- Joined
- Nov 19, 2010
- Messages
- 1,514
- Reaction score
- 133
- Location
- USA... sometimes.
- Website
- www.racheludin.com
I've been loading on a crap load of documentaries and I've realized the biases in the documentaries towards white and male from the BBC and America. (unless it's on a specific subject matter in which case you have to squint at it to make sure it's staying on track.)
I have to fight the brainwashing. For example, when they show the eariest Homo sapiens sapiens, I'm going uhh... why are they white with long hair? *Cough Guns, Germs and Steel cough* (or even worse): No you didn't just blackface! WTH is wrong with you? (and all male?) And yes, this was a *recent* documentary. ; I looked at the date. *ranty* *rant*.
Some of it is really subtle... and some of it is overt, but it makes it hard to watch sometimes. "there were no blacks in Britain" two beats later... "Elizabeth I said the black population was a problem".
Or "The peoples around the mountains who would become us had superior technology."
I usually have to balance it later. But it kinda makes the effort of learning harder. What's so wrong with hiring black actors/actresses and then later having them show up as intelligent coherent human beings in the history of the world? What's so wrong with admitting that other groups did important stuff such as invent paper, participated in Christianity, making math possible to Europe, domesticated animals and discovered the Americas *cough Natives of the Americas*?
Stephen Pinker's latest book also has flavors of that as well which leaves me feeling sour.
You know... and for those people that don't get it, it's not the white people who are attacking us thing that people don't get it's the giving credit where it's actually due.
Printing press... Chinese. Movable type Chinese. metal movable type, Korean. Adjustable bracket, Gutenberg. Same with the Lightbulb... Latimer did the bamboo filament which made the lightbulb marketable, who was black. Edison didn't invent anything in the lightbulb. There were Canadians and Brits--it was a world wide effort. Traffic crossing was also AA by concept.
Peanut butter.. Mayan.
Does it really hurt to say some things are just not European? Domesticated Horse... dog, agriculture's first starts, tea, as a culture (India), sugar, coffee, chocolate, corn (Native Americans did a ton of work domesticating it), paper (though exact origin is in question, definitely not European).
Steam engines can go to Europeans.
Also, does it really hurt to mention that some people were not driven snow white, like *cough* Jesus? (Someone was actually insulted when I pointed out he's part Egyptian from Mary's side despite the Bible).
I think it illuminates how awesome our species is as a whole to see how all these things were made, traveled long distances (often by foot or simple trading), interacted, were improved upon and built our modern world.
I have to fight the brainwashing. For example, when they show the eariest Homo sapiens sapiens, I'm going uhh... why are they white with long hair? *Cough Guns, Germs and Steel cough* (or even worse): No you didn't just blackface! WTH is wrong with you? (and all male?) And yes, this was a *recent* documentary. ; I looked at the date. *ranty* *rant*.
Some of it is really subtle... and some of it is overt, but it makes it hard to watch sometimes. "there were no blacks in Britain" two beats later... "Elizabeth I said the black population was a problem".
Or "The peoples around the mountains who would become us had superior technology."
I usually have to balance it later. But it kinda makes the effort of learning harder. What's so wrong with hiring black actors/actresses and then later having them show up as intelligent coherent human beings in the history of the world? What's so wrong with admitting that other groups did important stuff such as invent paper, participated in Christianity, making math possible to Europe, domesticated animals and discovered the Americas *cough Natives of the Americas*?
Stephen Pinker's latest book also has flavors of that as well which leaves me feeling sour.
You know... and for those people that don't get it, it's not the white people who are attacking us thing that people don't get it's the giving credit where it's actually due.
Printing press... Chinese. Movable type Chinese. metal movable type, Korean. Adjustable bracket, Gutenberg. Same with the Lightbulb... Latimer did the bamboo filament which made the lightbulb marketable, who was black. Edison didn't invent anything in the lightbulb. There were Canadians and Brits--it was a world wide effort. Traffic crossing was also AA by concept.
Peanut butter.. Mayan.
Does it really hurt to say some things are just not European? Domesticated Horse... dog, agriculture's first starts, tea, as a culture (India), sugar, coffee, chocolate, corn (Native Americans did a ton of work domesticating it), paper (though exact origin is in question, definitely not European).
Steam engines can go to Europeans.
Also, does it really hurt to mention that some people were not driven snow white, like *cough* Jesus? (Someone was actually insulted when I pointed out he's part Egyptian from Mary's side despite the Bible).
I think it illuminates how awesome our species is as a whole to see how all these things were made, traveled long distances (often by foot or simple trading), interacted, were improved upon and built our modern world.