Hello {{ first name | friends}},
The other day, I came across a list of banned books by Black authors. It made me pause. Book bans aren't new, of course but they seem to have ramped up recently, and I contend it's because the powers that be don't want us to have a true picture of Black history.
Before we get to why, let me put this out there: we've almost never had an accurate education about Black history and it's been deliberate.
And we've never had an accurate depiction of Black people either. Also deliberate.
Because the truth is: the colonisers and enslavers, who were generally racialised as white, had to portray those racialised as Black as inferior in order to justify their conquest in the name of "civilisation".
Look at it from a Judeo-Christian lens: if we were all made in God's image how could colonisation and enslavement be justified?. But if Black people weren't quite "finished" then all bets were off. Those ideas are pernicious and enduring. In February, during Black History Month, the White House incumbent posted a video showing the Obamas as apes - nuff said!