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Ahatti, 1492
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00:04:07,880 --> 00:04:10,050
Port-au-Prince, Haiti, 1960
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00:04:15,930 --> 00:04:17,640
In kindergarten, in Haiti,
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00:04:17,890 --> 00:04:21,560
there was this allegorical image
of Saint Francis of Assisi,
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00:04:21,860 --> 00:04:24,020
on the last page
of our reading book.
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00:04:25,030 --> 00:04:28,360
It didn't matter that St. Francis
was obviously white.
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00:04:28,740 --> 00:04:33,450
At the time, I was still unaware of any
civilizational or racial differences.
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00:04:33,910 --> 00:04:37,040
I didn't even know that such
differences were possible.
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00:04:37,660 --> 00:04:40,960
Besides the fact that he was
a saint and I was not.
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00:04:42,040 --> 00:04:46,000
I knew as much about saints as I
knew about copulation and bees.
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00:04:46,510 --> 00:04:51,930
My idea of religion, priests, or God,
was, at best, naive if not reckless.
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00:04:53,050 --> 00:04:56,260
I truly believed that all human beings
were basically,
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00:04:56,600 --> 00:04:59,310
in some sort of natural way,
brothers and sisters.
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00:04:59,680 --> 00:05:01,520
Saint-Martial Seminary School Location
Port-au-Prince, Haiti
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00:05:01,600 --> 00:05:03,360
It was in this euphoric state,
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00:05:03,560 --> 00:05:07,110
that I was sent to "primary school,"
a Jesuit institution.
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00:05:08,820 --> 00:05:12,240
On the very first day, I got into
a fight with another boy.
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00:05:12,990 --> 00:05:15,700
We were both sent to the head
priest to be disciplined.
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00:05:16,910 --> 00:05:20,250
While waiting for what I thought
would be an appeasing pep talk
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00:05:20,460 --> 00:05:22,370
and reconciliatory handshake,
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00:05:23,040 --> 00:05:25,710
had no doubt that the outcome
would be peaceful.
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00:05:26,290 --> 00:05:29,260
I loved my world of serenity
and understanding.
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00:05:30,670 --> 00:05:33,300
To my surprise, the head priest,
came in,
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00:05:33,390 --> 00:05:37,470
took a dry ox muscle hanging from
the wall and, without a word,
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00:05:37,560 --> 00:05:40,350
whipped us raw,
with three lashes each.
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00:05:41,520 --> 00:05:43,900
I was so stunned that I didn't cry.
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00:05:45,360 --> 00:05:47,940
Minutes later,
alone in the school yard,
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00:05:48,280 --> 00:05:51,700
I realized that the world was
not what I was told it would be.
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00:05:52,320 --> 00:05:56,660
The rituals, the dogma, the theatrics,
were now transparent.
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00:05:57,910 --> 00:06:01,410
I decided that I was not going
to be an imbecile in that show.
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00:06:01,750 --> 00:06:06,710
Especially if it involved saint,
priest, and whip in that order.
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00:06:07,420 --> 00:06:10,380
Then, I stopped believing
in God altogether.
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00:06:28,150 --> 00:06:33,700
EXTERMINATE ALL THE BRUTES
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PART II
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00:07:01,970 --> 00:07:03,350
I knew a man.
36
00:07:03,640 --> 00:07:09,150
I knew him well enough to be able to
call him a friend. He was a scholar.
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00:07:09,520 --> 00:07:13,650
One of the brightest.
One day, I learned of his death.
38
00:07:14,110 --> 00:07:15,900
After 10 years of daily struggle.
39
00:07:17,160 --> 00:07:21,660
A cardiologist, inserted a
malfunctioning pacemaker in his heart,
40
00:07:22,080 --> 00:07:24,160
that would destroy its functions.
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00:07:24,950 --> 00:07:28,500
By the time they realized
the mistake, it was too late.
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00:07:31,090 --> 00:07:36,010
Michel-Rolph wrote an extraordinary
book: "Silencing the Past."
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00:07:36,220 --> 00:07:39,390
A masterpiece.
The work of a lifetime.
44
00:07:40,600 --> 00:07:44,640
By deconstructing the dominant
narrative, he changed everything.
45
00:07:46,640 --> 00:07:47,890
Knowledge is power.
46
00:07:48,480 --> 00:07:51,480
But "history is the fruit of power,"
says Trouillot.
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00:07:53,270 --> 00:07:57,030
Whoever wins in the end,
gets to frame the story.
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00:08:00,030 --> 00:08:01,950
On July 4th, 2012,
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00:08:02,490 --> 00:08:06,160
Trouillot passed away in his sleep
at his home in Chicago.
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00:08:11,920 --> 00:08:13,880
This is his story as well.
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00:08:15,510 --> 00:08:17,510
THE ALAMO
John Wayne, 1960
52
00:08:17,800 --> 00:08:19,760
"Remember the Alamo, they say.
53
00:08:20,470 --> 00:08:23,810
But remembering can be quite
selective, writes Trouillot.
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00:08:24,890 --> 00:08:29,600
Human beings participate in history
both as actors and as narrators.
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00:08:31,150 --> 00:08:35,320
Among the actors, we find
General Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna,
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00:08:35,690 --> 00:08:38,860
a Mexican national hero,
who in his lifetime,
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00:08:39,030 --> 00:08:42,530
is said to have participated
in more battles than Napoleon
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00:08:42,870 --> 00:08:44,740
and George Washington combined.
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00:08:46,540 --> 00:08:48,040
In his eventful career,
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00:08:48,330 --> 00:08:52,920
the Alamo was just a brief interlude in
a long streak of defeats and victories.
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00:08:54,880 --> 00:08:57,090
By the middle of February 1836,
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00:08:57,510 --> 00:09:00,760
his army had reached the crumbling
walls of the old mission
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00:09:01,180 --> 00:09:04,600
of San Antonio de Valero
in the Mexican province of Tejas.
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00:09:06,470 --> 00:09:09,770
Some 200 American slave
owners and militiamen,
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00:09:09,890 --> 00:09:14,360
now occupied the Spanish mission,
nicknamed the "Alamo."
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00:09:15,940 --> 00:09:19,150
They refused to surrender
to Santa Anna's superior force.
67
00:09:19,780 --> 00:09:22,820
On March 6, General Santa Anna
blew the horns
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00:09:22,990 --> 00:09:27,040
that Mexicans traditionally used
to announce an attack to the death.
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00:09:27,740 --> 00:09:29,830
According to the celebrated story,
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00:09:30,250 --> 00:09:35,130
when it became clear that the choice
for the 189 Alamo occupants
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00:09:35,420 --> 00:09:39,170
was between escape and certain death
at the hands of the Mexicans,
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00:09:39,340 --> 00:09:42,930
commander William Barret Travis
drew a line on the ground.
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00:09:43,590 --> 00:09:48,180
Those men who wish to stay will cross
the line and stand with me.
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00:09:49,810 --> 00:09:52,690
The others may go,
with my blessing.
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00:09:55,060 --> 00:09:56,900
Supposedly, everyone crossed,
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00:09:57,190 --> 00:10:01,150
except, of course, the man who
conveniently escaped to tell the story.
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00:10:01,900 --> 00:10:04,860
I didn't survive Russia and Waterloo
to die in this desert.
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00:10:05,740 --> 00:10:07,580
Obviously, a Frenchman.
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00:10:10,580 --> 00:10:14,920
Santa Anna's troops broke through the
fort, killing most of the defenders.
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00:10:16,250 --> 00:10:17,710
A clear victory.
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00:10:19,840 --> 00:10:23,470
But a few weeks later, on April 21,
at San Jacinto,
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00:10:23,880 --> 00:10:26,430
Santa Anna fell prisoner
to Sam Houston,
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00:10:26,800 --> 00:10:30,600
the freshly certified leader
of the secessionist Republic of Texas.
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00:10:32,680 --> 00:10:36,770
Houston's men had punctuated their
victorious attack on the Mexican army
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00:10:37,150 --> 00:10:41,690
with repeated shouts of "Remember
the Alamo! Remember the Alamo!"
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00:10:42,650 --> 00:10:46,240
With that reference to the old
mission, they doubly made history.
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00:10:48,160 --> 00:10:52,910
As actors, the Texans captured Santa
Anna and neutralized his forces.
88
00:10:54,290 --> 00:10:57,670
As narrators, they give
the Alamo story a new meaning.
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00:10:58,290 --> 00:11:01,880
What they did not say is that
General Santa Anna quickly recovered
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00:11:02,000 --> 00:11:05,970
from the upset and went on to be
the leader of Mexico four more times.
91
00:11:06,760 --> 00:11:09,010
But this is not what history
will remember.
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00:11:09,970 --> 00:11:13,020
General Santa Anna indeed
lost the battle of the day,
93
00:11:13,310 --> 00:11:16,520
but he also lost the battle
he had won at the Alamo.
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00:11:31,620 --> 00:11:35,750
How much can we reduce what happened
to what is said to have happened?
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00:11:36,870 --> 00:11:39,670
Does it matter whether events
are fact or fiction?
96
00:11:40,880 --> 00:11:44,710
Most Europeans and North Americans
learned more about the history
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00:11:44,840 --> 00:11:48,090
of colonial America and the American
West from movies
98
00:11:48,380 --> 00:11:50,340
and television than from books.
99
00:11:51,260 --> 00:11:55,980
The Alamo? That was a history lesson
delivered by John Wayne on the screen.
100
00:11:59,650 --> 00:12:02,480
What does it mean for our
collective experiences?
101
00:12:03,190 --> 00:12:05,070
Do we even wish
for a common history?
102
00:12:05,150 --> 00:12:06,740
Shoah Memorial
Berlin, Germany
103
00:12:06,820 --> 00:12:11,490
Does it really not matter whether
or not the Holocaust is true or false?
104
00:12:13,450 --> 00:12:16,330
Does it really not make
a difference whether or not
105
00:12:16,410 --> 00:12:19,370
the leaders of Nazi Germany planned
and supervised
106
00:12:19,500 --> 00:12:21,460
the killing of six million Jews?
107
00:12:35,890 --> 00:12:39,230
Jean Bercu, deported in February 1944
at the age of 4.
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00:12:40,980 --> 00:12:44,690
If six million do not really matter,
would two million be enough,
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00:12:45,730 --> 00:12:48,740
or would some of us settle
for three hundred thousand?
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00:12:49,990 --> 00:12:52,660
If there is nothing
to be proved or disproved,
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00:12:53,120 --> 00:12:55,200
what then is the point
of the story?
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00:13:44,960 --> 00:13:47,000
HOME MOVIES
Peck family
113
00:13:47,090 --> 00:13:50,010
The history of America is being
written in a world
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00:13:50,130 --> 00:13:52,630
where few little boys want
to be Indians.
115
00:13:58,470 --> 00:14:01,600
In 1492, neither Europe
as we now know it,
116
00:14:01,890 --> 00:14:05,900
nor whiteness as we now experience
it existed as such.
117
00:14:10,990 --> 00:14:12,990
Here is the story we have been told:
118
00:14:16,410 --> 00:14:19,790
Christopher Columbus was born
to a Genoese merchant family,
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00:14:20,040 --> 00:14:21,620
and as a trader at sea,
120
00:14:21,700 --> 00:14:25,040
joined other European navigators
competing for gold
121
00:14:25,370 --> 00:14:27,540
and other lucrative commodities,
122
00:14:27,710 --> 00:14:30,590
a market long dominated
by Muslim traders.
123
00:14:40,220 --> 00:14:43,140
It was no secret that
the Earth was spherical
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00:14:43,230 --> 00:14:45,230
and Columbus believed a shorter,
125
00:14:45,310 --> 00:14:49,480
more direct route could be used
to reach valuable exotic spice islands.
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00:14:52,360 --> 00:14:55,070
Columbus sold the idea
to the Spanish monarchy
127
00:14:55,280 --> 00:15:00,620
and off he sailed with 3 ships headed
directly West across the Atlantic.
128
00:15:16,630 --> 00:15:19,430
Instead of the bustling ports
of the East Indies,
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00:15:19,760 --> 00:15:22,390
Columbus came upon
a tropical paradise,
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00:15:22,510 --> 00:15:26,100
populated by the Taino people,
what is now Haiti.
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00:15:27,810 --> 00:15:29,940
Then, from the Iberian Peninsula,
132
00:15:30,400 --> 00:15:34,110
came merchants, mercenaries,
criminals, and peasants.
133
00:15:35,190 --> 00:15:38,200
They seized the land and property
of Indigenous peoples
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00:15:38,910 --> 00:15:41,450
and declared the territories
to be extensions
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00:15:41,580 --> 00:15:43,740
of the Spanish
and Portuguese states.
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00:15:47,410 --> 00:15:50,920
These acts were confirmed
by the monarchies and endorsed
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00:15:51,040 --> 00:15:54,420
by the papal authority
of the Roman Catholic Church.
138
00:15:57,930 --> 00:16:00,090
That's more or less the official story.
139
00:16:00,840 --> 00:16:04,810
And through that official story,
a new vision of the world was created:
140
00:16:06,020 --> 00:16:08,100
The Doctrine of Discovery.
141
00:16:17,740 --> 00:16:20,240
The extent
of the "demographic catastrophe"
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00:16:20,320 --> 00:16:23,370
that followed is without
equivalent in world history.
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00:16:25,160 --> 00:16:26,620
Within a hundred years,
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00:16:26,750 --> 00:16:30,670
over 90 percent of the original
population of this continent
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00:16:31,040 --> 00:16:32,380
would be wiped out.
146
00:16:38,760 --> 00:16:44,180
Despite large-scale massacres, torture,
and other inconceivable atrocities,
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00:16:44,560 --> 00:16:48,020
the great majority of these people
did not die in battle.
148
00:16:48,770 --> 00:16:53,190
Most died of disease,
hunger and inhuman labor conditions,
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00:16:53,810 --> 00:16:57,940
because their social organization had
been wrecked by the white conquerors.
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00:17:00,400 --> 00:17:01,990
Bartolom� de Las Casas,
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00:17:02,070 --> 00:17:05,450
the first ordained priest to officiate
in the New Indies,
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00:17:05,830 --> 00:17:09,330
was one of the witnesses
and a chronicler of this catastrophe.
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00:17:10,250 --> 00:17:14,130
Killing and enslaving other beings,
thought to be equally human,
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00:17:14,540 --> 00:17:16,090
created a dilemma for him.
155
00:17:18,210 --> 00:17:22,510
Our Lord Jesus said:
I am the truth and the life.
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00:17:24,470 --> 00:17:26,600
I will try to speak the truth
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00:17:26,680 --> 00:17:29,470
about those from whom we
are taking the lives.
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00:17:31,890 --> 00:17:34,690
Because this is the truth:
we are destroying them.
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00:17:36,610 --> 00:17:39,480
Since the discovery and the conquest
of the Indies,
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00:17:39,820 --> 00:17:44,740
the Spanish have not stopped enslaving
torturing and massacring the Indians.
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00:17:46,580 --> 00:17:48,370
Since the very first contacts,
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00:17:48,490 --> 00:17:52,830
Spanish have been consumed
by the thirst for gold.
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00:17:53,460 --> 00:17:57,090
It is their only claim.
Gold! Gold! Bring us gold!
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00:17:58,710 --> 00:18:01,010
So much that the natives said:
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00:18:01,210 --> 00:18:05,220
"What do they do with all that gold?
They must eat it."
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00:18:08,010 --> 00:18:11,810
Bartolom� de Las Casas believed
both in colonization
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00:18:12,230 --> 00:18:14,350
and in the humanity
of the Indians.
168
00:18:14,850 --> 00:18:17,940
He was torn between the
symbolic and the practical.
169
00:18:18,570 --> 00:18:20,690
Incapable of reconciling the two.
170
00:18:21,530 --> 00:18:25,160
Instead, he offered a poor
and ambiguous compromise,
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00:18:25,530 --> 00:18:28,950
that he would later regret:
freedom for the savages,
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00:18:29,280 --> 00:18:32,540
the Indians, slavery for
the barbarians, the Africans.
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00:18:32,620 --> 00:18:34,710
DISPUTE IN VALLADOLID
Jean-Daniel Veraeghe, 1992
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00:18:34,790 --> 00:18:38,210
If it is clear that Indians are our
brother in the name of Jesus Christ,
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00:18:38,420 --> 00:18:41,840
endowed with a reasonable
soul like ours.
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00:18:42,960 --> 00:18:44,130
On the other hand,
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00:18:44,220 --> 00:18:48,600
it is certain that the inhabitants
of Africa
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00:18:48,760 --> 00:18:51,850
are much closer to animals.
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00:18:52,890 --> 00:18:54,640
Colonization won the day.
180
00:19:25,670 --> 00:19:28,640
The seventeenth century
saw the increased involvement
181
00:19:28,720 --> 00:19:33,600
of England, France, and the Netherlands
in the Americas and in the slave trade.
182
00:19:46,570 --> 00:19:49,320
The eighteenth century followed
the same path
183
00:19:49,450 --> 00:19:51,410
with an added touch of perversity:
184
00:19:52,780 --> 00:19:56,750
the more European merchants
and mercenaries bought and conquered
185
00:19:56,870 --> 00:19:59,540
other men and women in the Americas,
186
00:19:59,790 --> 00:20:03,800
the more European philosophers
wrote and talked about Man.
187
00:20:21,480 --> 00:20:24,270
Meanwhile, there
was no single view of Blacks
188
00:20:24,650 --> 00:20:27,280
or of any non-white group,
for that matter.
189
00:20:28,360 --> 00:20:33,280
All assumed that, ultimately, some
humans were more so than others.
190
00:20:35,080 --> 00:20:37,040
Viewed from outside the West,
191
00:20:37,500 --> 00:20:41,370
the age of Enlightenment was
a century of obscurity.
192
00:20:43,340 --> 00:20:47,710
In the Western conception,
Man was primarily European and male.
193
00:20:48,380 --> 00:20:52,180
Everyone else was at the lowest
level of this hierarchy.
194
00:23:25,370 --> 00:23:29,920
I have no complaints.
I just want to understand.
195
00:23:31,590 --> 00:23:35,920
Trading human beings?
What sick mind thought of this first?
196
00:23:38,220 --> 00:23:41,010
Brought by force
and pushed to death.
197
00:23:42,350 --> 00:23:47,020
Slavery. Or the "Trade"
as they refer to it euphemistically.
198
00:23:49,480 --> 00:23:51,360
A state-sponsored genocide.
199
00:23:53,360 --> 00:23:55,900
What does this say
about a civilized world?
200
00:24:09,210 --> 00:24:13,590
No. I have no complaints.
I just want to understand.
201
00:24:16,340 --> 00:24:19,970
Congo River, 1892
202
00:24:21,930 --> 00:24:25,350
What if, from the beginning,
the story was inaccurate?
203
00:24:27,680 --> 00:24:32,360
What if it was not just a question
of vocabulary or interpretation?
204
00:24:34,360 --> 00:24:38,570
Perhaps a case of collective
borderline personality disorder?
205
00:24:57,000 --> 00:24:59,510
Okay, let's go!
206
00:25:02,640 --> 00:25:03,930
What?
207
00:25:06,390 --> 00:25:07,770
What about the boat?
208
00:25:08,810 --> 00:25:11,520
Boat's probably stuck in Matadi.
Up the river.
209
00:25:12,520 --> 00:25:14,520
I need to join my parish.
210
00:25:16,110 --> 00:25:17,940
I'm already two months late.
211
00:25:20,820 --> 00:25:22,240
So?
212
00:25:28,910 --> 00:25:30,200
Wait!
213
00:25:32,920 --> 00:25:34,380
Wait!
214
00:26:33,020 --> 00:26:35,190
Faster!
215
00:26:41,030 --> 00:26:42,650
Keep them tight!
216
00:26:47,490 --> 00:26:48,950
Faster!
217
00:27:11,260 --> 00:27:12,890
What is this?
218
00:27:15,600 --> 00:27:17,020
Faster!
219
00:27:20,020 --> 00:27:21,360
You there! Faster!
220
00:27:23,150 --> 00:27:24,530
Stop that at once!
221
00:27:25,900 --> 00:27:28,660
What do you think you are doing
with those children?
222
00:27:30,320 --> 00:27:33,410
What children?
These are shipments.
223
00:27:36,040 --> 00:27:37,620
Shipments?
224
00:27:38,620 --> 00:27:44,840
They are to be trained as soldiers
by the state. O sold as slaves.
225
00:28:09,820 --> 00:28:11,070
Faster!
226
00:28:13,580 --> 00:28:14,990
Keep them tight!
227
00:28:19,290 --> 00:28:22,710
In Columbus' travel journal,
there is a description
228
00:28:22,790 --> 00:28:27,720
of the first sighting of land on
Thursday, October 11th, 1492.
229
00:28:29,430 --> 00:28:32,680
At two hours after midnight,
land appeared,
230
00:28:33,100 --> 00:28:35,770
from which they were about
two leagues distant.
231
00:28:37,020 --> 00:28:38,770
They hauled down the sails...
232
00:28:39,020 --> 00:28:41,270
Passing time until daylight Friday,
233
00:28:41,520 --> 00:28:43,940
when they reached an islet
and descended.
234
00:28:45,020 --> 00:28:46,480
A normal day, after all.
235
00:28:55,280 --> 00:28:59,910
The isolation of a single fetishized
moment creates a historical fact.
236
00:29:03,170 --> 00:29:04,500
Once discovered,
237
00:29:04,590 --> 00:29:08,550
"the Other" is allowed to finally enter
the human world.
238
00:29:11,050 --> 00:29:14,890
Whatever else may have happened
to other peoples in that process
239
00:29:15,300 --> 00:29:19,060
is reduced, as if by magic,
to a natural fact:
240
00:29:20,100 --> 00:29:21,770
they were discovered.
241
00:29:26,020 --> 00:29:27,980
Show me the way my Lord.
242
00:29:28,320 --> 00:29:29,780
Let me walk along your path.
243
00:29:30,440 --> 00:29:33,280
Touch my heart to fear
your name, my Lord.
244
00:29:34,320 --> 00:29:36,450
As to surrender myself
to your glory.
245
00:29:38,080 --> 00:29:41,160
Show me the way, my Lord.
Let me walk along your path.
246
00:29:42,290 --> 00:29:43,750
Touch my heart...
247
00:30:04,480 --> 00:30:07,020
What's the problem now?
What did he do?
248
00:30:10,860 --> 00:30:12,780
Nothing. Why?
249
00:31:40,240 --> 00:31:46,370
My dear Rose, may these words convey
to you the fullness of my sentiments.
250
00:31:47,540 --> 00:31:49,500
I hope they will find you well.
251
00:31:53,000 --> 00:31:56,340
It seems so strange to walk under
this unbearable heat,
252
00:31:56,590 --> 00:31:58,720
when only four months ago,
253
00:31:58,970 --> 00:32:01,220
I could still comfort myself
in your arms.
254
00:32:03,010 --> 00:32:07,890
The madness in these distant
lands is hard to describe.
255
00:32:11,310 --> 00:32:13,440
I am making new experiences.
256
00:32:15,360 --> 00:32:18,650
Two days ago,
I saw my first corpses.
257
00:32:19,700 --> 00:32:23,160
A good dozen of them,
white little bodies,
258
00:32:23,990 --> 00:32:25,700
floating into the darkness,
259
00:32:27,290 --> 00:32:31,630
floating as if they were
just resting for a long journey.
260
00:32:34,550 --> 00:32:39,880
These are not our choices to make.
261
00:32:43,760 --> 00:32:48,390
The ways of the Lord are infinite.
262
00:32:58,650 --> 00:33:01,200
I miss so much
263
00:33:01,820 --> 00:33:07,950
this delicate temple hidden
in the depth of your thighs...
264
00:33:33,770 --> 00:33:37,570
Any historical narrative
is a particular bundle of silences.
265
00:33:40,650 --> 00:33:42,570
It is an exercise of power
266
00:33:42,650 --> 00:33:46,950
that makes some narratives possible
and silences others.
267
00:33:49,080 --> 00:33:53,250
In this fabricated narrative,
not all silences are equal.
268
00:33:54,500 --> 00:33:59,630
Our job as filmmakers, writers,
historians, image-makers,
269
00:34:00,130 --> 00:34:02,510
is to deconstruct these silences.
270
00:34:07,970 --> 00:34:11,930
From its first appearances,
the word "Negre", Negro,
271
00:34:12,140 --> 00:34:13,940
entered French dictionaries
272
00:34:14,060 --> 00:34:17,560
with increasingly precise
negative undertones.
273
00:34:18,940 --> 00:34:21,490
By the middle
of the eighteenth century,
274
00:34:21,570 --> 00:34:24,030
"Black" was almost
universally bad.
275
00:34:24,950 --> 00:34:26,910
What had happened in the meantime,
276
00:34:26,990 --> 00:34:30,620
was the expansion
of African-American slavery.
277
00:34:30,870 --> 00:34:33,160
That was the most potent impetus
278
00:34:33,460 --> 00:34:38,040
for the transformation of European
ethnocentrism into scientific racism.
279
00:34:39,670 --> 00:34:42,550
"Blacks were inferior
and therefore enslaved",
280
00:34:43,260 --> 00:34:47,050
"Black slaves behaved badly
and were therefore inferior."
281
00:34:48,260 --> 00:34:52,560
The practice of slavery in the Americas
secured the Black's position
282
00:34:52,850 --> 00:34:54,890
at the bottom of the human world.
283
00:34:56,730 --> 00:34:58,980
By the time
of the American Revolution,
284
00:34:59,110 --> 00:35:03,190
European ethnocentrism
had merged into scientific racism
285
00:35:03,610 --> 00:35:08,200
and framed the ideological landscape
on both sides of the Atlantic.
286
00:35:12,740 --> 00:35:17,750
The final years of the 18th century
were called "The Age of Revolutions."
287
00:35:18,830 --> 00:35:21,670
But one usually thinks
of the American revolution,
288
00:35:21,840 --> 00:35:26,470
starting in 1763
and the French Revolution of 1789.
289
00:35:27,550 --> 00:35:30,510
Not the Haitian Revolution of 1790.
290
00:35:31,430 --> 00:35:33,680
Indeed, in those changing years,
291
00:35:33,770 --> 00:35:38,600
a particular group of Black slaves,
men women, and children, would rise.
292
00:35:39,560 --> 00:35:43,820
In just 10 short years, they would
fight and create the Nation of Haiti,
293
00:35:44,320 --> 00:35:47,030
the truly first free republic
in America.
294
00:35:47,950 --> 00:35:52,200
The only revolution that materialized
the ideal of enlightenment:
295
00:35:52,660 --> 00:35:56,040
freedom, fraternity,
and equality for all.
296
00:35:57,750 --> 00:36:02,710
In 1790, French colonist La Barre
wrote to his wife in France
297
00:36:03,210 --> 00:36:06,840
to reassure her of the peaceful state
of life in the Tropics:
298
00:36:09,010 --> 00:36:12,800
"There is no movement among our
Negroes. They don't even think of it.
299
00:36:13,510 --> 00:36:18,310
A revolt among them is impossible.
Freedom for Negroes is a chimera."
300
00:36:20,230 --> 00:36:21,770
Just a few months later,
301
00:36:21,940 --> 00:36:25,280
the events would ridicule
these racist assumptions.
302
00:36:27,320 --> 00:36:32,200
A nation is not an act of creation,
303
00:36:34,490 --> 00:36:36,950
but a process of growth.
304
00:36:38,250 --> 00:36:41,830
You will take the city of Cap Haitian,
305
00:36:44,210 --> 00:36:47,920
but only when it is reduced
to ashes.
306
00:36:49,260 --> 00:36:53,930
And even on those ashes,
I will fight you.
307
00:36:57,270 --> 00:36:58,770
What happened in Haiti
308
00:36:58,850 --> 00:37:02,230
contradicts most of what the West
has claimed about itself.
309
00:37:03,440 --> 00:37:05,940
The silencing of the Haitian Revolution
310
00:37:06,020 --> 00:37:08,690
is part of a narrative
of global domination.
311
00:37:09,940 --> 00:37:13,280
Nevertheless, the revolution played
a central role
312
00:37:13,370 --> 00:37:16,200
in the collapse of the entire system
of slavery
313
00:37:16,330 --> 00:37:18,620
and in the liberation of
Latin America.
314
00:37:19,950 --> 00:37:21,920
Haiti created the possible.
315
00:37:37,850 --> 00:37:41,350
The Haitian Revolution was unthinkable
even as it happened.
316
00:37:42,020 --> 00:37:46,520
But "unthinkable" only in the framework
of a self-centered Western thought.
317
00:37:47,320 --> 00:37:49,110
Unthinkable in the West,
318
00:37:49,190 --> 00:37:52,570
not only because it challenged
slavery and racism,
319
00:37:52,650 --> 00:37:54,660
but because of the way it did so.
320
00:37:54,990 --> 00:37:58,240
It was the ultimate test
of the universalist pretensions
321
00:37:58,620 --> 00:38:01,500
of both the French
and the American revolutions.
322
00:38:02,750 --> 00:38:04,620
And they both failed that test.
323
00:38:06,460 --> 00:38:08,670
Confronted with this "unthinkable",
324
00:38:08,750 --> 00:38:13,170
Napoleon sent 65,000 troops
to reestablish slavery in Haiti.
325
00:38:14,180 --> 00:38:17,010
His whole army was defeated
within two years.
326
00:38:17,600 --> 00:38:20,350
Forcing him to renounce
his American dreams
327
00:38:20,470 --> 00:38:23,020
and sell all
of his American properties.
328
00:38:23,560 --> 00:38:28,230
The so-called "Louisiana Purchase"
doubled the size of the United States
329
00:38:28,770 --> 00:38:30,570
and, through this added power,
330
00:38:30,690 --> 00:38:34,490
would accelerate the conquest
of the rest of Indian territories.
331
00:38:35,570 --> 00:38:39,330
The debt owed to Haiti still
remains to be paid.
332
00:38:51,380 --> 00:38:52,800
I fell in love in Rome.
333
00:38:53,380 --> 00:38:55,260
I made my first film in Berlin.
334
00:38:55,880 --> 00:38:58,340
My parents spent 25 years in Africa.
335
00:38:59,100 --> 00:39:02,560
My daughter was born in Uganda
and went to school in New Jersey.
336
00:39:03,430 --> 00:39:07,810
One brother works for the Semin�les,
the other won an Emmy...
337
00:39:08,650 --> 00:39:13,070
My older brother spent two years
in Vietnam and even more with PTSD.
338
00:39:14,110 --> 00:39:15,610
Who are we?
339
00:39:15,950 --> 00:39:20,410
I have taught filmmaking from Norway
to Lebanon and from New York to Lom�.
340
00:39:21,410 --> 00:39:22,830
Who am I?
341
00:39:23,200 --> 00:39:27,580
Who am I in this official pre-approved
Eurocentric classification?
342
00:39:29,670 --> 00:39:31,210
Bonding...
343
00:39:31,290 --> 00:39:37,590
Helping each other, walking
together, loving each other!
344
00:39:37,930 --> 00:39:40,010
That's why I love the young!
345
00:39:43,510 --> 00:39:45,680
I once followed a charismatic man
346
00:39:45,890 --> 00:39:49,560
whom I revered and who
one day betrayed his people.
347
00:39:50,690 --> 00:39:52,360
I made a film about him too.
348
00:39:53,860 --> 00:39:55,030
Who am I?
349
00:39:55,320 --> 00:39:57,740
De Cuba traigo un Cantar.
Raoul Peck. 1982
350
00:39:57,820 --> 00:40:01,950
I have traveled to many places.
And have never called them my own.
351
00:40:02,620 --> 00:40:04,790
And no violence
was ever involved.
352
00:40:05,370 --> 00:40:07,080
Places where I lived.
353
00:40:07,160 --> 00:40:08,580
Places where I worked.
354
00:40:08,710 --> 00:40:12,340
Places where I loved
and sometimes was loved.
355
00:40:13,250 --> 00:40:16,050
I played war in the streets
of L�opoldville.
356
00:40:16,800 --> 00:40:19,010
I rode a bicycle in Katanga.
357
00:40:19,840 --> 00:40:21,720
I built houses in Cuba.
358
00:40:23,220 --> 00:40:24,890
Who am I?
359
00:40:29,230 --> 00:40:30,940
During the sixteenth century,
360
00:40:31,100 --> 00:40:33,820
England began its brutal
conquest of Ireland
361
00:40:34,070 --> 00:40:38,690
and declared half a million acres of
land in the north open to settlement.
362
00:40:41,160 --> 00:40:42,740
Under British colonial rule,
363
00:40:43,160 --> 00:40:47,700
the Irish were regarded as a lower
species and naturally inferior.
364
00:40:49,000 --> 00:40:51,870
They were descendants of apes,
while of course,
365
00:40:51,960 --> 00:40:54,380
the English were descendants
of "man,"
366
00:40:54,500 --> 00:40:57,380
who had been created by God
"in his own image."
367
00:40:58,550 --> 00:41:00,420
The English were "angels."
368
00:41:01,300 --> 00:41:03,260
But Britain's Irish policies
369
00:41:03,390 --> 00:41:07,310
brought economic ruin to Ireland's
wool and linen industries.
370
00:41:07,970 --> 00:41:10,390
The invaders became losers.
371
00:41:10,520 --> 00:41:13,060
This pushed nearly a quarter
of a million
372
00:41:13,150 --> 00:41:16,860
Calvinist Scots-lrish colonizers
to leave Ireland
373
00:41:16,940 --> 00:41:18,860
for British North America.
374
00:41:19,190 --> 00:41:21,650
One of history's greatest migrations.
375
00:41:23,160 --> 00:41:25,830
But as foot soldiers of British
empire-building
376
00:41:26,080 --> 00:41:29,660
and even before ever encountering
Indigenous Americans,
377
00:41:29,910 --> 00:41:34,460
the Scots-lrish had already practiced
scalping for bounty, on the Irish.
378
00:41:51,560 --> 00:41:55,230
Theodore Roosevelt said of his
Scots-lrish ancestors:
379
00:41:56,020 --> 00:41:58,020
"They were a grim, stern people.
380
00:41:58,150 --> 00:42:01,150
Strong and simple, powerful in good
and evil,
381
00:42:01,490 --> 00:42:06,700
relentless, revengeful, suspicious.
Knowing neither ruth, nor pity.
382
00:42:07,280 --> 00:42:11,000
They were of all men the best
fitted to conquer the wilderness
383
00:42:11,080 --> 00:42:13,080
and to hold it against all comers.
384
00:42:13,960 --> 00:42:16,000
They made up the officer corps
385
00:42:16,290 --> 00:42:18,630
and were soldiers of the regular army
386
00:42:18,750 --> 00:42:22,420
as well as the frontier-ranging
militias that cleared areas
387
00:42:22,550 --> 00:42:25,680
for settlement by exterminating
Indigenous farmers
388
00:42:25,840 --> 00:42:27,640
and destroying their towns.
389
00:42:28,550 --> 00:42:32,640
They served in slave patrols as well
as in the Confederate Army.
390
00:42:33,430 --> 00:42:36,900
They regarded themselves as chosen
people of the covenant,
391
00:42:37,020 --> 00:42:41,690
commanded by God to go into the
wilderness to build the new Israel.
392
00:42:42,780 --> 00:42:45,700
I, Franklin Delano Roosevelt,
do solemnly swear
393
00:42:46,700 --> 00:42:48,910
that I will faithfully execute
394
00:42:49,240 --> 00:42:52,160
the office of president
of the United States.
395
00:42:53,200 --> 00:42:57,750
All modern nation-states claim
a kind of rationalized origin story
396
00:42:58,170 --> 00:43:01,960
upon which they fashion patriotism
or loyalty to the state.
397
00:43:02,510 --> 00:43:04,260
So help me God!
398
00:43:05,840 --> 00:43:07,640
So help me God!
399
00:43:10,640 --> 00:43:13,180
According to God's
unfathomable will,
400
00:43:13,310 --> 00:43:15,940
one is born as part
of the elect or not.
401
00:43:16,390 --> 00:43:20,150
And being elected gives you the right
to implement God's will
402
00:43:20,360 --> 00:43:22,270
and eliminate the native people.
403
00:43:23,320 --> 00:43:25,860
Because individuals could
not know for certain
404
00:43:25,990 --> 00:43:28,070
if they were among
the elected or not,
405
00:43:28,610 --> 00:43:31,830
material wealth became
the manifestation of election.
406
00:43:32,830 --> 00:43:35,160
Conversely, bad fortune and poverty,
407
00:43:35,500 --> 00:43:39,080
not to speak of dark skin,
became evidence of damnation.
408
00:43:41,000 --> 00:43:44,050
The attractiveness of such a doctrine
is quite obvious,
409
00:43:44,340 --> 00:43:46,590
commented historian Donald Akenson.
410
00:43:47,840 --> 00:43:51,100
The natives are immutably
profane and damned,
411
00:43:51,850 --> 00:43:54,970
while oneself is predestined to virtue.
412
00:43:56,140 --> 00:43:59,230
The Puritans
who founded the Massachusetts colony
413
00:43:59,350 --> 00:44:01,190
endorsed this virtue.
414
00:44:02,400 --> 00:44:07,070
Forty-one of the "pilgrims," all men,
wrote and signed the compact.
415
00:44:07,610 --> 00:44:10,950
Invoking God's name, while
planting the First Colony.
416
00:44:15,450 --> 00:44:18,960
The United States is supposedly
a "nation of immigrants."
417
00:44:19,670 --> 00:44:24,000
But this assumption masks a reality
of over three centuries of violence.
418
00:44:27,590 --> 00:44:28,920
According to the myth,
419
00:44:29,050 --> 00:44:32,470
the faithful citizens come together
of their own free will
420
00:44:33,220 --> 00:44:35,970
and pledge to each other
and to their god
421
00:44:36,060 --> 00:44:38,640
to form and support a godly society,
422
00:44:39,270 --> 00:44:43,860
and their god in turn vouchsafes them
prosperity in a promised land.
423
00:44:46,780 --> 00:44:48,650
But for non-European immigrants,
424
00:44:48,820 --> 00:44:51,910
no matter how much might they strive
to prove themselves
425
00:44:51,990 --> 00:44:56,790
to be as hardworking and patriotic as
descendants of the original settlers,
426
00:44:57,490 --> 00:44:59,080
they are suspect.
427
00:44:59,460 --> 00:45:02,330
To be accepted,
they must prove their fidelity
428
00:45:02,420 --> 00:45:04,750
to the covenant
and what it stands for.
429
00:45:08,840 --> 00:45:11,130
They must endeavor
to embrace whiteness
430
00:45:11,300 --> 00:45:14,550
and look down on descendants
of enslaved Africans,
431
00:45:14,930 --> 00:45:16,850
the Indigenous, and Mexicans,
432
00:45:17,640 --> 00:45:20,100
none of whom, of course,
are immigrants.
433
00:45:26,940 --> 00:45:32,110
It was a messy night, not Thursday
anymore, but not yet Friday.
434
00:45:41,250 --> 00:45:46,290
This is Howard Zinn. Probably the most
decisive historian of this country.
435
00:45:48,340 --> 00:45:52,970
This is Roxanne Dunbar Ortiz.
A respected historian as well.
436
00:45:53,470 --> 00:45:57,430
Her father was Scots-lrish
and she once married a famous poet.
437
00:45:59,890 --> 00:46:02,140
Howard and Roxanne are friends.
438
00:46:03,480 --> 00:46:06,980
When Howard published "A People's
History of the United States,"
439
00:46:07,770 --> 00:46:11,190
it immediately became a milestone
in the deconstruction
440
00:46:11,280 --> 00:46:13,450
of the official American narrative.
441
00:46:14,820 --> 00:46:19,080
A distinguished white scholar was
for once questioning the dream
442
00:46:19,540 --> 00:46:21,500
and telling the story differently.
443
00:46:25,330 --> 00:46:27,460
One day, Roxanne asked Howard
444
00:46:27,540 --> 00:46:30,750
why he left out parts
of the Native people's story.
445
00:46:32,210 --> 00:46:35,430
Howard listened quietly,
then confessed:
446
00:46:36,180 --> 00:46:37,970
"I don't know how to write it."
447
00:46:38,180 --> 00:46:39,850
"Why don't you write it?"
448
00:46:41,470 --> 00:46:45,140
So, Roxanne did. Putting Native
Americans at the center.
449
00:46:45,770 --> 00:46:48,360
And knowing that it was
going to be painful.
450
00:46:50,570 --> 00:46:53,030
I met Howard long
before I met Roxanne.
451
00:46:53,490 --> 00:46:57,160
And when I met Roxanne, Howard had
died a few years earlier.
452
00:46:57,820 --> 00:47:00,580
And Howard never read Roxanne's
finished book.
453
00:47:02,200 --> 00:47:05,460
I learned from Howard,
Roxanne and Michel-Rolph.
454
00:47:05,870 --> 00:47:07,790
As we learn from our elders.
455
00:47:09,040 --> 00:47:13,300
From them, I learned to favor
the collective over the individual,
456
00:47:14,210 --> 00:47:18,050
to look for the "we"
before indulging in the "I"
457
00:47:18,140 --> 00:47:22,430
and to always place oneself
"within the world," not above.
458
00:47:24,560 --> 00:47:25,980
Learning years.
459
00:47:34,820 --> 00:47:38,780
Contrary to what has been asserted
about the birth of the United States
460
00:47:39,030 --> 00:47:41,330
and its domination of the continent,
461
00:47:41,660 --> 00:47:44,700
it was neither superior weapons
nor technology,
462
00:47:44,790 --> 00:47:47,920
nor a superior number of settlers,
nor disease,
463
00:47:48,080 --> 00:47:51,670
that is to say, not "guns,
steel, and germs"
464
00:47:51,840 --> 00:47:53,460
that can account for it.
465
00:47:54,630 --> 00:47:58,260
The determining factor of this
domination was the willingness
466
00:47:58,380 --> 00:48:02,930
to eliminate whole civilizations of
people in order to possess their land.
467
00:48:04,680 --> 00:48:06,310
The case of Andrew Jackson,
468
00:48:06,480 --> 00:48:10,350
The 7th president of
the United States is a telling story.
469
00:48:12,190 --> 00:48:15,940
Andrew Jackson is enshrined in most
US history texts
470
00:48:16,280 --> 00:48:18,950
in a chapter titled
'The Age of Jackson,'
471
00:48:19,320 --> 00:48:22,700
'The Age of Democracy,'
'The Birth of Democracy,'
472
00:48:22,870 --> 00:48:25,080
or some variation thereon.
473
00:48:26,120 --> 00:48:30,920
Jackson's family personified
the Protestant Scots-lrish migration.
474
00:48:32,540 --> 00:48:36,710
He was an influential Tennessee
land speculator, politician
475
00:48:36,840 --> 00:48:40,340
and wealthy owner of a slave
plantation, near Nashville,
476
00:48:40,680 --> 00:48:44,220
worked by a 150 slaves:
The Hermitage.
477
00:48:46,010 --> 00:48:50,520
Jackson bought his first slave,
a young woman, in 1788.
478
00:48:50,980 --> 00:48:52,440
He was 21 years old.
479
00:48:54,730 --> 00:48:58,940
When Tennessee became a state,
he was elected at the age of 29,
480
00:48:59,440 --> 00:49:01,360
as its first US senator.
481
00:49:01,910 --> 00:49:03,910
An office he quit after a year
482
00:49:03,990 --> 00:49:06,830
to become a judge
in the Tennessee Supreme Court.
483
00:49:08,580 --> 00:49:12,500
As a judge, he was in a better
position to seize Native lands.
484
00:49:14,670 --> 00:49:19,380
It was in 1801 that Jackson first took
command of the Tennessee militia
485
00:49:19,760 --> 00:49:24,140
as a colonel and began his
Indian-killing military career.
486
00:49:25,180 --> 00:49:28,350
In 1821, by then a national hero,
487
00:49:28,850 --> 00:49:32,480
Jackson became military governor
of the Florida territory.
488
00:49:33,940 --> 00:49:36,940
In 1829,
Jackson became president.
489
00:49:38,360 --> 00:49:42,150
By that time, it was already clear
that this new nation
490
00:49:42,320 --> 00:49:44,910
called the United States of America
491
00:49:45,070 --> 00:49:49,580
needed a clear and decisive policy
toward the first Americans.
492
00:49:51,410 --> 00:49:53,290
It was their land after all.
493
00:49:57,920 --> 00:50:01,920
1830, Congress passed
the "Indian Removal Act."
494
00:50:03,050 --> 00:50:06,510
Andrew Jackson immediately
pushed through to forcibly deport
495
00:50:06,640 --> 00:50:09,600
all Indigenous peoples
from East of the Mississippi
496
00:50:09,680 --> 00:50:12,480
to what they would
then call "Indian Territory."
497
00:50:15,020 --> 00:50:19,360
The Semin�les, in Florida, were one of
the Nations which firmly resisted.
498
00:50:20,480 --> 00:50:22,110
Jackson sent in the Army.
499
00:50:25,490 --> 00:50:29,780
And as usual, when a power decides
to "solve" a problem,
500
00:50:30,240 --> 00:50:36,080
especially if it includes the removal
of whole peoples, it turns ugly.
501
00:51:05,570 --> 00:51:10,370
Quartermaster General Thomas Sidney
Jesup was made commander of that force.
502
00:51:11,160 --> 00:51:15,160
He would become the embodiment
of every other henchman in history.
503
00:53:23,080 --> 00:53:26,920
Treaty of the Hickory Ground, 1814
504
00:53:27,000 --> 00:53:29,670
A treaty is an agreement signed
by two nations,
505
00:53:30,170 --> 00:53:34,590
in order to establish borders and
conditions for their mutual survival.
506
00:53:35,010 --> 00:53:37,310
Council at Medicine Lodge Creek
Kansas, 1867
507
00:53:37,430 --> 00:53:41,020
But nevertheless, from 1832 to 1871,
508
00:53:41,480 --> 00:53:44,770
American Indians were arbitrarily
considered to be
509
00:53:44,850 --> 00:53:46,730
domestic dependent tribes.
510
00:53:47,070 --> 00:53:51,030
And as such any treaty had
to be approved by the US Congress.
511
00:53:54,410 --> 00:53:55,870
Andrew Jackson said
512
00:53:55,990 --> 00:54:00,790
to Secretary of war John Caldwell
Calhoun of Scotch-lrish descent,
513
00:54:01,120 --> 00:54:03,920
who considered
slavery as a necessary evil:
514
00:54:04,920 --> 00:54:09,710
"I think making treaties with Indians
is not only useless but absurd."
515
00:54:11,420 --> 00:54:14,300
Indeed, to accept the term treaty
516
00:54:14,380 --> 00:54:17,510
was to tacitly
accept the notion of Nation.
517
00:54:19,720 --> 00:54:21,430
During the Jacksonian period,
518
00:54:21,600 --> 00:54:24,230
also called "the birth
of the white republic,"
519
00:54:24,640 --> 00:54:27,480
the United States made
eighty-six treaties
520
00:54:27,560 --> 00:54:31,730
with twenty-six Indigenous nations
between New York and the Mississippi,
521
00:54:32,280 --> 00:54:36,030
all of them forcing land handovers,
and including removals.
522
00:54:38,120 --> 00:54:40,700
And then,
they signed treaty after treaty,
523
00:54:41,950 --> 00:54:44,330
which were violated
one after the other.
524
00:55:39,090 --> 00:55:42,640
Famous French aristocrat
and writer, Alexis de Tocqueville,
525
00:55:43,010 --> 00:55:47,390
witnessed part of what would become
known as the "Trail of Tears."
526
00:55:48,020 --> 00:55:51,270
He was present at the deportation
of the Choctaw people.
527
00:55:53,070 --> 00:55:56,990
I saw with my own eyes several
of the cases of misery
528
00:55:57,280 --> 00:55:59,530
which I have been describing.
529
00:56:00,450 --> 00:56:02,700
I was the witness of sufferings
530
00:56:02,870 --> 00:56:05,330
which I have not
the power to portray.
531
00:56:06,410 --> 00:56:10,580
No cry, no sob.
All were silent.
532
00:58:20,760 --> 00:58:24,010
Life? Race?
Patriotism?
533
00:58:24,970 --> 00:58:26,720
What is a flag?
534
00:58:26,800 --> 00:58:31,180
A piece of cloth to die for?
Or to kill for?
535
00:58:32,850 --> 00:58:34,810
Explain in two words.
536
00:59:30,280 --> 00:59:33,990
To be continued...
45945
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