The Middletown Press (Middletown, CT)
History? It’s the blurring of the times
Sometimes, I like to write a column that presents readers with a far-fetched theory that may be unconventional, but plausible, and makes readers think.
What good am I as a Sunday columnist if, after reading my work, it isn’t one of those things that make you go “hmm.”
I don’t know what to believe when it comes to the history of America.
But I do know if we are not vigilant, the history of slavery in this country will become a whispered myth in another 200 years — or maybe, even less.
If you look out the corner of your eye at what is happening now, you will see that COVID-19 has given us a rare glimpse at how history is blurred and what is fake becomes the accepted version.
By now, we all know that we have been hoodwinked by many of what allegedly are historical facts.
George Washington chopping down the cherry tree; Christopher Columbus discovering America; and Paul Revere’s famous declaration that “the British are coming” as he made his midnight run are just a few of the events that history taught us were true.
We now know that many of those facts are blatant lies or broad exaggerations.
But how does this come about? How is it possible that these lies land in our history books as fact when there had to be thousands of people who knew they were not true?
And how does COVID-19 expose how those facts could have become a reality?
I am not sure how it was done back in the day before modern technology, but it is easy to explain how it is being done in the 21st century.
Like most people, I relied heavily on the television set to ease the boredom as the pandemic forced us to stay indoors and find ways to eat up the minutes.
Television eats up a lot of time. And the more I watched, I began to see how history was being changed right before my eyes — and it is so subtle, I was not aware at first that it was happening.
Maybe that’s because when watching television and movies, you must have a “willing suspension of disbelief” — and that means you let go of reality and accept what is presented before you.
It was a story I read on Newsweek’s website about Disney that got me to thinking about how historical facts are twisted or simply made to disappear.
That bastion of G-rated family entertainment has censored and edited out portions of movies on its streaming website that it considers are better suited for its paying subscribers.
It may seem like a trifle to edit out nude or risque scenes and clean up foul language — and people may think, “what is wrong with that? These are not historical happenings.”
But when you consider that 100 years from now, what originally was presented is gone — and in its place is what Disney wanted you to see — then you begin to understand how dangerous that editing process is.
And that leads me back to what this column is all about.
Because it appears that
movie-makers have decided to soften the history of slavery by sneaking Black people into prominent roles that defy what we have come to believe from history books.
If you have been watching TV, you have seen it, too.
Black people at King Arthur’s court in the age of Camelot? Really? Black people at the palace hobnobbing
with Russian aristocracy during the era of Catherine the Great?
Black people dressed in French-lace and silk finery and arguing with whites during social events at the Palace of Versailles in the 12th century? Prosperous Black people riding in horse-drawn carriages as poor white people walked beside them?
Really? These things happened? Maybe movie-makers are trying to be inclusive but this is not the history of Black people that Americans have been taught.
And none of it is true, unless all American history on slavery is a complete lie. I can’t imagine that we were slaves here and accepted into society throughout the other parts of the world.
Right now, these subtle changes in movies and TV shows are not a problem because Americans watching have a “willing suspension of disbelief” and know these things are not part of recorded history.
But those are the Americans of today, not the Americans of 200 years from now.
As movie-makers continue to cast Black people into inaccurate historical roles, it changes the perception of the past movie-by-movie and blurs historical fact.
And as the years go on, and the stories of older generations fade and disappear, what is left to the new generations is what is visually presented to them.
And what is being visually presented in too many movies these days is a false tale and false image of Black people during certain times in history. And I can’t help but think, it is by design.
Far-fetched? Maybe. But, oh, so plausible.
History? It’s the blurring of the times.