Newspapers / Black Ink (Black Student … / March 4, 1991, edition 1 / Page 12
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5£M Ujnm Why Do Black People Call Themselves Greek? By Chris Bracey Contributor Gather around! Come one, come all! Hear me criticize and demean a subject that I know ab solutely nothing about! Listen to me drop some science on the Greeks. Hear me call them out, asking them why they, as Afri- can-Americans, call themselves Greek! Yeah, that’s it! “Nigger Psi Phi!” “Phi Beta Nigger!” You guys must be lost, adopting the white man’s Eurocentric ideals! Let the “tcacher” educate you! Please do not insult my intel ligence with your misguided, uneducated and ill-conceived no tions and assumptions about Greek life and why African- Americans choose to call them selves Greek. Kris Parker, better known as KRS-1 ofBoogie Down Productions, has captivated audi ences on his lecture circuit with his unique fonn of “education." He has acquired a great deal of knowledge, some of it from his torical text, some from the streets. He has channeled this knowledge into the black community in hopes of uplifting black Annerica. This is indeed a noble cause, but it must be undertaken with the utHKMt care. Parker’s success and self- proclaimed title as “tcacher” seem to have distorted his view about his own intellectual limitations. Kris has made the same mistake many others have made when trying to promulgate their own ideology within a certain group of society. He has spoken out against something that he knows nothing about in a weak attempt to show case the extent of his “knowledge.” Yet, by speaking out in ignorance, he has simultaneously upset some individuals and made himself look like a fool on an ego trip. First, let me make it abun- dandy clear that I am not writing this over “sour grapes.” Yes, I am Greek, but I am more concerned about the lack of information on the topic than one man’s pmonal opinion. Noram I saying thatKRS- 1 is stupid and should shut the hell up. Rather, the “teacher” needs to sit down for once and let himself be educated in order to avoid fu ture embarrassment. However, he is not here to be educated, and the explanation would have been far too lengthy to e^wuse at the fo- r\im. Hence, the best I can do is straighten out the mess he has made in th hope that it will never happen again. Therefore, I will take this time to educate you all on why blacks call themselves Greeks. Greece, contrary to popular Eurocentric belief, was a society of tremendous ethnic diversity, a true cultural melting pot Yet un like the American version, the citizens of Greece were primarily daik-skinned. Mack and brown in skin tone. Yes, most Greeks looked much like you and me. great Hercules. The renowned Greek poet Euclid was also black. George James, in Stolen Legacy, presents evidence that Greek phi losophy was indeed the fruit of ancientEgyptian wisdom. Socrates was later persecuted by the Kur- gan-Aryan regime for spreading his teachings, which led many to believe that he was also a Pelasgian. But these things are kept hid den from us. Instead of supporting each othCT, we laugh, demean, criticize ot ask silly, uneducated, rhetorical questions of Kris Parker. Because of the Eurocentric, quasi- factual knowledge received from stubborn white teachers and “whitewashed” history texts, many of us stand in ignorance. Instead of being enlightened and educated, we stand in a cloak of darkness, shouting the words of a misedu- cated people. Black Greeks are not simply a “colored-in” version of the white Greeks, nor are they some cultural amalgamation making a vain attempt to fall in line with the Around 4000 B.C., the Ga- ramantes came to colonize what is now understood to be Greece. The Garamantes were originally from the western region of the Sahara. Moreover, much of the Greek population wwe decedents of the Pelasgian nation. The Pelasgian nation migrated to Greece from the Sahara region of Africa, Egypt and old Palestine. If you read any Greek history texts, you will find Greeks referring to themselves as Carians, Danaans, Achaeans, Cadmeans, Leleges and Garaman tes. What am I getting at, you ask? Well, all of these tribes were members of the Pelasgian nation. They were also all black. The Kurgan tribe became the undisputed rulers of the Greek wwld in 600 B.C. This period became later known as the Aryan- Greek period, or the periodof white rule. Now if whites did not come to power in Greece until 600 B.C., then who was running the Greek administration for the previous 3400 years? You guessed right B lack people ruled ancient Greece But we need not dig so deep to find evidence of the “real story Greek mythology is loaded with numerous allusions to blacks and black history. From the Amazons, the symbol of black matriarcha societies, to Homer, aCarian, who wrote the Iliad and the Odyssey with Achaean and Danaan (you can substitute black) heroes such as Ulysses, Achilles and even the American goal of assimilation. No, black Greeks are a manifest truth. Greeks were black—there is no contradiction of terms. If you are looking for a contradic tion, look to our Caucasian counterparts. The question ought to be, “Why do whites call them selves Greek?” I am, therefore, proud to call myself a black Gredc, and justi fiably so. I am not confused by the term, and neither should you be. Yes, Kris Parker had it right when he said education is essential. We must be knowledgeable if we are going to survive as a people. If he thinks himself to be a “teacher,” so be it He has many good things to say to African-American youth today. However, he must also realize that he does not know evCTything and that everything he does know may not always be correct For all we know, some times even the teacher can be wrong. Appreciate Education continued from p. 11 tm wrote in the Feb. 11 issue ofiU/acit/Ri, “Yeah, they will change things, all right back to an all-white UNC, if they could get away with it”This is aumversal oruth. The white person,particularly the white male, has enjoyed much st£^ in Amoica, in Europe, in South Africa and oth« African countries -- all over — and to believe that whites will relinquish power willingly is foolish. In South Africa, although PresidOTt F,Wde Kterk is nujung reforms, many whites, who are very h^>py with die status quo, do not wwt to forfeit any of their superiOT cwiditions^ nw even share, as most black South Africans wc^dbecontent with. Without any exantples from tne, you can think of countless similar examples here on this c^pus ind in this country. Few whites will address racial issues voluntarily aid not enough Afiican>Americans «ts in power to ensure these conccms will not be igmxed. Concerning race relations, I don’t believe anycme knows it all. Whites created a very complex prt^lem that has no simple analysis, and most whiW aren’t willing to malos sive the fHobl^ is solved. Last semester, ! heard the HonoiaUe Minister Louis Farrakhan iqieak. Within a month, I finally got tffound to (aid finished) The Autobiography of X. By the ml of last semester, my perqiective had beat Uoadened and my vkws had been changed more than in the previous four years. It is impwtant, I believe, tlutt eveiyooe con^antly search to the aiswers to raceidatipos. Share your answers. It is inqwrtant also thtt you listen to other’s answers. Always be open to e^ghteranent your present views. (As a bumper sticker read, “If you can’t change your mind, are you sure you have oneT’) Mathabane himself has many “answen’* to ofi«. I agree with sevoal. Those answetsi dntHaccept, lat least re^>ect To broaden your own perspectiye, 1 suggest reading bodi of his bo^- An African per^)ective about race is offered, andit is beneficial to compare and contrast the cultraes and die practices ^ two cotmtries. Sxtdi Africa has farther to go than America, but as Americfflis, wecan^tbeoKouraged by thk knowkdgebecaitse die distance diat remains ahead of us is very great too. I^rhaps if s^nrtheid is indeed abolished. South Africa’s strides to create positive race reladoi» can be smooiha than our own.~ Seymour Hardy Floyd
Black Ink (Black Student Movement, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill)
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March 4, 1991, edition 1
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