1493 is the White supremacist parent of 1776 and 1619

Spain’s Doctrine of Discovery opened America and the rest of the so-called ‘New World’ to centuries of slavery and colonization. The racist backlash to the 1619 Project — also known as the 1776 Project — is yet another inelegant White supremacist trick, disguised as a call to national unity at the expense of legitimate explorations […]

Deleting inconvenient contradictions: US Declaration of Independence, Thomas Jefferson and Congress

Leave it to me when it comes to peppering America’s Independence Day celebration with quick dive into how the country reconciled its slave-owning system of production with a statement for liberty and independence from Britain’s rule. Like most other chapters in American history were the narrative of virtues cruise closer to B.S. territory, the nation […]

7 WAYS COLSON WHITEHEAD’S UNDERGROUND RAILROAD IS PURE DOPENESS

I expect Colson Whitehead’s National Book Award-nominated novel, The Underground Railroad, to win plenty of kudos for its ability to convey a layered story of metaphoric Afro-mysticism surrounding Black slaves, particularly a young woman named Cora, who are pursuing freedom from the antebellum South. Abolitionists, pro-slavery supporters and the ideological permutations in-between help to frame […]

SUNDAY SMACK: TREASON OR SLAVERY?

This week’s Sunday Smack inspiration comes from reading Eric Foner’s Gateway to Freedom: The Hidden History of the Underground Railroad, where I was reminded of how the British promised Africans enslaved in America their freedom in return for fighting against George Washington’s patriots during America’s war for independence. That would mean any slave who fought […]

SLAVE REPARATIONS WILL LIKELY TURN DEADLY

So, what’s my reaction to the UN Working Group of Experts on People of African Descent’s recent visit to the United States where they urged the federal government to consider slavery reparations for African Americans? My reaction remains similar to what I’ve told friends who asked me this question during the […]

A WAY TO EXPLAIN WHY SLAVE TETRIS IS A BAD IDEA

You would think that I wouldn’t have to burn electrons explaining why Serious Games Interactive CEO Simon Egenfeldt-Nielsen’s Slave Tetris mini-game is dumb, if not outright disrespectful to humanity, but he apparently doesn’t get it — even after he pulled the mini-game from his larger Playing History 2: Slave Trade game. The intent of this […]

CINCO DE MAYO IS ‘BLACK PEOPLE HUG YOUR MEXICAN BROTHERS AND SISTERS DAY’

(Laughing) I’m not exactly sure how Cinco de Mayo meant that Americans are supposed to get smashed drunk on May 5 – although I’m sure the Yankee axiom of “Human beings exist so that we can sell them something” had a hand here – but you should at least know that Americans of African […]