Falsification Of America

History “…is contained in every facet in life…” with a direct relationship between money, power, rulership, and domination, (Wilson). But what happens, when history is distorted through an immortal instrument that is occulated in the lens of one speaker? The understanding of human races become nothing of importance, allowing those writing the past to stay on top of a racial hierarchy. Three racially distinctive authors, Amos Wilson, Rodolfo Acuña, and Edward Said, come together in their writings, The Falsification of African Consciousness, Occupied America, and Orientalism, respectively, emphasizing the importance of how those writing books develop cultures; to open the eyes of people, so they don’t allow the distortion of who they are. All

three authors do this by vocalizing multiple times to a point where it is understood by the reader.
Through the Falsification of African Consciousness, Wilson relays that it is those who control the understanding of history, who control the reality of people’s culture. In the book, Wilson starts of by introducing that without any knowledge of the past permits the authorization for cultural misrepresentation. Specifically, he emphasizes the creation of an unfamiliar Afrikan culture by Europeans. Wilson states, “History has been down played in this society…I often say in this regard that if there were not a direct relationship between history and money, a direct relationship between history and power, history and rulership, history and domination, then, why is it that the European rewrote history?” (Wilson, 14, 15). Wilson is trying to make sense of the editing of history books made by European authors. He questions that if this is true why would many Europeans change history to make it revolve around Eurocentric beliefs? Making sense of this, opens up the idea that Europeans left history alone because they have already meticulously made sure of what is put into books in order to influence the idea of a culture. In other words, Europeans have made history unappealing by expunging important facts that make up a culture, therefore making people not question it. Wilson continues to make this argument, by stating, “the European doesn’t care whether or not we remember the facts and the details as long as we just remember the impression, as long as our personalities have been impressed and transformed in a fashion compatible with European interests,” (Wilson, 27). This means that Europeans include mementoes that blinds the reader—without the full disclosure of the truth—but not enough to keep the reader intrigued by the teachings. In a sense, the Europeans are “herding their cattle” into the “right direction,” by causing a mass following that does not allow people to develop their own thoughts or ideas about something. As a result, this develops similar aspects of Skinnerian psychology in the world, which states, “what it learns is the result of a power differential between the rat and the experimenter, because the experimenter has power over the rat and uses that power to transform and create something new in the rat,” (Wilson 16). The experiment is based off a rat, conditioned over time, to do a certain task to obtain the necessary items needed to survive. This creates a relationship where the experimenter is the master and the rat in the beggar. In context, this is what happens in the world. Europeans take the influence earned by creating a culture, to dangle it in front of other people to make sure no one falls out of line. Altogether, this widens the eyes of people making them not want to
Akuna, a Mexican-American author, voices through the book, Occupied America, that those who controls what is recorder has the power to develop the perception of a culture, specifically Mesoamerican culture.

In the past, Akuna’s book was part of a ban that stretched to ban a whole Mexican culture curriculum. At the time, 2011, Arizona banned curriculum, that seemed “overthrow of the government or bred ethnic resentment, among other things, (Planas). By doing this, the government was regulating what Arizonians were allowed to read, to stay in power, making sure Americans were shone in a godly light, so that the power obtained by them can be kept to write history. This ensures that the race is the top of a racial ladder. In one instance, Americans have created, “…the term New World [that] is a Euro/Western invention that places the Americas on the ‘periphery’ of world history. ‘New World’ implies that Native Americans are the new kids on the block…” (Akuna, 2). This meaning, that the creation of words make it seem that Native Americans didn’t have the intellectual capacity to develop an advance culture. The application of new words to a group individuals create the implication of the denotation of the word, allowing a higher power to dictate a group of people. Akuna clarifies the fact that Natives did have the capacity to create an advanced civilization. By saying, “the dominant culture influenced some, whole others remained segregated as distinct cultures. Mesoamerica,

although influenced by the world system, was not under the political control of a single power,” (Akuna, 18). He describes how the Americans were living by people, but were able to create an inventive political system. This contradicts the current statement of Native Americans not being able to create a sophisticated system that matches up to the current standards of policy. As a result, it gives the idea that they hold the power; proved by how he tries to contradict it.
In the book Orientalism, Edward Said explains the point that due to the Europeans were able to write history, they are able to the control the perception of other cultures.

Said comes from a background that is culturally different. Said’s mother comes from Palestinian-Protestant background and Said’s father is American-Catholic. Due to this, Said has always been confused on which identity to accept. In the book, orientalism is described in multiple forms. The one that is most coherent is the one that Americans have decided to put open the race. Said, also, illiterates that how most of the Middle East is excluded from this definition. Also, in the book, Said states, “orientalism is less preferred by specialists today, because it is too vague and general and because it connotes the high-handed executive attitude of nineteenth-century European colonialism,” (Said, 2). Meaning that in the current years, orientalism has been a culture in where it has been not the focus of many experts. Said says that is because of how many cultures fall under this category; however, it is due to the fact that the cultures under orients have created a perception takes out of context what Europeans have said in the past. Which in turn, makes Europeans to lose interest, showing that Europeans want to be in culture of writing the people’s

culture.
In conclusion, even though, Wilson, Akuna, and Said come from different cultural backgrounds all three come together to show that those who are in power of writing, control the history of others, and how the culture is perceived in the world.