Black Athena

The Re-Writing of Greece Throughout our many years involved in the educational system, we are taught a multitude of facts, events and experiences. Learning fractions, reciting classical literature in front of the class, and spending hours slaving over an assignment seem common enough occurrences to most students. Our education system has failed students on one aspect; very rarely are we required to question what we are being taught. We have a strong, almost instinctual need to believe our teacher and to have faith in what is being presented. In Martin Bernal’s piece Black Athena, we are able to see the results of what happens when an individual questions the norm. Bernal consciously details the two very different interpretations of how ancient

As stated earlier, students are never taught to fully question what they are being taught in school; this becomes even more problematic in a world where students have a plethora of questionable news stories and articles available at their fingertips. (Bernal, pg. 3) Black Athena discusses how before the 19th century, the Ancient model was common practice amongst scholars and historians. With the shift in culture towards anti-semitism, the idea that Phoenicians and Egyptians could have influenced and shaped Greece became preposterous. Anti-semitic historians completely erased the Phoenician impact on Greece in the 1920s after the role the Jews played in the Russian Revolution. (Bernal, pg 34) These historians allowed their own prejudices and biases to influence how people viewed history. This re-writing of history is terrifying for many reasons. If it is possible for historians to change how history is perceived based on the origins of people in question, it must be possible for other types of history to be changed as well. While Bernal only writes about this change in history pertaining to Greece, it is frightening to think about other instances in which history has been

On page 32 of Black Athena, Bernal speaks on how historians started viewing history as a story of winners and loser. Winners were seen as more progressive and the loser were viewed as inferior or less advanced. (Bernal, pg 31-32) We have always been taught that the victors write history books. While this term has become ingrained in our society, it is extremely troubling when viewed in a historical context. If we only look at history from the perspective of the victors, we ourselves are allowing biases to shape the history of the world. Bernal chose to look beyond these restraints and truly analyze the facts presented before him. He saw the shift in how history was viewed and decided to question how things were done instead of accepting the facts as they were