There are countless valuable black inventions, but ascribing the most primordial technologies all to black people just because is acting like the first humans were made from clay and didn’t have very intelligent predecessors who evolved into humans. I’m not sure how to articulate it, but also just seems like kind of a problematic view, basically assigning a mythical quality to a group of people such that their (and our) own ancestry is erased and they are viewed like prime movers.
The idea of ascribing these things to race at all is extremely silly, since race is a floating social category.
That said, if we are going to do it, then ascribing the invention of fire to ‘humans’ when it comes out of Homo Erectus is just as much stealing valor as a white person stealing credit for a black persons invention. Species at least has slightly more scientific categorical grounding than race.
Species at least has slightly more scientific categorical grounding
homo species are extremely contentious, no one agrees how many there are. sometimes new samples are given new species names, while some folks put those new grains in an existing heap. like sure OOP’s a bit cheap for that answer but homo erectus is definitely people.
I am well aware of that. Hence why it is ‘slightly more scientific’, in that neither one of them are particularly concrete, but there is at least a little more grounding in species arguments.
My point is that if we are going to assign inventions to race (which is really stupid), then we can definitely assign inventions to different species (which is almost as stupid).
The entire argument is fucking dumb. It is basically could Batman beat Superman but for racists.
We can call them humans, but being that they weren’t homo sapiens, weren’t the same species, I feel kind of weird about calling them black people. Does that make sense?
(But I should have said “precede homo sapiens” before rather than “precede humanity,” you are correct there)
Out of those five, stone tools and cooking definitely preceded humanity, art almost certainly did, language could have, and it’s hard to say for music, though it also apparently could have.
There are countless valuable black inventions, but ascribing the most primordial technologies all to black people just because is acting like the first humans were made from clay and didn’t have very intelligent predecessors who evolved into humans. I’m not sure how to articulate it, but also just seems like kind of a problematic view, basically assigning a mythical quality to a group of people such that their (and our) own ancestry is erased and they are viewed like prime movers.
Black people, like all people, have invented things throughout history and continue to invent, but if you’re interested in known precolonial inventions specifically, Wikipedia has a big list: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_pre-colonial_African_inventions_and_innovations
It also mentions stone tools, but again those preceded humanity.
those were humans though, i don’t think the heap of australopiths did any of op’s tech.
The idea of ascribing these things to race at all is extremely silly, since race is a floating social category.
That said, if we are going to do it, then ascribing the invention of fire to ‘humans’ when it comes out of Homo Erectus is just as much stealing valor as a white person stealing credit for a black persons invention. Species at least has slightly more scientific categorical grounding than race.
homo species are extremely contentious, no one agrees how many there are. sometimes new samples are given new species names, while some folks put those new grains in an existing heap. like sure OOP’s a bit cheap for that answer but homo erectus is definitely people.
I am well aware of that. Hence why it is ‘slightly more scientific’, in that neither one of them are particularly concrete, but there is at least a little more grounding in species arguments.
My point is that if we are going to assign inventions to race (which is really stupid), then we can definitely assign inventions to different species (which is almost as stupid).
The entire argument is fucking dumb. It is basically could Batman beat Superman but for racists.
We can call them humans, but being that they weren’t homo sapiens, weren’t the same species, I feel kind of weird about calling them black people. Does that make sense?
(But I should have said “precede homo sapiens” before rather than “precede humanity,” you are correct there)