Please don't be offended by this, I'd like to share, however.

[CatWoman]

Just got this in my email:

White Folks Are Not Crazy


White folk wanted to make the USA a great country.
What did they do?
They went to Africa and enslaved Blacks to turn the country
into an agricultural powerhouse.

White folk wanted to make Washington D.C. a great city.
What did they do?
They used a Black to design the city & Black labor to build it.

White folk wanted to explore the western USA.
What did they do?
Lewis and Clark took a Black slave with them to negotiate with
the Indians

White folk wanted to end the Civil War.
What did they do?
They freed the slaves who helped win the war.

White folk wanted to take San Juan Hill.
What did they do?
Teddy rushed up the hill, got in trouble, and was rescued by
Blacks who took the hill.

White folk wanted to take the middle and western USA from
the Indians.
What did they do?
They sent the Buffalo soldiers to protect the settlers and to
fight the Indians.

White folk wanted to raise cattle in the mid west.
What did they do?
They hired cowboys to do it (Yes, most cowboys were Black.)

White folk wanted to explore the North Pole.
What did they do?
Adm. Perry took a Black guide along to get him there. The
guide reached the pole before Perry.

White folk wanted to make the USA armed forces better
What did they do?
Truman integrated the military.

White folk wanted to improve college and pro sports & make
more money doing so.
What did they do?
They integrated sports and built larger stadiums and arenas
and tougher golf courses.

White folk want a new president to straighten out the Bush mess.

WHAT WILL THEY DO, BASED ON HISTORY????

WHITE FOLKS AIN'T STUPID!

[JKaiser]

1. okay... I thought this election wasn't about race...

[MADem]

6. That horse left the barn a while ago. This is just the latest salvo.

It doesn't help Obama, IMO. Anytime you "lump" anyone--even those "evil" white folk who ain't stupid--it's a swipe that serves to divide.

The diatribe doesn't offend me though. I just find it unfortunate.

[emilyg]

31. You thought wrong.

[Rabrrrrrr]

2. Nice! I like it!

:thumbsup:

[olkaz]

3. It's not offensive, but it's kinda silly.

There are much better lists of black pioneers than this.

[CatWoman]

5. what's so silly about it?

[olkaz]

8. it's amateurish and weird

Fighting the "indians"?

It's just a little off-putting, in all.

[CatWoman]

9. what's amateurish and weird about fighting the indians?

is that a lie?

did that 'not' happen?

it was loathesome and evil, but amateurish and weird?

those adjectives describe your comments more than anything else.

[olkaz]

32. wtf are you talking about?

I said the piece was "amateurish" because it isn't written well. It's not. I don't have to get an English professor on here to tell you that.

I said it was "weird" because it glorifies some seemingly insignificant or negative actions, and doesn't mention names.

Here's an example of a well-written list giving specific names and accomplishments of the African-American community.

http://www.teachingk-8.com/archives/integrating_science_in_your_classroom/african_american_innovators_by_john_cowens.html

I have no idea why you are insulting me.

[CatWoman]

41. touchy, touchy

:)

you folks can sure dish it out, but you certainly can't take it.

[olkaz]

44. "you folks"?

Dish what out? Take what?

I have no idea what you're talking about.

"touchy, touchy"? I responded to your post with a full explanation and even an example. What did I do that was "touchy"?

[CatWoman]

49. "you folks" as in the person who posted Post #8

:shrug:

[Scriptor Ignotus]

60. yea I agree with you

some valid points in the email, but some kind of less important stuff in there too. they could have made a stronger case with different examples. not a very well written piece, kind of like 95% of all my posts on DU....

[Occam Bandage]

16. That it's factually incorrect in multiple places? That, rather than focusing

on the actual achievements of blacks, it chooses to look at minor supporting figures and claim undue importance?

[ayeshahaqqiqa]

4. I learned something

I didn't realize a Black regiment saved Teddy's skin in Cuba. Was it the 10th Cavalry (the Buffalo Soldiers), or another regiment?

[ieoeja]

57. Mixed

"'There was,' (Teddy Roosevelt) said, 'very great confusion at this time, the different regiments being completely intermingled—white regulars, colored regulars, and Rough Riders.'

""Roosevelt's observation accurately characterized the mix of troops in the battle for the heights. Overall, the great majority of these soldiers were regulars; the rest were volunteers. 'Their battles,' Timothy Egan wrote in an article entitled The American Century's Opening Shot, in the New York Times of Saturday, 6 June 1998, 'were sharp, vicious crawls through jungle terrain in killing heat.' Regulars and volunteers, blacks and whites, fought side by side, endured the blistering heat and driving rain, and shared food and drink as well as peril and discomfort. They forged a victory that did not belong primarily to TR, nor did it belong mainly to the Buffalo Soldiers. It belonged to all of them."

http://www.history.army.mil/documents/spanam/bssjh/shbrt-bssjh.htm


There were four African-American regiments all told at the two major battles. Three of them at Kettle Hill/San Juan Hill.

[galactical]

7. Sounds like something fox news would use to polarize their base.

"I'll be damned if i vote a black man in"

[Melinda]

10. Umm, no it doesn't

It sounds as if it were written by someone who comes from a culture that has known this experience. The ignorance or perhaps willful ethnocentrism of so many is just sad.

[bellasgrams]

11. It's that sort of talk that has cost and will cost BO votes. Of

course his own racist talk has already cost many votes. I don't know how to link to RawStory but there was an article by Angela Pratt I think her name was and described exactly what I've said numerous times about BO's racist remarks against the Clintons. SO I know I'm not the only one that feels that way.

[BigDaddy44]

12. Nice racist post

Them white folk sho' is helpless.

[CatWoman]

39. thank you

:)

[surfermaw]

13. Don't you KNOW, your own PEOPLE sold you into BONDAGE

[H2O Man]

17. Catwoman

ain't into bondage.

[Occam Bandage]

20. I would disagree.

[mmonk]

30. .

:rofl:

[CatWoman]

36. ROFL!!!!

:hi:

keep em straight, Homey :)

[ecstatic]

27. nice...

[CatWoman]

35. LOL

People have been enslaving one another since the beginning of time.

Am I supposed to cry now?

[Occam Bandage]

14. Rife with historical errors.

[DemocratSinceBirth]

18. I See A Lot Of Hyperbole...Where's The Historical Errors?

~

[Shakespeare]

22. Pierre L'Enfant designed the layout of DC--he was not black.

Most of the rest is reasonably accurate, though.

http://www.nps.gov/history/nr/travel/wash/lenfant.htm

[DemocratSinceBirth]

23. I Missed That

~

[Laughing Mirror]

34. Benjamin Banneker, the surveyor, was black

Banneker Helps Build Washington, D.C.

When President Washington decided to move the capital to Washington, D.C., he appointed Pierre Charles L'Enfant to build it. L'Enfant's plans consisted of the creation of boundaries and the layout of the streets and buildings. Upon Jefferson's request, Banneker was appointed as a member of the team. Things fell apart shortly after the planning began when the temperamental L'Enfant resigned and took the original plans with him.

This, however, is when the rest of the story becomes unclear. It has been told that Banneker, having seen the plans once, recreated the plans from memory. According to Charles A. Cerami, Banneker’s biographer, even though L’Enfant refused to provide the original and Banneker did have a photographic memory, historical documents suggest that a substitute plan was used. This substitute plan was a compilation of separate renditions or drafts of the original plan. Nevertheless, although Banneker may not have created the plans from memory, as an assistant surveyor he certainly had a part in the building of Washington, D.C.

http://afroamhistory.about.com/od/benjaminbanneker/a/bio_banneker_b.htm

Anybody who's from DC knows about Banneker. This is from your link:

On January 24, 1791, President George Washington announced the Congressionally-designated permanent location of the national capital, a diamond-shaped ten-mile tract at the confluence of the Potomac and Eastern Branch Rivers. A survey of the area was undertaken by Andrew Ellicott and Benjamin Banneker. Forty boundary stones, laid at one-mile intervals, established the boundaries based on celestial calculations by Banneker, a self-taught astronomer of African descent and one of the few free blacks living in the vicinity. Within this 100 square mile diamond, which would become the District of Columbia, a smaller area was laid out as the city of Washington. (In 1846, one-third of the District was retroceded by Congressional action to Virginia, thus removing that portion of the original district which lay west of the Potomac River.) In March 1791,the surveyors' roles were complemented by the employment of Major Pierre Charles L'Enfant to prepare the plan.

[Shakespeare]

38. I used to live in DC, and I'm well aware of the history.

Nobody is trying to minimize the important role that Banneker played, but to suggest that he is single-handedly responsible for the design of the city is completely absurd (and that's what the email in the OP suggests). If you examine L'Enfant's other municipal designs, it's pretty clear that a significant portion of Banneker's work was re-constructing L'Enfant's original plan.

[Laughing Mirror]

43. The OP forgot to put in that necessary word "help" to design the city

"In two days (Banneker reproduced) a complete layout of the streets, parks and major buildings," according to a Massachusetts Institute of Technology Web site that highlights an inventor each week. "Thus Washington, D.C., itself can be considered a monument to the genius of this great man."

http://dcpages.com/History/Planning_DC.shtml

"Used to live in DC" is not the same as being born and growing up there, going to the schools, and having all your family from there, a family that goes back to the beginning of the city, and before, for that matter.

[Shakespeare]

45. Of course it's not the same; however, don't presume that I'm not EXTREMELY well-versed...

...on the history of the city. That would be an incorrect presumption on your part, and I'm unsure why that seems to ruffle your feathers.

Banneker had a photographic memory (which is a stunning gift completely aside from his talent as a surveyor), and thank goodness Jefferson appointed him to L'Enfant's team.

The OP (and I want to stress that this is the email, and not from CatWoman herself, whom I absolutely adore) DID mean to leave out the word "help."

I have a deep distaste for historical inaccuracy, and emails like this drive me nuts.

[Laughing Mirror]

48. Well you forgot to mention Banneker in your post about L'Enfant

So even sometimes well-intentioned posters do forget, and leave out the help.

[Shakespeare]

52. I didn't forget anything.

A poster asked about the inaccuracies, and I listed the one about L'Enfant. If you read my entire post, you'll see that I also said most of the rest of the email was reasonably accurate. I guess you forgot that part.

[Laughing Mirror]

53. the "reasonably accurate" email, like you, didn't mention Banneker

So I did.

[Shakespeare]

54. But you're still trying to suggest--unless I'm completely misreading you--that...

...Banneker originated the design. He did NOT (and L'Enfant's previous work is the easiest proof of that). He was very important as a surveyor, and he pretty much saved the project thanks to the photograhpic memory, but he didn't do it single-handedly. My very first post said simply that L'Enfant was responsible for the design. That is accurate. I didn't say that he didn't have a lot of help along the way; because I quickly (and accurately) responded to a post asking about what inaccuracies were in the OP, you've pounced on it and are trying to 1. give total credit to Banneker, and 2. somehow suggest that I'm being intellectually dishonest. Neither are true.

Just as Hillary didn't need to embellish the Bosnia story, it's completely unnecessary to misrepresent historical accomplishments, regardless of whether the person is white or black.

[Laughing Mirror]

55. I sugggest no such thing anywhere

You supplied the name Pierre L'Enfant, a French man, and I supplied the name Benjamin Banneker, a Black man, since the OP says that a black man designed the city, and I'm trying to show, by bringing up Banneker, who this inaccurate statement is based on. That's all.

[Shakespeare]

56. Then I apologize for misreading you. n/t

[Occam Bandage]

47. I see absolutely no evidence whatsoever

that the chain letter in the OP simply "forgot" the word 'help,' especially given its other inaccuracies and misinterpretations. The letter's flaws seem wholly intentional.

[Laughing Mirror]

50. Of course

You expect these kinds of email chain letters to be perfectly accurate?

[Laughing Mirror]

51. yes

But I think it is understood that this information comes in the form of an anonymous email chain letter, and may tend to sacrifice accuracy for effect.

But then, hardly more inaccurate than the lies constantly reported in the media.

[CatWoman]

37. I read that the "idea/concept" was stolen from a black man

:shrug:

[Shakespeare]

40. Nope. L'Enfant's design was very similar to other municipal plans he'd done.

Banneker's role was certainly important, but he didn't originate the design.

[Laughing Mirror]

46. L'Enfant drew the plans from Banneker's survey maps

We do know that.

[Occam Bandage]

24. Here.

White folk wanted to make the USA a great country.
What did they do?
They went to Africa and enslaved Blacks to turn the country
into an agricultural powerhouse.

Childishly oversimplified. Slavery was not the means to any end but profit for Dutch captains, American farmers, and French plantation owners. Blacks were not brought over to build up America; they were goods to be traded and farm equipment to be exploited.

White folk wanted to make Washington D.C. a great city.
What did they do?
They used a Black to design the city & Black labor to build it.

Pierre Charles L'Enfant was French. Andrew and Joseph Ellicott, who continued L'Enfant's plans after he was fired, were white as well. Benjamin Banneker, who was black, was an assistant to Andrew Ellicot. He was unquestionably a genius and valuable as a surveyor, but he did not design the city.

White folk wanted to explore the western USA.
What did they do?
Lewis and Clark took a Black slave with them to negotiate with
the Indians

Clark did bring his slave, York, with him. York did not negotiate anything with anyone. He was apparently a pretty good hunter, though, he was an accomplished outdoorsman, and the Indians were fascinated with him (as most had never seen a black man before). He was not a negotiator.

White folk wanted to end the Civil War.
What did they do?
They freed the slaves who helped win the war.

Er, sure. Black soldiers who fought were honorable above all (as their country scarcely recognized them as human). Not going to attack that at all. Am going to deny that those regiments had a direct link to the end of slavery.

White folk wanted to take San Juan Hill.
What did they do?
Teddy rushed up the hill, got in trouble, and was rescued by
Blacks who took the hill.

Teddy charged up Kettle Hill because his brigade was pinned down by fire. The advance was successful, and the hill was taken. The Spanish retreated up San Juan Hill, and began firing on Kettle. The other two American lines charged San Juan, as did Roosevelt's, and the battle was won. Of the 15,000 Americans at the battle, 2,000 were black. Blacks and whites fought shoulder-to-shoulder. I have no idea where this idea of black soldiers rescuing Roosevelt comes from.

White folk wanted to take the middle and western USA from
the Indians.
What did they do?
They sent the Buffalo soldiers to protect the settlers and to
fight the Indians.

Hyperbolic but not false.

White folk wanted to raise cattle in the mid west.
What did they do?
They hired cowboys to do it (Yes, most cowboys were Black.)

If by "most" you mean "possibly a third." And from here on out, hyperbolic but not false.

[RethugAssKicker]

15. Pretty Good !

[mmonk]

19. This white male from NC wasn't offended.

I thought it was interesting.

[IndianaJones]

21. I have to take issue with the last line. nt.

[CBGLuthier]

25. What the Fuck is Wrong with Some of you people

It is just a silly little thing that is kind of humorous but some of you act as if she shit in your cereal. How dare she say all that about white people you innocent babies say.

I knew as soon as I read it that some of you would come out of the woodwork to attack it.

I mean after all, it would be just fucking terrible if black people had any positive spin on their lives in this country wouldn't it.

[Occam Bandage]

26. Nah. It would be nice if chain letters could stick to the facts, though.

[BigDaddy44]

29. Black people have done plenty without having to make stuff up

And demean white people in the process. Aren't we past all of this "my people are better than your people" crap? Or the "see how stupid your people are and my people are better" nonsense? Does it require taking a shot at someone else to feel good about yourself? I would hope not.

[grantcart]

28. When Dr. Blalock wanted to make sure he had it right he asked Vivien Thomas how to do it

And then he would take all of the credit about it.

[Hell Hath No Fury]

33. Touche'!

Great movie made about the topic, too.

[grantcart]

59. What the wikipedia article explains was that the injustice was only really overturned

when all of the surgeons that Vivien had trained - many of them deans of surgery at different medical schools joined together to address it.

[Kurovski]

42. K&R#5

Seems light-hearted, and as far as I know...factual. :D

EDIT: I didn't know the thing about the cowboys. Mmmm...cowboys.

[ieoeja]

58. I appeciate the writing style.

As a White person reading this my first reaction was to scoff, "sure Blacks were involved in all of this, but they hardly did any of it alone the way the OP implies."

At which point I realized that must be the exact same reaction African-Americans have to, "Whites built this country".

May I presume you employed this writing style for that deliberate purpose?

The point is probably unnecessary for most DUers. I already experience a visceral reaction when I read/hear the, "Whites built this country," bullshit. But I may just try this in response to the next bullshit I get (though I seem to have weaned friends and family from sending me the bullshit; make a fool out of someone enough, and they stop copying you on their hate-filled screeds. Last thing they need is someone coming along and shining a light on their bigotry).

[Hamlette]

61. LOL love it!

[Life Long Dem]

62. But on edit I don't feel comfortable putting blame on cheap labor.