If something happened but it wasn’t documented, does it count as history?
It is documented–codified by law– for example, that July 4th is Independence Day because the Declaration of Independence was signed on that day in 1776. Not true. It was actually voted on by the Continental Congress on July 2nd, 1776, and the signing began on August 2nd, 1776. And of course it only meant independence for white, property owning men. But America continues to promote a false narrative that today is etched in minds everywhere as the truth, as history.
But if America is so comfortable with false narratives, what happens to the real story? There are events, creations and perspectives that are historical and that tell Black America’s history and development. And we know all too well that huge swaths of those truths were wiped from public memory and texts, and only work of the most dedicated historians, journalists and advocates has excavated the details of our lives in this nation and beyond.
But we also want to believe that that was part of an especially terrible past. Yet today, in this moment, and despite the ability to record and preserve everything digitally, there are still those determined to erase the truth and real-world events and creations as if they never happened.
Paramount Global Removes Key Black Cultural Content
On June 24, Variety reported that Paramount Global removed all content from MTV News’ website as well as CMT. Countless hours of video content and news and entertainment articles were disappeared just like that.. Two days later, Deadline reported that Paramount Global also wiped clean the video archive of Comedy Central.
This purge came just months after Vice did the same thing. In February, Fortune reported that Vice Media’s website shut down amid its massive company layoffs. The media industry has been experiencing severe layoffs and financial issues, with layoffs at publications like theGrio, The Los Angeles…
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