Uncle Ruckus would co-sign all of this.
Aaron McGruder’s portly, cock-eyed character on “The Boondocks” was so filled with hatred for self and his race that he denounced his heritage. In his mind, he was not a Black American, but a Caucasian suffering from “re-vitaligo” -- a fabricated condition that turned white skin perpetually darker over time. “It’s the opposite of what Michael Jackson got,” he’d say on queue episode after episode. He threw bricks at Martin Luther King, Jr during the Civil Rights Movement and thanked the white man for everything, even “the world’s foliage.” For Uncle Ruckus, his personal narrative was such a detriment to his actual reality that he literally rewrote his own history.
We’ve seen a handful of erroneous historical revisions in the national news with the 2012 elections lurking around the corner. Presidential candidate, Rep. Michelle Bachman (R-MN) raised eyebrows in January by stating that the “Founding Fathers worked tirelessly until slavery was no more,” completely disregarding that most of the Founding Fathers including George Washington and Thomas Jefferson owned slaves themselves. Last week, Sarah Palin took liberties with The American Revolution when she stated, then brazenly reiterated that Paul Revere’s ride was intended to “warn the British that they weren’t gonna be taking away our arms,” rather than to warn the colonists that...oh...I don’t know...that “the British Are Coming!”
As America kicks off it’s four-year commemoration of the 150th anniversary of The Civil War -- the war that divided the United States and subsequently ended slavery in this country -- Confederate sympathizers have begun their own convenient revisionist history. The Associated Press reported today that efforts persist to paint slaves as soldiers for the South, in essence fighting against they’re own freedom. In 2010, Virginia textbooks were removed from schools amid protests that they inaccurately claimed that thousands of blacks fought for the Confederacy. Black toy soldiers dressed in Confederate Gray were yanked from the shelves of the Museum of the Confederacy in Richmond after similar complaints arouse.
Now, clearly the whole slavery narrative is a bit of an inconvenience for Stars & Bars sympathizers. The Sons of Confederate Veterans maintain the position that states rights was the primary reason for succession, not slavery. The four-year commemoration of The Civil War’s 150th anniversary is big business for states like Virginia -- home to Richmond, the Confederate capitol -- and historical parks nationwide. With money at stake, the war's actual narrative has become a detriment to sympathizers, so they are shamefully rewriting it's history.
While the country still wallows in a recession and federal money is nearly non-existent, what’s a little revisionist history if it quells peoples uneasiness about spending money, even if it’s in support of supporters of slavery? What’s a little revisionist history if it means Michelle Bachman’s Tea Party appears less racist in an election year? What’s a little “re-vitaligo” if it makes it easier to be black in America?
At least Uncle Ruckus was a cartoon. The rest have no excuse.
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