Salsassin Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> I was curious why this group that is dedicated to
> weighing the evidence of Alternative History has
> challenged so few books that present alternative
> History in Black studies curriculums? A few have
> been challenged, some by Bernard here, but still
> too few. Contrary to other alternative hisory that
> just confuses people into believing fantasy, many
> of these books teach people to hate, painting a
> history of planned opression and past glory
> stolen.
> The members on this board obviously have the
> knowledge to challenge many of these books, and
> short book reviews would be nice just pointing the
> major inconsistencies.
>
> I think the poisoning of a section of our youth's
> is worth challenging. If only I knew half as much
> as so many of you on this board know...

Part of the problem is to delimit how much a "book review" is going to encompass. A fairly small book review would just outline briefly what the main points of a book are and one or two of the major flaws. This is doable and perhaps worth it. On the other hand, to really show up the multifarious factual and interpretive errors is a major undertaking-- I've been working on Van Sertima since 1995 ;-).

A major problem is that these books (like Hancock, etc.) write and make claims over a vast intellectual landscape and many disciplines. To become expert enough and dig up the information to evaluate (in the first place) and to refute them is extremely laborious. By force of necessity, I've had to learn quite a bit about Egypt, but, you notice that I don't contribute much to these discussions here. I know my limitations. In my opinion, this is the area where members of this group could contribute the most with regard to these books. Not all Afrocentric books are equally bad. The worst are those, such as I mention in my melanin paper, that claim that Egyptians are black (in the sense as equal to sub-Saharan West Africans, i.e. the genetic ancestors of African-american), that they are the founders of all civiizations, and that happened because their melanin made them intellectually, morally, and spiritually superior to whites (actually albinos by their definition).

Some examples (not below):

Frances Cress Welsing. 1991. <i>The Isis Papers</i> Chicago:Third World Press

Richard King. 1990. <i>The African Origin of Biological Psychiatry</i> Germantown, TNeymour-Smith

Carol Barnes.1988. <i>Melanin:The Chemical Key to Black Greatness</i> Houston:C.B. Publishers

Diop claims some of this but did not refer to melanin as the agent.

Bradley (a white Canadian) is interesting because he parrots Leonard Jeffries line about the 'Sun People. i.e. blacks' and the 'Ice People i.e. whites' and is one way to see what Jeffies is about because Jeffries has never published anything. His notoriety is primarily due to media attention to his speeches and classes. Interesting, isn't it?

Browder is a melanist

I have a published review of Poe's book but again what are the copyright complications.
Bernard

>
> Books that need to be challenged because of their
> biased analysis of history and promotion of the
> White people are all evil or stealing Black
> history myth:

> Yurugu: An African-Centered Critique of European
> Cultural Thought and Behavior
> by Marimba Ani
> Destruction of Black Civilization : Great Issues
> of a Race from 4500 B.C to 2000 A.D.
> by Chancellor Williams
> African Origins of Major "Western Religions"
> by Yosef A.A. Ben-Jochannan
> Introduction to African Civilizations
> by John G. Jackson, Runoko Rashidi
> Iceman Inheritance : Prehistoric Sources of
> Western Man's Racism, Sexism and Aggression
> by Michael Bradley
> Stolen Legacy
> by G. M. James George
> Nile Valley Contributions to Civilization
> (Exploding the Myths)
> by Anthony T. Browder
> Lies My Teacher Told Me : Everything Your American
> History Textbook Got Wrong
> by James W. Loewen
> The African Origin of Civilization: Myth or
> Reality
> by Cheikh Anta Diop
> From Babylon to Timbuktu: A History of the Ancient
> Black Races Including the Black Hebrews
> by Rudolph R. Windsor
> Black Spark, White Fire: Did African Explorers
> Civilize Ancient Europe?
> by Richard Poe
>
> Shoot one book read and reviewed by a bunch of us
> every few months wouldn't be a bad thing.