THE FIRST STEP IN DISMANTLING THE STEREOTYPE IS TO TAKE CONTROL OF OUR HISTORY

George Floyd was murdered by those white policemen because all Black men are stereotyped as criminals. This stereotype is fundamental to white supremacy and is based on alternative facts. The surest way to dismantle this pernicious, murderous stereotype is through the presentation of the indisputable historical data. This is why the white supremacist system clings desperately to its alternative facts and is unrelenting in its opposition to the historical data, labeling such data as fantasy history.

Ta-Nehisi Coates’ Between the World and Me became #1 New York Times Bestseller right after its publication in 2015; and was declared by Toni Morrison to be “required reading.” Coates confesses: “I began to feel that something more than a national trophy case was needed if I was to be truly free, and for that I have the history department of Howard University to thank” (53). Yes, it was as a student at the nation’s premier HBCU (historically Black college / university) that he was disabused of all that “fantasy history” about The African Origin of Civilization.