO! NO! NO! cry modern progressives. THAT was NOT slavery, they cry. That was something other than slavery. Why? Well, because they were not Black Africans! Only Black Africans were really slaves! Reparations for African Americans!
Yeah, I’ve heard that before…
The cherry-picking here has a specific purpose. You see, if non-Africans were slaves, the case for African-America reparations gets very, very messy. In fact, it gets so messy that it becomes impractical because then I could call for reparations for my Irish ancestor, transported in 1611.
The Mesoamericans Were Peaceful Hunter-Gatherers!
Well, some of them were, yes. And some of them were less than peaceful. And all of them were much less than peaceful when they needed to be. To insist that the Americans before Columbus knew nothing of internecine violence whatsoever is to deny their own chronicles, their own legends, not to mention their DNA. The object of many pre-Columbian conflicts was to get captives to add to the tribe or clan, because native American male motility left much to be desired, and weaning diarrhea was fatal at least half the time.
Yeah, I’ve heard that before…
Most of this comes from either native Americans or white Americans. The purpose is two-fold: to paint the Europeans and Asians who colonized the Americas as war-mongers, first, and second, to promote the Rousseauan myth of the peaceful savage at one with nature. There’s been a more recent reason, and that is to attack the “colonial project” of “white” males to dominate the world. This then leads to the ideas of “Social Justice” and all the mischief that old fossil brings up.
Everyone Provoked the Japanese Into Attacking Them!
Japan was just a bunch of farmers growing rice, solving China’s chronic population woes and liberating the Vietnamese from their French occupiers until the summer of 1941, when the dastardly FDR cut off Japan’s petroleum, their scrap, and seized their assets. The put-upon Japanese thus had no choice but to defend themselves by seizing islands the Americans, British, and Dutch had colonized, marginalizing the inhabitants and stealing their natural resources. The benevolent Japanese then made more of those natural assets while dealing with all those islanders population woes. It was all in the name of liberation, you see.
Yeah, I’ve heard that before…
This requires some backward thinking and a lot more cherry-picking even than the one about the Mesoamericans. While the Americans and Europeans were indeed colonizers, the bit about “liberating” the indigenous Greater East Asians from this “colonial project” (there’s that phrase again) was a patch over Japan’s aggression.
Hiroshima and Nagasaki Were Genocidal!
Japan was just about to surrender in 1945 (just when remains unstated). Japanese diplomats and Important Persons had advanced peace feelers as early as 1944 (not sanctioned by Tokyo). Surrender was just around the corner when those dastardly Americans threw those awful bombs that…wait for it…America never planned to use on Germany (because it would not be available)! Clearly racially motivated! Genocide!
Yeah, I’ve heard that before…
Once again, the whole “race” thing rears its ugly head in this “study” of the past. The parenthetic asides in the above are really all that’s needed to refute the nonsense I see often enough. Here, too, critics throw the “G word” with abandon and ignorance, mistaking correlation for causation, among other things.
Cherry-Picking (here) is More about Woke than anything else.
Let’s all remember the DEI/Woke Anthem sung to that old Dr. Pepper commercial:
I’m a victim! You’re a victim!
He’s a victim! She’s a victim!
Wouldn’t you like to be a victim, too?
Chorus: Reparations! Seek Reparations!
This historical cherry-picking is the most pernicious, but there’s many other examples one could come up with. The practice is once again to use the past as a cudgel on the present.
The Past Not Taken: Three Novellas
Curtis has a continuing problem: how to use the records of the past without knowing everything? Can we surmise from what we know just what went on, or do we have to wait and look for more?
If we were to wait until we know everything to say anything, we’d say nothing. Available from your favorite bookseller or from me if you want an autograph.
Coming Up…
Mexican-American War Reconsidered
Unsung Victory
And Finally...
On 28 September:
1066: William, Duke of Normandy, invades England at Pevensey Bay, Sussex. This was the beginning of the Norman Conquest of England, after the death of Edward the Confessor and the ascension of Harold to the English throne. William would take the throne after the battle of Hastings on 14 October.
1850: The United States Congress abolishes flogging as a punishment. The rather confused story of the lash in American armed forces is too convoluted to recount here, but the Army abolished the practice in 1861, and the Navy in either 1862 or 1872, depending on sources.
And today is NATIONAL DRINK BEER DAY. Need I say more?
It amazes me and saddens me that, when you say 'slavery', most Americans know of nothing but southern plantation slavery.