The Clapback Mailbag: Good Question

Our weekly response to emails, DMs, messages and comments from our readers.

If the planet is destroyed by global warming, nuclear war or the zombies who refused to take the COVID-19 vaccine, the few human beings who managed to withstand the amphibious, irradiated-zombie apocalypse will eventually emerge from their survival bunkers and begin rebuilding a new society from the remnants of things long gone.

Eventually, a generation of children will be born without any knowledge of a world that was divided by the arbitrary designations of race, religion and skin color. This new generation will build a society with equal education, where opportunity and success are limited only by an individual’s talent, ability and hard work. When the privileges provided by systemic and historic inequalities no longer exist, they will ultimately realize that success and prosperity are determined by a society’s collective willingness to support the weak and protect the strong.

But one day, one of those innocent survivors will sift through the rubble of things past and find a powerful relic that will give him the hubris to assert his authority over everyone. This heretic probably won’t be the smartest, the strongest or the most charismatic, but possessing this one ancient artifact will make others believe in his dominance. Some will assume that his finding the magical item was a gift from God. Others will say that he deserved it because he worked hard to find it. Others will just capitulate to his power, even if they don’t know why. He earned it, so he deserved it.

But if they’re lucky, this society will have at least one learned, wise person who has studied the past and retained enough knowledge to resist this attempted power grab. And when the people who do not remember the old ways ask the wise man about the relic, the source of its power and where it came from, he will not hesitate to tell them.

“That’s actually a good question, “ he’d say. “It’s just audacity.”

And that’s why the Clapback Mailbag exists.

If white people have nothing else, they will always have the audacity.

The article about Shaboozey, country music and the American Music Awards sparked a flurry of emails, tweets and DMs.

Shaboozey's Reaction to the AMAs Whitewashed Black History, Explained

From: Kyle

How did you become a country music expert all of a sudden?

From: James

If blacks invented country and everything else and blacks love it so much, why aren’t they platinum selling black country before beyonce like there is in rap? sense your such a country music expert

Dear Kyle, James and @JewSuprmcyKills,

Good question.

I used to have the same question about music, culture and white people in general. Fortunately, I did some research, and the answer actually begins in Kemet (you’re white, so you probably call it “Egypt”).

I’m sure you’ve heard someone claim that the Egyptians taught the ancient Greeks and Romans everything they knew, which is partly true. What’s probably more accurate is that Egyptian culture placed a value on protecting and spreading knowledge, wisdom and art, making it a central location for people who wanted to know things. However, it is a fact that Plato, Pythagoras, Socrates, Hippocrates and most of the philosophers revered as the founders of “ancient knowledge” traveled to Kemet to learn astronomy, math, science and even their religion.

Unfortunately, the “father of Western philosophy” was poisoned to death for corrupting the youth with his crazy ideas, and outsiders routinely burned one of the planet’s most celebrated repositories of knowledge, the Library of Alexandria.

Centuries later, Western white scholars began to promote the idea that Greek and Roman philosophers spontaneously manifested their own ideas. Regardless of whether you accept this as a historical truth, the interesting part is that the ancient philosophers never claimed that knowledge. For instance, Socrates said that the Egyptian God Theuth “invented numbers and arithmetic and geometry and astronomy, also draughts and dice, and, most important of all, letters.”

But when white people are presented with this historical truth, they inevitably ask the same question as James:

“If the Africans were so smart and knew everything, why didn’t they just go to Europe and conquer them?”

Therein lies the conundrum.

Some people cannot fathom the concept of shared knowledge vs. owning everything they touch. To the “Western” mind, everything on Earth is a commodity that must be owned or a place that must be conquered. But to some people, the world does not work this way.

For instance, when the Carter Family began their career in country music, they would bring Lesley Riddle along for adventures they called “song catching.” A.P. Carter would travel around the country listening to people sing. Carter would write down the lyrics while Riddle, the “human tape recorder,” would remember the tunes. After they arrived back in Virginia, Riddle would teach the rest of the family how to play the song. He knew the Carters wanted to record the songs; he wanted to learn and teach music.

Now, I’m not saying that the Carters stole Black music any more than the Egyptians say that the Greeks stole math or rappers say Eminem stole hip-hop. Socrates and the Carters don’t even claim to be the originators. I’m pushing back against today’s white people who have whitewashed history.

Now, here is the interesting part of the story and the reason why I am such a music expert.