Where Has Black History Gone?
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Black history can be defined from different individuals stand points. Its a portion of history that many say maybe extinguished from time. Over time African American history seems to have been shown in a more negative than positive light. A lot of the history that has shown the culture of African American is a positive has been overshadowed or some say forgotten. The history of African Americans gets portrayed in different views throughout the media. In a documentary called Black History: Lost Stolen, or Strayed, narrated by Bill Cosby in 1968 shows where the history has gone. The documentary is shown from the perspective in the late 1960s. In the video it shows how the negative roles and stereotypes are now part of history as a whole. The film can be described as a one lane of perception.
From what I have viewed in the documentary it seems that Black History has been lost among a great deal of our generations. In the documentary, Bill Cosby discusses the forgotten individuals of black history and the lifestyle and stereotypes.
It seems that the unremitting spotlight that everyone places on the negativity of the African Americans eclipse the positivity that they show throughout history. In video, Bill Cosby describes many African Americans who have had a great contribution to our history, but it seems that they have fallen through the cracks. He talks about how a man named Jan Ernst Matzeliger developed the mass production of shoes. Another individual would have to be Jean Baptiste Point du Sable, who is said to have founded the city of Chicago. Nat Love who was another overshadowed individual was an African American cowboy. He was known as Deadwood Dick a born slave and one of the most famous cowboys. In my opinion, one of the most prominent figures from this group would have to be Daniel Hale Williams, who is the first African American cardiologist.
It seems that as we have discussed in class that we as people are born into the middle of a sitcom or television show. We always want to know what have we missed when coming late into the middle of show. We as human beings must go back and see where we have come from. What have we missed? There are great deals of consequences on children not knowing their history. Without studying the different ways that our ancestors lived we will never learn how to update our culture to overcome mistakes that have been found. With history we learn how to value the ideas of the way our culture lived as well as the lifestyle. In terms of over a couple of centuries ago, we as African Americans must understand the history and environment of how our ancestors lived. We must learn to not make the mistakes that were made in the past. The past helps to provide a perfect lane for the childrens future.
When it comes to the African American culture one of the negative notions that has come with the culture is stereotypes. In the documentary, there were a number of stereotypes