[Professor]
History as we know it is always written in the bird’s eye view. It is always in the perspective of the victors. Those who subjugated lands and people that include Christopher Columbus wrote heroic actions of expedition to save the wretch from damnation or to civilize the savages. Spain, Portugal and other conquistadores in the 13th to 18th century used Christianity in their search for gold, slaves and glory. Howard Zinn’s book entitled, “History is a Weapon” mentioned that the conquests of Spain and other powerful countries during the colonial era was written in history in a way that evil acts perpetrated by the conquistadores were sanitized. It was presented in a manner that is justified by a great plan to advance the interest of the privileged white race thus, over shadowing the brutal massacre and even genocide of millions of the natives in the Americas and the death and slavery of more or less fifty million Blacks from Africa.
History was never written in the perspectives of the subjugated peoples or the oppressed. Zinn went deeper from Columbus’ documentation of history since their ship set foot into the Bahamas in the land populated by the Arawaks. Zinn cited a quote from the history written by Columbus that states, they were welcomed by the Arawaks who swam near their ship to give them food, cotton and many others. History always reiterates the hospitality among the natives. Zinn further cited that he thought of the Arawaks as fine slaves and that they forced them to give information as to where the gold is located because he saw them wearing gold ornaments. Meanwhile, the credibility of Columbus writings is questionable as other historians revealed that Columbus lied to the King of Spain who funded his expedition. He and his crew were supposed to travel by sea to the Far East in search for spice and gold. They lose calculation and instead of landing in Asia, they landed in Latin America. In order for the king of Spain to continue funding another expedition, he distorted the data and said that they landed in Asia and indeed, spice and gold are abundant. He promised the king to bring home gold and slaves. In this context, there is a possibility that Columbus also lied regarding the overwhelming hospitality of the Arawaks when they arrived in the Bahamas. It can be that the Arawaks fought as a natural reaction to foreign elements entering their territory. There is a possibility that they used atrocities from the very beginning to subjugate the Arawaks and took them as slaves.
In a worm’s eye view or from the oppressed point of view, history can be re-written more accurately and not self-serving. It can reveal the life and death resistance and struggles of the subjugated. It can tell the world of how the sin against humanity was perpetrated by the conquistadores but are ignored in history. With the history written in a worm’s eye view, it can reshape the mind-set of today’s generation by understanding that the colonization was planned for the benefit of the few ruling class in the West. The youth will surely understand that colonization was nothing about the proliferation of the word of God or the liberation of the savages from the dark world but purely a self-serving interest of the ruling class to amass more profit.
In Zinn’s attempt to write history in the oppressed point of view, he mentioned of the white superiority through enslaving, killing and driving away the Indian tribes in the Americas. He also mentioned of the desolate situation of Negroes forced into slave trades. He illustrated through some literatures the horrid state of slaves en route to market why more than half of them die of suffocation, and suicide. Zinn did not forget to cite evidence of the never ending resistance among the Indian tribes and the Black slaves. The battles took place between the Europeans and the natives. Slave Negroes who did not withstand the cruelty of their white masters run away and started to engaged into punitive actions against their oppressive masters.
Racism is not Natural
The racism against color according to Zinn did not exist naturally. He rooted out the racial discrimination in the mind-set built by the Church among the white race. He said that the black color even prior to the colonial era was defined as dirty and sinful. The ruling class however used this as a weapon to create abhorrence against the Negroes and justify their being slaves who are not entitled of any sort of rights. Zinn added that because there was a dire need for farm workers and they cannot force the Indian tribes to work for them, black slaves were the solution. History according to Zinn made the Negroes discriminated. They were pulled out from their native land forcefully and sold to rich whites who own feudal related business that include tobacco and cotton plantations. They used the helplessness of the Negroes to push them into depths of slavery. They separated families to avoid collective resistance. Regardless, the Negroes fought back. Thousands of them run away to in search for their families. They reinforced and as mentioned above, they engaged into punitive activities against the whites. These actions were however written in history as crimes against the whites and crimes against God.
There was never an issue about color between the black slaves and the white servants. They considered themselves as equal. However, it were the ruling class who drew the line through policies that prohibits whites to mingle with black or any people of color for that matter as this is punishable. The extent of punishment for both colored and white persons who violated the policy is also different as the blacks are always punished with discrimination. Indeed, colors became a striking factor of discrimination because of the actions of the ruling class. It was never a natural process.
War History was written by the Victors
As stated above, history is always written by the conquerors. As mentioned by United States Senator Hiram Johnson in 1917 during the 1st World War, truth is always the first casualty of war. The statement is true especially during the Cold War where both the United States of America and the Soviet Union utilized all forms of media to demonize each other to be able to influence public opinion. America who has the power over the dominant media at that time had advanced in its aim to isolate the United Socialist. Even the data about the war in Vietnam were distorted by the contingent of American media. The lingering effect of the US propaganda against the Socialist Union is the marginalization of a communist of socialist alternatives of governance in countries in transition. There is already a notion that communist kind of government is punitive and those who do not have the ability to work will not eat.
Mark Twain in his book entitled “The Mysterious Stanger” in 1916 that the state will always invent lies regarding the country of nations being attack. It aims demonise the party being attack and justify the presence of a war. This is reflected even today with the unending wars in Afghanistan, Iran, Iraq, and even in Yemen. America has self-proclaimed that it has a role of policing the world that is why it always intervenes with domestic concerns. The dominant media controlled or influence by America will always report in favor of U.S.
Elsewhere in the world, the dominant media most of the time portrays the resistance and peoples’ struggles as “left” or too radical. Because there is already a bad notion for the “left” because of its history of demonization, the protesters legitimate claims are most of the time marginalized. In the Philippines for example, the government is not recognizing the presence of a long-running armed struggle being waged in the countryside by the Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP). With the more than forty years of presence of the CPP with their armed wing called the New Peoples’ Army, the government is not recognizing that there is a civil war. With the use of dominant media, the state tries its best to tag them as terrorist without taking into consideration the legitimacy of what the CPP is struggling for. There are alternative media outfits in the said country but are even tagged as supporters of the CPP once they publish factual data on the civil war. In this country, the quotable quote from the former U.S. Senator Johnson that truth is the first casualty in war.
On the other hand, Robert Ronson in his book entitled “The Distorters of History: Unexpected Changes in the Media and the Motion Picture Industry” mentioned of how mainstream media outfits during elections sway public opinion by building the image of candidates that they want. He mentioned that even the screenings of motion pictures are politically motivated. The flaring of McCarthyism according to Ronson fired many from their jobs. All those who are alleged as sympathizers are subjected to investigations. All films depicting the “reds” were banned from screening. Films during the Korean and Vietnam War depicted nothing about it. Moreover, during Nixon’s presidency, there was already a growing movement against the U.S. meddling and deploying of American soldiers. Nixon resigned as he was linked to abuse of power and obstruction of justice. However, if you scan the mainstream movies screened during this time, there was no depiction of reality. The United States mainstream or dominant media played a significant role in shaping the minds of the American youth and sadly, the distortion of history.
Ishmael Reed’s Mumbo Jumbo is a novel written in an artistic way to defy the monotheistic system which the white have absolute power in culture and politics. It features Papa LaBas and Black Herman who are trying to instil polytheism and freedom to against what they call the Wallflower Order. They call the new order that they are spreading the “Jes Grew.”
The history according to the novel is a mixture of portions of reality and fiction created by the whites. One of the themes of the novel is reclaiming the history of the African-Americans. There is a part of the novel which has the presence of an organization called Mu’tafika that has an objective of stealing historical artifacts and from the museums in the West and returns them in their origins. The novel tries to deconstruct all the structures and power relations created by the Western civilization that gave a misinterpretation of African-American cultures in aid of making white culture superior. Jes Grew in the novel is the missing Black text that is long lost. The Jes Grew found its people who dances and sand with it in liberation. However, in the end, the Jes Grew turned out to be suppressed by the dominant culture. Jes Grew is actually the representation of Black identity.
Taking a contemporary issue at hand, the mass media as Ronson put it is still playing its role in distorting historical facts. History is still written by the dominant class of our society. The stories of the oppressed are still marginalized. They are documented and published but it cannot land in the mainstream media. Their arena of publication is still in the alternative media that are never heard by majority of the people. One example is the misinformation about the cultures and traditions of indigenous peoples around the world. The American Indians who were marginalized in history are still marginalized today in terms of how their ways of lives are presented in the media. In Asia, indigenous peoples were portrayed even in educational textbooks that are patterned with the Western education as barbaric, uneducated and are pagans. As if adding insult to injury, the mainstream media today are depicting their dances and songs in aid of tourism profits. It is another count of marginalization not to mention the history of social neglect against the indigenous peoples of the world.
In reshaping history, there is a need to bombard the social media with factual data. The alternative media needs to establish power over the dominant media by using available resources like the internet. It could be unimaginable to overpower the mainstream media which are usually run or controlled by the dominant class but a concrete step forward is to document the real history and start disseminating them through available media. Moreover, there should be a call for all the oppressed classes to document their own history. History tells that when the documentation relies solely on the one sided documentation, the voices of the voiceless will never be heard of.
In one of the gatherings of indigenous media practitioners in Asia, there is an acknowledged fact that mainstream media never cover their real issues. A testimony from the indigenous peoples in Nepal shows the hatred that the indigenous population feel towards the dominant media as their cultures are bastardized and commercialized even. The issues for example of the indigenous peoples in the Himalayas who are threatened to become climate refugees due to the fast changing climate are undermined. In the Philippines, there was no mention of the role of indigenous peoples in the struggle for liberation against the colonizers that includes Spain and America. Today, their rights over their ancestral domain are being toyed by the state by enforcing conflicting laws. These issues are not picked up by the mainstream media.
In reshaping the history, the lost honour and pride of the oppressed can be revived and taught to the generations. Zinn and Reed’s books are only the beginnings to tell the world that history is written to reinforce the monotheistic culture of the West. When the voices of the oppressed are heard, it will certainly alter the mind-set of the generations to come and foster a society that is polytheistic and free.
Works Cited
Reed, Ishmael. “Mumbo Jumbo.” Google books. Web. 18 Dec. 2014.
Zinn, Howard. “A People’s History of the United States.” History is a Weapon. Web. 18 Dec. 2014.
Ronson, Robert T. “The Distorters of History: Unexpected Changes in the Media and the Motion Picture Industry.” Google books. Web. 18 Dec. 2014.
Shah, Anup. “War, Propaganda and the Media.” Global Issues. Web. 18 Dec. 2014.
Asia Indigenous Peoples Pact. “Indigenous Voices in Asia.” Iva.aippnet.org. Web. 18 Dec. 2014.
