Why does the United Negro College fund feel the need to lie so egregiously?

The BBQ Pit
1

I was just reading the New York Times and I saw a gigantic ad with the following text (which was cleverly formatted into the shape of a circle.) I quote, verbatim:
*
A mind is responsible for the traffic light, the blood bank, ice cream, peanut butter, the doorknob, the microphone, the elevator, clothes dryer, lawn mower, pacemaker, the typewriter, guided missile, mailbox, the air conditioner, automatic transmission, curtain rod, baby carriage, lawn sprinkler, fountain pen, dust pan, the hand stamp, first open-heart surgery, cataract laser, fire extinguisher, doorstop, home security camera, the golf tee, fire escape, potato chip, food preservation, synthesized cortisone, the guitar, railroad telegraphy, envelope seal, printing press, bicycle frame, rocket catapult, insect destroyer gun, ice cream scoop, window cleaner, laser fuels, folding chair, gas mask, mop, refrigerator, pressing comb, urinalysis machine, door lock, electric cutoff switch, telephone transmitter, stair-climbing wheelchair, hairbrush, egg beater, eye protector, electric lamp bulb, biscuit cutter, chamber commode, almanac, horse shoe, lunch pail, motor, lantern, key chain, furniture caster, ironing board, sugar-refining system, lemon squeezer, portable weighing scales, wrench, airplane propeller, ore bucket, steam boiler, spark plug, galoshes, casket-lowering device, clothes wringer, disrail car coupling, riding saddles, and so on and so on. The list is endless. Indeed, it’s time to stop and celebrate the fact that each and every one of the wonderful innovations mentioned here came from the mind. The mind of an African American. *

This is called “lying.”

How can they so egregiously throw out this complete bullshit? Some of the things they listed are either way too old or way too vague to even pin down one person who is “responsible for” them, as the text of the ad itself claimed. The MOP? The elevator, the lantern, the baby carriage, the fucking DOORSTOP? How could any one person even be claimed as being “responsible” for these “innovations,” let alone insisting that it was a black person? For Christ’s sake, one of the items listed up there is “motor.” Just “motor,” not any specific kind. An African-American mind is responsible for the motor? Really? Which particular African-American invented the motor? HORSE SHOE? Are you kidding me? There were African-Americans in Medieval Europe? The ALMANAC? Is this some kind of joke? Wikipedia says “The origin of the almanac can be traced back to ancient Babylonian astronomy.” How can something as old and as vague as “the almanac” be matter-of-factly stated to be the innovation of one specific mind, let alone the mind of an African-American? The lunch pail? The curtain rod? The golf tee? The fire extinguisher? Are they completely insane, or do they really think that people will believe them when they make the claim that “each and every one of the wonderful innovations mentioned here came from the mind. The mind of an African-American.”

I’m completely willing to accept that black inventors and engineers contributed to the development and advancement of the devices mentioned above, just as white inventors and inventors of every nationality and ethnicity in the world are always developing on-going improvements to already-existing devices. But to claim that any one mind is “responsible for” the things above? That is the most disingenuous and weaselly twisting around of logic.

2

I wonder where I can get me one of those ‘insect destroyer gun(s)’. They sound like a good time.

3

The Flyshooter.

4

Well, they say innovations, not inventions. So I assume they mean these devices as we know them today are that way because of an African American.

5

That may refer to the anti-mosquito lasers scientists are experimenting with. I have no idea if anyone involved is black.

Just like Americans in general like to talk about how they saved the world from the Axis ( and not the Russians, the British, the Canadians, the Australians . . .etc ). And like how Christians like to talk about how Christianity is responsible for Western Civilization ( including those parts which predate Christianity ). When people talk about how much their particular ethnic/national/religious group has accomplished, they tend to lie and distort a lot. It’s not some special quality of the UNCF.

6

Y’know you may want to fact check before you post a rant in GD.

O. Dorsey is credited with inventing the doorstop, although I have no idea if any sexual relations were involved so maybe not the fucking doorstop (I think that would be inventing the dildo, but what do I know?) … A whole list of AA inventions is here.I suspect that some may have been derivative but then most ideas are to one degree or another.

7

[QUOTE=Argent Towers;11219322
I’m completely willing to accept that black inventors and engineers contributed to the development and advancement of the devices mentioned above, just as white inventors and inventors of every nationality and ethnicity in the world are always developing on-going improvements to already-existing devices. But to claim that any one mind is “responsible for” the things above? That is the most disingenuous and weaselly twisting around of logic.[/QUOTE]

A racist mind has trouble with these things, it’s called cognitive dissonance.

8

Uh, Snopes clarifies the “invention of the mop” somewhat.

9

Oh, come now. W.A Lavalette invented the printing press ? Really ? The Chinese came up with block printing during the Han dynasty (that’s before Christ), the Egyptians around the 4th century AD. Movable type was invented in the 10th century by a Chinese, and Johannes Gutenberg cribbed the idea and introduced it in Europe in the mid-15th century.

I have no idea who that Lavalette guy is, or what kind of press he came up with (most likely an improvement over an existing one), but claiming “he invented the printing press” is exactly the kind of disingenuous horseshit Argent Towers is talking about. At best he came up with *a *press, not *the *press, let alone being responsible for it.

Same goes for most of the list. The riding saddle ? The hairbrush ? The horse shoe ? Those things that existed before even the rise of Rome, they sprung from the mind of an African American ? Shit, I need to put in a patent for fire, let the world know it’s a French invention.

10

What are laser fuels?

11

I think they are the components of chemical lasers.

12

A little research (a trip to wikipedia) reveals the modern fire extinguisher was the result of three people, none of whom were black. Of course there have been many modifications to fire extinguishers and some of the people who worked on those mods may well have been black. But it’s false to say that the fire extinguisher was invented by a black person. The person mentioned in DSeid’s link may have had a patent on a specific kind of fire extinguisher, but he didn’t invent it.

13

Your fact-checker is broken.

14

Why can’t we attribute an individual with the creation of an elevator or a latern or a baby carriage or the door stop. It’s not like any of these things are all that basic or universal. The wheel wasn’t a universal invention, so why we would expect something like the baby carriage to be one.

And why not a black person? Seems to me a lot of those innovations were the kind that made a servant’s life easier. Imagine that poor maid who had to sweep the floor and find something to pick up the dirt with, especially with album covers not having been invented yet? Or clean the floor without scrubbing it and breaking her back? Folding chair…well with that you carry three, four chairs at the same time rather than one or two. Drop biscuits are okay, but imagine having a biscuit cutter so you can mass produce those puppies. Galoshes would sure be nice when you to got to chop up Miss Ann’s chifforobe on a rainy day!

I checked out a lot of the inventions on that list. They are usually credited to ancient times and unknown invidivuals, or the black inventor improved upon the existing patented invention. So you win on that point. But if the point of the essay is to remind people that black people are innovators and inventors just like everyone else, it did its job. Unfortunately, there are still many people who don’t think black people are all that smart. (please don’t let any typos I make perpetuate that lie).

Notice that the electric light bulb is up there. According to Wikipedia, Edison was not the only inventor of the light bulb. Twenty-two other bulbs had been around before his came on the scene. So is it right that Edison gets credit for his invention? Yes, because his was the best. And one of the reasons it was the best was because of the contribution of the son of escaped slaves, who invented the carbon filament that went in it.

I think the list is oversimplistic and makes some stretches in its claims, but it doesn’t lie. And it’s actually effective in getting us to think about stuff. In just writing this post, it got me doing some interesting research. Not just about black inventors, but about the nature of invention. No one, not even Thomas Edison, invents in a vacuum.

15

QFT. I seriously doubt this is even intentional.

16

There just aren’t enough :rolleyes:s. Aside from some of the other ridiculous claims, I just include here things that probably predate America, which includes any particular hyphenated strain of Americans. I have no doubt that African-Americans contributed to improving many things, but when claims like those in the ad are made on their behalf, it makes them look dumb-fuck pathetic. The ad does all black people a disservice.

The hair brush?!!! The envelope seal?!!! Riding saddles?!!! Food preservation?!!! The key chain?!!!

I wonder of an African-American mind was responsible for such rank stupidity. And just when I thought it couldn’t get any more asinine, “The list is endless.”

:rolleyes: Just for the hell of it.

17

I’m not sure that publishing what could legitimately be seen as an inflated, BS-filled ad is the best way to correct that impression.

18

Something “Doing its job” does not make it necessary to engage in bullshit. “Making you think” is not an excuse for dishonesty. Black people have accomplished more than enough without having to add bullshit to the mix.

The problem with mixing in distortions and lies with the truth is that it makes people doubt the truth. When the UNCF says something ridiculous like implying that “African-Americans” invented the saddle or the lantern, it casts a pall of doubt over the other things they say. As the old saying goes, if you mix ninety-nine pounds of ice cream with one pound of dog shit, you get one hundred pounds of dog shit.

19

If a hairbrush was made out of camel hair or sea anenomes or whatever the hell they were made of in the past, and an African American created one that is made out of whatever the hell they’re made of today, would you not credit him with that innovation? Again, the text does not say all these things were “invented” by African Americans. Inventions are almost always a lot more complicated than what our schoolbooks say. Who invented the lightbulb? Thomas Edison? Well, kind of, but a couple dozen other people were involved, too. Who invented movies? Lots and lots of people made independent innovations that resulted in what we know now as movies. Same with airplanes, cars, . . . most things. If an African American somehow contributed to what we think of today when we think of a spark plug, I see absolutely no problem with crediting him for that, even if he didn’t “invent” it.

20

The doorstop and the lantern aren’t “all that basic”? There were lanterns around several centuries before there were African-Americans!