#historical whitewashing

[skodasforge]

I'm about to go on a rant about how Edward Jenner Columbused Vaccines so bear with me here.

[magdolenelives]

(via)

[thenotoriousscuttlecliff]

Who would've thought the most progressive and woke season of Doctor Who was actually the previous one starring the old white man?

[stirringwinds]

I have a Turkish mutual who insists the Armenian genocide did not happen. That there were some killings related to the guerrilla warfare used by the Armenians and the ottomans should've done better, but full blown genocide? No. she's uninterested in pics or words since "some of those are faked" and therefore unreliable. And she says that some historians have come forward on making the whole thing up before. Thoughts?

Sounds like somebody who has bought Turkish ultranationalist propaganda :-/ I’ve seen this before. The whole argument claims that the deaths were just a result of the deprivations or chaos of WW1, and that’s bunk. As someone who has studied public international law, I can safely say we have an enormous amount of evidence that it was a systematically planned extermination. The only people faking it are those denying the complicity of the Ottoman government. 

The Polish Jewish lawyer Raphael Lemkin who coined the term ‘genocide’ and who played a big role drafting the Genocide Convention- did so in response to what was happening to Armenians at the hands of the Ottoman Empire. Before that, this - the systematic slaughter of a particular group of people by their own government- was an atrocity without a name. Ergo, what happened to the Armenians was the very inspiration for the definition of ‘genocide’. 

It’s up to you if you want to continue engaging with her. At a certain point, it might not be worthwhile if she’s in the mindset that none of the sources contradicting this nationalist narrative are accurate. But even if you can’t convince her…it might be worthwhile replying and not letting her false claims stand unchallenged, especially if she’s posting about it publicly. 

[magdolenelives]

Tweet here, article here.

[deadgodjess]

Europe was a lot more diverse that people supposedly interested in history claim it to be. (side note, most actual historians I personally know acknowledge the presence of people of colour but for some reason their voice is not the most prominent one online, jeez I wonder why?) Basically, Europe is a melting pot of cultures. Legend even says Thor and his family came from what is now the middle east. hard to hear for whit supremacists maybe but Europe was never purely white.

[redbayly]

Historical Whitewashing

You want to know why I disapprove of whitewashing? It’s because when popular media takes something like this:

And changes it to this:

St. Maurice was, from his earliest known depictions up until the 16th century, depicted as a black man dressed as a medieval knight, equal to (or even more prominent than) any other saint regardless of skin color because people didn’t really care about that throughout most of history. In fact, if you look back into Roman times, skin color was basically irrelevant; all the Romans cared about was whether a man was a citizen and had money, nothing else mattered.

St. Maurice is the patron saint of numerous cities and occupations (mostly soldiers because of his position as a military leader), he is venerated in four different Christian faiths (Coptic Orthodoxy, Oriental Orthodoxy, Eastern Orthodoxy, and the Roman Catholic Church), and he is regarded as one of the ultimate examples of Christian piety and brotherhood because of his refusal to worship false gods and his refusal to harm his fellow Christians, even at the orders of his emperor. 

Whether or not he actually was black isn’t the issue (he was born in Thebes, Egypt and likely could have been), it’s the reason why he was suddenly made into a white man in the 16th century that has me angry. He was almost always portrayed as black since his earliest portrayal in the 12th century (with his oldest surviving image being from the 13th century at the Cathedral of Magdeburg), but everyone suddenly started depicting him as white in the 16th century onward to soothe their consciences about slavery and the oppression of the African peoples under colonialism. In order to convince themselves that they weren’t doing a wrong to their fellow man, all European paintings and statues of saints as anything other than white ceased.

Remember what historical whitewashing stands for. 

[elsinore-snores]

Black Historical Figures

Beethoven

“Baby Esther” the real life inspiration for Betty Boop

Queen Charlotte, the wife of King George III

Santa Claus, “Saint Nick”, the inspiration for Santa Claus. (SANTA IS BLACK OKAY)

Hannibal of Carthage

Saint Augustine

Alexandre Dumas

Spread this around! Don’t let these figures be whitewashed anymore!