Black History
February is black history month in the United States. Unfortunately, the month is not dedicated to actual history. It is not about understanding the past. It is about constructing and reinforcing the myth that black people were (and still are) oppressed by white people. The myth of black oppression is part of a larger myth: that white people and European civilization have oppressed the entire world for the past 500 years. The truth is very different from the myth. The preceding graph shows the population history of Africa from 1500 to 2000. The population grew very little over most of that time, and then it exploded in the last 100 years. This graph shows the entire African population: North Africans as well as Sub-Saharan Africans (blacks). A graph of just the black population would show an even more dramatic upward curve at the end. It is important to understand both sides of this graph: why the population remained flat for so long, and why it grew at the end. Let’s