Open Letter: Science Museum of Minnesota

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Here in the Twin Cities, the NAACP of Saint Paul where I serve as communications chairman, has reached out to local media with "An Open Letter to the Science Museum of Minnesota" concerning the museum's "institutional complicity" in the misrepresentation of the ancient pharaohs--those who reigned for over a millennia prior to the Greek and Roman incursions.  Its National Geographic Society convened exhibit, "Tutankhamun: The Golden King and the Great Pharaohs," which impacts tens of thousands of African Americans in this city and millions around the globe, is blantantly, among other things, showing a documentary in its Omnitheater that depicts all of the pharaohs as Caucasian.  Rameses the II, also known as Rameses the Great, is featured prominently in the film as European-looking.

Thanks to a great African-American newspaper, this story has seen the light of day. Also, Minnesota Public Radio's Facebook page, Art Hounds, made note of the "Letter." But no news stories have been presented by public radio, any of the White newspapers, or the network TV stations. I am in contact with a Black television reporter who has been out of the office, but until he returns to work, I suppose it's business as usual in America's mainstream news industry. I will elaborate on the "black out" of African Americans in the nation's news rooms in another posting.

Here's what we're asking of the "Science Museum of Minnesota" as a corrective measure, since perhaps they're acting unwittingly on behalf of National Geographic. This is the only just way we see to initiate corrective action to the ongoing wrongs that are being depicted daily in the Omnitheater viewings. Why not present ads that feature King Tut as depicted from his tomb-wall painting and or a depiction of Tutankhamen from the throne picture that clearly shows him as African?

The current golden-coffin cover face depiction (that looks like the golden mask), and the little shabti figure (which may or may not be King Tut) continue to obscure the likeness of Tutankhamun, tacitly implying that he is White.  The museum is a steward of the public trust, and tax payers rely on institutions such as the Science Museum of Minnesota to tell the truth.  This is the North Star State. Science Museum of Minnesota, please show 'em where you're from.

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Breaking Institutional Complicity. Tell it Like it Is!

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The Real Egyptians

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The Truth about Hemiunu

 

The statue of Hemiunu, the 4th dynasty vizier of Pharaoh Khufu, was purportedly found headless in 1912 by a German/Australian excavation team, in the shadow of the Great Pyramid at Giza. Hemiunu is said to have been the engineer of the Great Pyramid. As noted earlier on this blog, his parents Nefermaat and Itet were Black Africans.

The head was replaced with a European depiction that contrasts greatly with what he would have looked like. My research has now brought me to the realization that there are just a few well-placed, and likely fraudulent, Eurocentric-looking pieces of Old Kingdom, Middle Kingdom, New Kingdom statues. The rest are clearly Black African.

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Nefertiti: Discovery Channel Depiction (Click)

 

It’s definitive. The iconoclastic Nefertiti bust that has long been used to depict the 18th dynasty queen of Egypt is a hoax. I reported in an earlier post, a few months ago, that based on new research of the artifact itself, scholars have come to realize that the bust depicting a European-looking woman is a fraud. Of course the attendant picture to this article shows what she really looked like (as for pigmentation, this photo is more in line with ancient depictions of her daughters, sister Mutnodjmet, and other 18th dynasty relatives). Thanks to the World Wide Web, and a little research, just about anyone can wade through the charade that has come to represent modern Egyptology. The current iconic German bust was not even reported with the 1912 excavation findings of Ludwig Borchardt, but mysteriously appeared on display in Germany in 1923. In any archeological report, the bust would have taken first place.

The Arabs, meanwhile, have been in Egypt since 639 AD. They, of course, study the history of their time in Egypt in their schools—so this research is nothing new to them. The culprit is the ubiquitous Western mass media that continues to perpetuate the ongoing sham.

It’ll take awhile. But the bust, currently housed in a German museum, will eventually be a vestige of the colonial past that fostered it.

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Queen Tiye

 

Queen Tiye was the grandmother of King Tut. Her son was Akhenaten, Tut’s father, husband of Nefertiti. Tiye reigned during the New Kingdom in the 18th dynasty—a period that is considered one of the most prolific eras of building and culture in Ancient Egypt (Kemet).

Along with the aforementioned, a pantheon of interesting leaders including Horemheb, Seti I, Hatshepsut, Thutmoses III, and Rameses II lived during the 18-19th dynasties of the New Kingdom.

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Light Being Shed on Light-skin Ancient Egyptians

 

Egyptology prior to the Afrocentric movement forgot about light-skinned Blacks, it seems. That’s a classification we as Black people will have to introduce ourselves. Of course all of us have light-complexioned individuals in our families, it's a common part of our culture. Meanwhile, given the current paradigm, former Congressman Adam Clayton Powell, Thurgood Marshall, or even Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton would be viewed as white juxtaposed with the contemporary Egyptology model. Frankly, it's absurd that this kind of whitewashing of Black history is still being perpetuated.

Nefermaat, a brother of Pharaoh Khufu, figures prominently in shedding light on this, heretofore, shrouded area about Ancient Egypt (See Nefermaat, wife and brown skinned son above). You see, there was a Kemetian architect named Hemiunu, Nefermaat’s son, who seems to have had more work done than the work on the Great Pyramid, there seems to have been work done on his face, pun intended. And he’s either very light-skinned or represents the core of one of the biggest frauds ever played in history.

Hemiunu was allegedly discovered in 1912 in a tomb within the enclave of the Great Pyramid. Scholars, such as Professor Manu Ampim, however, seem to agree that there are some strategically placed counterfeit Egyptian sculptures that don’t fit the aesthetics of Ancient Egyptian art. His research on the Rahotep and Nofret sculpture is a case in point. Rahotep was supposedly a brother of Nefermaat (and Khufu, both sons of Sneferu). But looking at relatives of the apparently counterfeit sculpture is enlightning. Nefermaat was a Black man. Prince Kawab his nephew, Khufu's son, was a Black man. Khufu's predecessors Huni and Sneferu were Black men. No, the much bandied depiction of Rahotep does not fit the family lineage; the Rahotep-Nofret sculpture is a fraud.


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Prince Kawab -- Son of Khufu (Old Kingdom)

 

 

 

Prince Kawab (Kewab) was the eldest son of Khufu (Cheops) -- Dynasty IV. If there are any questions as to Khufu’s African heritage, one needs only look to his children and relatives to ascertain, for certainty, the African origins of the builder of the Great Pyramid, at Giza.

Kawab’s fresco was discovered on the walls of his daughter Meresankh III’s tomb. It is said that he was Khufu's heir apparent, but never took the throne because of a naturally premature death or a rivalry with his sibling Djedefre.

Kawab was a scribe and aspired to rule in the manner of his grandfather King Sneferu, a cultured and wise king.

His brother Djedefre seems to have ruled only seven or eight years, according to traditional records, and was followed in rulership by his younger brother Khafre, whose likeness can be seen on the face of the Great Sphinx.

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The Stolen Legacy of Classical African Culture

Click here: Professor Manu Ampim's research, and scroll down I visited Chicago recently and got a personal view of the new King Tut exhibit that has been touring the country. Surprisingly, there is no protest going on in that city like what was experienced in Los Angeles, during its exhibition.

As a whole, the exhibit was great. But at the exit was the Caucasian picture of King Tut that graces the cover of the June 2005 issue of National Geographic. It stood in stark contrast to what other guests and I had seen throughout the tour.

Frankly, whether intended or not, it was a signal for the Western world to continue its ubiquitous institutional-racism pogrom against Blacks. At the current pace of media on Black history, school textbooks and encyclopedias will still depict Rameses, Tutankhamen, Seti and all the pharaohs of old as sterile race-neutral historical figures.

Yes, it’s better than it was during my school days, but kids today are still confused on the issue, and that shouldn’t be so. An exhibit here in Minneapolis made news a few years ago when a Black kid on a class tour asked the tour guide if the ancient Egyptians were Black and the guide said, “no.”

Her parents were in an uproar, and rightfully so. No other history has been as maligned as that of Africans, and the affronts continue unmitigated today. The response of the tour officials in Minneapolis was that the guide had only responded with what he had been taught.

When Legrand Clegg, and other protesters in Los Angeles confronted the exhibitors in that city, the response of Terry Garcia, of the National Geographic Society was: "In this case we selected a medium skin tone, and we say, quite up front: 'This is mid-range.'" Mid-range from whose perspective is my question?

As an African American, it doesn’t take much analyzation to realize that the natural diffusion between Black classical cultures and Sub Sahara Africa was purposely thwarted to keep Black cultures at bay. It’s tantamount to separating the West from the “Golden Age of Greece, or Rome.”

Meanwhile, things are progressing on some fronts. While visiting New York last year at the Metropolitan Museum of Art (MET), I perused their exhibit on ancient Egypt and left with a resounding – Amen – it was the best exhibit I have seen to date in an American city.

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The Study of Afrocentric Classical Cultures

   The question of why we need to study classical Afrocentric cultures is being discussed on many levels today. To most of us, it is the hoped for salve to assuage wounded egos. To others, ironically, it represents an intellectual front that is too far removed from the day-to-day struggles of the common man to matter much.

But is it really too far removed? First, Blacks in this culture have been stripped down to a very limited array of characteristics, which in many cases creates the conditions that seem to demonstrate that we belong in a collective minority status because of some inherent shortcomings on our part.

Indeed, it does make one feel redeemed to know that ancient Black cultures were creating great, classical architecture, while Europe was still thousands of years from emerging out of the dark forests of the North.

It just makes sense, as a group, to work to dislodge ourselves from the ubiquitous web of racism we find ourselves confronted with. Frankly, we must leave no stone unturned in our efforts to ensure that future generations will enter the world on a ‘level playing field.’

Let me lay out what a level-playing field will look like. Children will enter kindergarten with the same access to ancient Black history as they have to ancient White history. In fact, the demarcations of ‘us versus them’ will be eradicated, as the world’s histories blend seamlessly into the story of mankind as a whole--bereft of racism’s undertones. No longer will we be a people without history, for it will be common knowledge that we started history.

Egypt (Kemet) will be seen as the benign forefather of Greece and Rome; the latter two came along some 2,500 years after the emergence of Kemet. The Phoenicians, best known because of the epic Phoenician, or Punic Wars with Rome, and the legendary General Hannibal Barca, of Carthage, will represent Black contemporaries of Rome and Greece. Note that the ubiquitous depictions of Hannibal today are fallaciously illustrated as Caucasian, for the most part.

The ancient city states of Tyre, Byblos and Sidon, of which Phoenicia derived, will be depicted as Black trading partners with Egypt and Nubia; as will other lands spread out from the Middle East to India. Recent DNA testing proved that the ancient people buried in Phoenicia, modern Lebanon, had the same bloodlines as the ancient Egyptians (Kemetians). Most of the modern Lebanese people, however, are derived from later bloodlines, like modern Egyptians.

From Middle Africa, the Dravidians who settled southern India and the southern Asian countries where Fiji Islanders, Papua New Guineans, Melanesians and Polynesians still abound will begin to make more sense in geographic terms to future non-colonized Blacks.

Africa south of the Sahara, meanwhile, will be proved to have been purposely cut off by the colonizers to disallow the natural diffusion of ideas and culture that would have afforded it the ability to blossom like other areas. Fortunately, Ghana, Mali and Songhay, for example, will serve as representative samples of cultures that arose despite deleterious onslaughts against them.

The term “classical” means of the highest order. It relates to the best a people have been able to produce, not the worst. When we show people the best of themselves, and their culture, they rise to the visions and views they hold in their minds and spirits.

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Thutmoses III and the New Kingdom’s Expansion

   The New Kingdom in Ancient Egypt (Kemet) represented the zenith of Egyptian culture. It was the era of Tutankhamen, Akhenaten, Hatshepsut and Rameses the Great. Ironically, it arose following the humiliating defeat and subjugation to the Hyksos, an Afro-Asiatic nation that overran Kemet and maintained power in the North for over 130 years.

In around 1480 B.C. Thutmoses III, a Theban, rose to power having been co-regent with the female pharaoh Hatshepsut, his stepmother, until her death. Modern Europeans refer to him as the Napoleon of the ancient world and not without good reason.

He expanded Kemet’s borders to her most far-reaching boundaries and initiated an imperialism that there-to-fore had been unheard of. The nation before the Hyksos had been protected and shielded by the desert on both sides and had been comfortable in its relatively secluded oasis along the Nile River. Thus, Kemet had in its earlier periods no need to look outward. But look outward Thutmoses did. He engaged in 17 military campaigns and never lost a battle.

Known as a strong but fair-minded leader, Thutmoses III was beloved and respected during his reign, which re-established control over Syria and Nubia. His victory over the King of Kadesh at the Battle of Megiddo, just months into his tenure, quickly established him as a military genius. He went on to capture territory as far east as the Euphrates River.

One of his hallmarks was the practice of awarding medals to outstanding soldiers who exhibited exemplary prowess on the battlefield -- a custom emulated by America’s George Washington, who introduced the Purple Heart to U.S. forces.

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Protecting the Spirit of Black America, Today

   It is one of the most enduring images of Olympics sports history; an image that will inevitably frame the Olympic story of our era. Two-hundred meters gold-medal winner Tommie Smith and bronze-medal winner John Carlos raised clinched black-gloved fists in support of the ongoing Civil Rights Movement in America.

This seminal moment captured the imagination of a generation and contributed to the thrust of the movement.

That’s why I’m rather perplexed by the apparent lack of consciousness among entertainers, in popular culture, who rationalize their complicit corroboration with those whose aim is to crush the spirit of Africans in America.

Reportedly, Damon Wayans, the actor, has recently attempted to copyright the word “Nigga” for a clothes line he has in the works, revealing a callous disdain and social disregard for the masses of Africans, throughout the Diaspora, who might encounter his Nigga brand. It’s likely that he’s ignorant of how semantics can impact the spirit of a people. But just as likely, he doesn’t care, which is even worse.

Let’s define the term "spirit.” It is the inner essence and thought life of an individual, a nation or a people transcending what is seen on the outside. Each individual has an inner life world that is at best nurtured and protected by the cultural forces that be, but in the worst-case scenarios is attacked, vilified and violated.

There has been a very real thrust to diminish the energy and vital force of our struggle, and the hearts of our people. Traditionally, we buttressed our spirits with our songs, whether in popular culture or our spiritual foundation the church.

In the glory days of “Soul Music” we could count on our vocalists, whose roots derived from the church, to evoke lyrics of spiritual sustenance; vocals that penetrated the soul and revived the broken in spirit--so we marched on. Amidst a backdrop of societal oppression--we trudged onward. The church and our music helped us to fan the flames of an inner pilot that could not be extinguished by institutional suppression of our cultural heritage

Wayans, and those of his ilk, meanwhile, represent a new breed of celebrity ready to sell their brethren down the river for thirty pieces of silver. That was not the case of brothas like Tommie Smith and John Carlos. They turned their backs on product endorsements and, instead, faced death threats and censure from those who opposed them.

The arguments of the turncoats, like Wayans, is that they are just responding to the forces of the marketplace. My response is: so were the slave traders of Africa’s past.

How can we protect the spirits of people culturally? We must affirm them through our literature, our songs, our historical heritage, our legacy and our God.

Taking away the positive legacy and traditions of a people is spiritual violence. And to replace it with belittling imagery and semantics is spiritual homicide.

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Male-Female Relationships, a Key to Liberation

 
  A strengthening of Black male-female relationships is key, I believe, in rebuilding functional African-Americans families. Colonialism, in this hemisphere, intentionally worked to weaken this primary institution that is clearly a building block of any forward-moving people.

Egypt and classical cultures are the focus of this weblog. Thus, we look this month--Black History Month--at the importance of marriage and male-female relationships among our ancestors.

Reliefs and pictures indicate that the men and women of Ancient Kemet (Egypt) worked closely together and viewed the marriage relationship as significant, and highly esteemed. Men and women are shown holding hands, and children are often pictured in conjunction with their parents.

Husband and wife spent time chatting, enjoyed music together, and threw parties and social affairs together. The wife often went along with her husband on hunting forays to keep him company. In addition, Egyptian women shared with men important legal rights that in many other nations were totally alien to them.

Egyptian husbands realized that it took two to make a marriage. Wise advice to a husband: "Thou shouldst not supervise thy wife in her house, when thou knowest she is efficient. Do not say to her: 'Where is it? Fetch it for us!' when she has put it in its proper place. Let thine eye have regard, while thou art silent, that thou mayest recognize her abilities."

In Ancient Kemet women were allowed to own land, operated businesses, testified in court, and brought actions against men. The women of Kemet enjoyed greater freedom than any of their counterparts from other parts of the ancient world.

More advice to the men: “If you take a wife...Let her be more contented than any of her fellow-citizens. She will be attached to you doubly, if her chain is pleasant. Do not repel her; grant that which pleases her; it is to her contentment that she appreciates your work.

”If you are wise, look after your house; love your wife without alloy. Fill her stomach, clothe her back; these are the cares to be bestowed on her person. Caress her, fulfill her desires during the time of her existence; it is a kindness which does honor to its possessor. Be not brutal; tact will influence her better than violence; . . . behold to what she aspires, at what she aims, what she regards. It is that which fixes her in your house; if you repel her, it is an abyss. Open your arms for her, respond to her arms; call her, display to her your love."

Excerpts from The Precepts of Ptah-Hotep
2200 BC

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Imhotep, the Father of Medicine, Architect…

 
  Imhotep has been described as one of the most fascinating people of the ancient world. Considered a genius, he rose from the ranks of the none royals of Kemet (Egypt) to become even more recognized than the pharaohs he served.

Called the Father of Medicine, Imhotep outlined more than ninety anatomical terms and forty-eight injuries in a papyrus he wrote, known today as the Edwin Smith Papyrus. Historians tell us that Imhotep "diagnosed and treated over 200 diseases, i.e., 15 diseases of the abdomen, 11 of the bladder, 10 of the rectum, 29 of the eyes, and 18 of the skin, hair, nails and tongue. Imhotep treated tuberculosis, gallstones, appendicitis, gout and arthritis. He also performed surgery and practiced some dentistry. Imhotep extracted medicine from plants. He also knew the position and function of the vital organs and circulation of the blood system."

In later centuries, he was revered by the Greeks as Asclepius, the god of medicine. And it is believed that he initiated a school of medicine in Memphis, which was noted for over two-thousand years as a place of learning in the ancient world. Today, the serpent and staff symbol of the American Medical Association is derived from traditions surrounding Asclepius.

Also an architect and statesman, Imhotep is attributed with constructing the first pyramid of Egypt, the Step Pyramid, in honor of Pharaoh Djoser, at Saqqara. It still stands today and has been called one of the outstanding engineering feats of the ancient world.

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Menes, First Pharaoh of Kemet (Egypt)

Pharaoh Menes 
According to the most ancient of sources, Pharaoh Menes is attributed as having been the unifier of early kingdom states along the Nile River in what became known as Kemet, the Black Lands.

The Palermo Stone, a black basalt fragment dating from the 5th Dynasty contains the earliest annals of Kemet’s (which is known as Egypt in modern times) pharaohs. The stone which is believed to have been derived from an ancient Egyptian temple, points to Menes as having emerged from the area’s prehistory to become King of its 1st Dynasty.

According to Diodorus Siculus, Menes was the first lawgiver who helped to establish the divine principles that would distinguish Kemet from the pagan tribes of the world during that period.

Scholars differ on exactly when Menes lived, but generally settle on around 3000 B.C. – 2920 B.C. as a standardized starting point.

Menes’ dynasty is well known because many of the temples of the royal necropolis at Abydos were found nearly intact underground. And the hieroglyphic writings found there corroborate the Palermo Stone and other extant sources.

Also known as Misraim, Aha and Narmer scholars agree that he founded the city of Memphis.

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Ancient Egyptian Love Poems...

Note: They called each other sisters and brothers, like we did in the 1960s.

Your love has penetrated all within me

Like honey plunged into water,

Like a perfume which penetrates spices,

As when one mixes a drink... .
Nevertheless you run to seek your sister,

Like the steed upon the battlefield,

As the warrior rolls along on the spokes of his wheels.
For heaven makes your love

Like the advance of flames in straw,

And its longing like the downward swoop of a hawk.

_________________________

Is my heart not softened by your love-longing for me?

My sweet fruit which excites your passions

Not will I allow it To depart from me.
Although cudgeled even to the "Guard of the overflow,

"To Syria, with shebod-rods and clubs,

To Kush, with palm-rods,

To the highlands, with switches

To the lowlands, with twigs,
Never will I listen to their counsel

To abandon longing.

_________________________

The Beau

Thou beautiful one!

My heart's desire is

To procure for you food as your husband,

My arm resting upon your arm.
You have changed me by your love.

Thus say I in my heart,

In my soul, at my prayers.

The Femme

"I lack my commander tonight,

I am as one dwelling in a tomb."
Be you but in health and strength,

Then the nearness of your countenance

Sheds delight, by reason of your well-being,

Over a heart, which seeks you with longing.

_________________________

I am your darling sister,

I am to you like a bit of landscape,

With each shrub of grateful fragrance.
Lovely is the moisture-conduit in it,

Which your hand has discovered,

While the north wind cooled us.

A beautiful place to wander,
Your hand in my hand,

My soul inspired My heart in bliss,

Because we go together.
New wine it is, to hear your voice;

I live for hearing it.

To see you with each look,

Is better than eating and drinking.

_________________________

Edited by Les Lester 2005

This text is part of the Internet Ancient History Sourcebook.

© Paul Halsall, January 1999

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King Tut Whitewashed by the Major Media

King Tut and Queen Ankhesenamen 

Twenty-eight years ago when the King Tut exhibit first made its way through Chicago, I was just coming out of high school and had not been taught one iota about the Black origins of Ancient Egyptian civilization. But thanks to Third World Press and other African-American publishers, an undercurrent of this much-needed knowledge was available, which gave me a heads up when the Tut tour hit town.

At that time the afrocentric movement was just getting its legs, thanks to great Black pioneer writers such as, J.A. Rogers, Chancellor Williams, Asa Hilliard III and John G. Jackson. But despite efforts from some activists fronts, not as much as a murmur was heard in the mainline media concerning his skin color.

Black-on-Black crime continued to be a favorite subject of network TV, however, and occasionally, we were lauded with another first Black this or that. But for the most part, Africans in America, in Chicago, and the rest of the nation, remained oblivious to this shining example of ancient African classical achievement. At best, media pundits would deflect criticism by saying that skin color was not important in the instance of Egypt. They even went as far as maintaining that the Egyptians were not a race-conscious people.

Well, America certainly is, and Tutankhamun is back in the United States. The exhibit is currently on its first stop, in Los Angeles where it began on June 16, and will remain until mid-November, before heading to Ft. Lauderdale for a December 15 - April 23, 2006 presentation; then on to Chicago from May 26, through January 1, 2007, before concluding the exhibition in Philadelphia from February through September 2007.

But this time things are different. The average person can now simply enter Tutankhamun on his or her World Wide Web search engine and loads of true-to-life portrayals of the pharaoh will emerge. One of my favorites is the exquisite throne back-rest depiction of the king along with his wife Ankhesenamun. In addition, Internet surfers can pull up tomb-wall paintings and study them to their hearts content.

Meanwhile, the purveyors of negative Black imagery are attempting to conduct business as usual. Despite a scientifically conceived and recognized lifelike reconstruction of Tut agreed upon by Britain and New Zealand in 2002, that he is of Negroid lineage; a second group has emerged with a new Caucasian-looking bust, which sits outside the current Los Angeles exhibit where passersby will passively assume Tut was Caucasian.

The clarion call must be made that it’s now or never, brothers and sisters. Blacks around the world must declare who we are, who we’ve been in the past, and how we will be dealt with in the future.

Already the voices of Black activists in California are beginning to be heard. LeGrand Clegg, a historian and City Attorney in Compton, along with the Compton NAACP have been protesting daily, to ensure that the exhibitors don’t hoodwink the huddled masses further. Smartly, LeGrand and the NAACP demonstrators have affixed pictorial representations on their placards depicting Tuya, and other clearly explicit Black-Egyptians of the 17th and 18th Dynasties.

Why is this so important? Let me explain clearly. When the children of tomorrow are born, they ought to arrive in a world that has expunged the burlesque caricatures and parodies that permeated our existence prior to the 1960s; where Rome and Greece were the standard and Black classical cultures had been severed from Africa, leaving her as if she had only spawned traditional societies.

How would Europeans appear if we created propaganda that depicted them as, in total, having bad teeth and playing banjos? Cutting them off from Greece and Rome, we might cast them as mere paleolithic Gauls and barbarians.

Conveniently, given a couple of thousand years, Romans would be portrayed to appear Black, and we would begin to see the Greeks and Italians as mere former slaves at the behest of our great glory. And Europe, it would be cast as the people of the dark forests; severed from the light of our apparent intellectual prowess.

This is not a time to remain silent, brothers and sisters. Let your voices be heard on this issue.

Les Lester is a journalist living in the Twin Cities -- Minneapolis-St. Paul, Minnesota. He has worked in magazine, newspaper and broadcast media. He can be reached at leslester@usfamily.net.

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Culture's Cultivating Process Can Liberate Us

In traditional societies, through thousands of years of trial and error, our ancestors developed cultures that sustained them and their way of life. Today, we have the vantage point of history and can readily see how specific cultures have impacted the people groups of the world.

A culture reflects a people's way of doing things and how they interact with one another and the larger society around them. Cultures essentially cultivate groups much like farmers cultivate land and crops. Cultures exist wherever there is a meeting of people from the smallest to largest of groups. The family, the office, the school and the athletic team all manifest their unique culture.

Interestingly, what each of us bring to a group influences the strengths or weaknesses of the culture at hand. I agree with the mantra that as Black Americans, wherever we are we carry the flag of our people group. Each of us owes it to the other to be the best that we can be.

Black America today is unfortunately saddled with the residuals of a condition born of the oppressive forces of enslavement in this country. And for the first half of the twentieth century—as someone has so aptly described it—"we were in a literal concentration camp," here in America. Meanwhile, since the 1960s, the counterbalancing forces of drugs and dysfunctional families have worked to render our liberation thrust to a near standstill.

Fortunately, conditions can be altered for the better. And a clearer understanding of the role culture can inculcate in the collective purpose of our people is paramount. Inherently, culture in itself can foster an unseen structure that is self perpetuating, negatively or positively.

Recently, while driving down Interstate 94 in Minneapolis, I noted a young White woman in her late teens, perhaps early twenties, standing on an overpass grandly waving in swell swoops a huge American flag to oncoming traffic in a rallying call of the American spirit.

And who shall ever forget the unselfish gallantry of Japanese Kamikazes who plowed their fighter planes into Allied ships, in honor of their throne, during the second world war. The perpetuation of their whole as a people was more important to them than life itself.

Indeed, we as Africans in America have much to be proud of. The Black Panthers, World Class Athletes, and the likes of Martin King and Malcolm X remind us of the ready icons we have at hand to perpetuate our ideals.

Booker T. Washington and others, soon after the slave era, built universities, churches and other institutions that have assisted us, even to this day, in galvanizing our resources and aims for best effect. They have essentially given us a track to run on.

Now, we must rise to the occasion of counterbalancing the oftentimes negative impact of the mass-consumer marketing forces on our culture, which I believe have contributed greatly in thwarting our best-laid efforts of awakening the masses of our population in this country. Prior to the 1960s, what has become known as the mass consumer market was to a great extent nonexistent. Much of our consumption of goods and services was very much reminiscent of the forerunner agrarian society that the world had recently emerged from. Milk, food and other basic consumer goods, for example, were still largely produced and distributed by local farmers or relatively small distribution networks.

Today, huge multinational conglomerates, along with mass media, in their thrust to reach each consumer demographic have used all kinds of advertising and promotional gimmicks to influence purchasing decisions, creating a manufactured reality that is bereft of the soul and cultural support system that marked earlier periods.

The music industry, for one, before the 60s, lacked the intense distribution networks that have emerged. Back then, the bottom line of corporations was kept in check by a more strident moral culture, so the consumer was somewhat protected, relatively speaking.

The fallout has resulted in millions of unwary consumers and youth exhibiting commercially induced value systems bereft of the standards championed just a generation ago. We need a new generation of Americans across ethnic and so-called racial lines to arise, utilizing the precepts gained from our post-modern understanding of culture.

Les Lester is a graduate of the University of Minnesota's Interdisciplinary Program on Global Change, Sustainability and Justice. He received his undergraduate degree from Chicago State University in Mass Communication.

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