(ThyBlackMan.com) The Egyptian pyramids were built by inhabitants of the lost city of Atlantis: false.
The Civil War was fought solely for the purpose of State’s rights: false.
President Obama is an American-hating Kenyan Muslim who is secretly gay: false.
O.J. didn’t do it: false.
It is no secret that if you repeat a lie long enough that eventually people will start to believe it. Take for instance the narrative of Hands Up, Don’t Shoot. I know that many of you are immediately going to start giving me the same type of side eye that you reserve for the person who put an empty drink container back in the refrigerator.
But stick with me.
In Ferguson, Missouri the case of Michael Brown and the Hands 
Up Don’t Shoot movement have been proven to be, in fact, a false narrative. After a thorough investigation by the Department of Justice it was determined that Michael Brown never had his hands up. However this same Department of Justice concluded that the Ferguson Police Department had been egregiously engaging in systematic discrimination against black people for so long that its relationship with them was barely salvageable.
Ultimately the narrative that gets broadcast depends on who has control of the mic. Take, for example, another great false narrative of our time: race.
Wait, wait, whole up! I know what you’re thinking. But, again, stay with me.
Back to my point: The whole idea of race is a false narrative.
Race, a non-scientific term that has been used to classify people, was first introduced as a theory by an 18th century Swedish botanist named Carolus Linnaeus. One of his proselytes, Friedrich Blumenbach, a German anatomist and naturalist, further championed the cause of a racial hierarchy that amazingly placed Europeans at the height of admirable qualities (shocker!). So subjective was this system of division that even the term “Caucasian” was simply a creation of Blumenbach, an homage to “the most beautiful race of men” who he believed to have their origins from the southern slopes of Mount Caucasus.
As these people most assuredly possessed a very fair complexion, so became the racial hierarchical order. Anyone more closely resembling the most favored racial group was at the top. Those in stark contrast were closer to the bottom. It was therefore this contemporary mindset that placed ALL dark skin people from Africa in the same race (at that time they were all referred to as Ethiopian).
Now, don’t get it twisted. It wasn’t like differences in people hadn’t always been recorded. It’s just that prior to the 18th century people were more accurately classified according to their nation or tribe. The unifying factor of a people was not primarily skin color because the color of a person’s skin did not define who they were.
So, what’s the big deal? The big deal is this: people die because of false narratives. The truth is we are not bound together because of our skin color. We are bound together because of our shared national and cultural heritage.
And it really is that simple.
And since we’re on this topic, yes, as an African people living in America we have an abundantly rich, vibrant and diverse culture that is worthy of being celebrated. The false narrative of race has had the opposite effect of liberating us. It often boxes us into a singular methodology of solidarity that is based on something as simple and non-sequitur as skin tone. Sure, when we were forced into being slaves there was much more sense of urgency for solidarity, which we had. However everyone didn’t possess the apocalyptic fervor of Nat Turner, nor did everyone have the oratorical license of Frederick Douglass. Still, as evidenced by the thousands of slave rebellions, they all wanted to be free.
Likewise today our skin color should continue to liberate us, not force us into a one-size-fits-all approach. There is room at the table for all of us who truly desire what is best for us. The time to end the near religious fanaticism surrounding the false narrative of the term “race” has got to begin today.
Therefore, the inconvenient truth of the matter is that we are NOT a black RACE. The term does not exist. We are a multi-hued, multi-tribal people of color, connected by our shared desire to do what’s best for the collective good of our families, our tribe and our nation.
Staff Writer; Steven Robinson
May also visit this talented writer over at; http://noroomtowiggle.wordpress.com/.