History of Black People - Essay Example

15 September History of Black People President Obama is least likely to make a visit to the archaeological site of African Diaspora, though he may be expected to make such visits to the archaeological sites in such foreign countries as Afghanistan and China because the archaeological remains in these countries have played an important role in shaping their contemporary national identities. In order to seek Obama’s attention, politics needs to be taken seriously. A lot can be learnt from the political success of Obama like organization and development of coalitions to make the impact broader and deeper.

“The problem for Obama is that the message about African Americans at these sites derives in no small part from our discipline’s desire to avoid politics” (Matthews). Whenever an archaeologist thinks that he is reviewing the past, the resolution isolates the African Diaspora’s archaeology from the racial politics which have developed and cultivated distinctions among the various communities of African Diaspora. In the absence of adequate knowledge of the particular politics, archaeologists purposelessly develop a past of African Diaspora, hence creating room for sites that welcome a whole range of troubling interpretations starting from the white supremacists’ perception of African Americans as a lower class and covering the notions cultivated by the black nationalists of the irremovable differences between the black and white people.

According to Manning Marable, history of the African Americans and their scholarship is not just an important way of perceiving the world but also for altering it for the better. Malcolm X, that is one of the books of Manning Marable can be read to achieve both of these targets. “From the beginning of my academic life I viewed being a historian of the black experience as becoming the bearer of truths or stories that had been suppressed or relegated to the margins” (Hond 13). Analysis of the features of the elite among the African Americans does not provide an insight to the issues of the underclass either within themselves or with the white Americans because if its does, the Black elite would have to face the racial realities which lie at the base of the contemporary economic and social order of America.

Thus, the authentic history of black people provides an unconventional approach to the history of America because it fundamentally encapsulates an a priori superstructure that enhances the interests of some classes of the society and overlooks those of others. Archaeology in the contemporary age is to much an extent a consequence of the unlimited debates that tend to discuss the conflicting aspects of this subject. The debate is generally between billionaires in the West that have purchased the artifacts and such other items that reflected the ancient culture of old civilizations and the existing descendents of those civilizations the that have consequentially lost their history, thus acquiring the title of “people without history.

” These people have put a lot of effort in reclaiming their past and in an attempt to do so, have challenged the conventional Western beliefs and perceptions regarding numerous basic issues that include the complex societies’ economic basis and the way the evolution of old civilizations is portrayed in the media and literature. Having realized this, (Mcintosh, Mcintosh and Togola) have outlined two alternatives for use in the future. The first option is reliance upon a scantily provincial archaeology which lays the basis for the existing nationalistic polemic whereas the second option discusses archaeology which shows the complexity of humans’ experiences by transcending polemics.

The film Slave Island talks about the various forms of torture black slaves have went through in their past. Important events covered in the story include the foundation of a graveyard in Manhattan of Africans who were the first black people in New York (NY) that were freed. As many as 480 bodies were found in the burial ground. This number was the maximum among all previous identification of dead bodies in the colonial times. Blacks found it difficult to preserve their original culture in NY as compared to areas in the South.

Slaves can not be christened by Baptism. In order to know this story, and make a conventional approach to the history of America, it is imperative that the work is politically organized rather than placing emphasis upon the authentic history of black people. After a comprehensive research, (Mcintosh, Mcintosh and Togola) have also preferred the second alternative of discussing the archaeology that depicts the complexity of humans’ experiences by transcending polemics over the first in the contemporary circumstances.

Works Cited: Hond, Paul. “A Message for the World.” 2011. Web. 15 Sep. 2011. Matthews, Christopher N. “Archaeology, Obama, and the Long Civil Rights Movement.” December 2008 Newsletter. Web. 15 Sep. 2011. Mcintosh, Roderick J., Mcintosh, Susan K., and Togola, Tereba. “People without History.” pp. 125-134. Sanders, Scott. (dir). Slave Island. Film. 2005.