Wellesley Historian Calls Afrocentrism Mythology in Book: She Rejects White-Racism Charges

Innerst, Carol, The Washington Times (Washington, DC)

Neither Cleopatra nor Socrates was black.

The ancient Greeks did not steal their philosophy from Egyptian priests, and Aristotle didn't loot the library at Alexandria. The roots of Western civilization can't be traced to Africa.

Nevertheless, these are among the claims of the Afrocentrism movement, which thrives on many campuses, and Mary Lefkowitz, a professor of Greek classics at Wellesley, is trying to expose them as the myths they are.

The claim that ancient Egypt was a black African civilization whose philosophy and achievements formed the foundation of Western civilization is the underlying assumption of Afrocentrism. This movement was spawned by certain black academics determined to reclaim what they say is a glorious African past that was stolen or trashed by racist white historians.

This view has seeped into public and private school classrooms, including those in the District and Prince George's County, in the guise of multiculturalism.

It's all myth, writes Miss Lefkowitz, an expert on classical Greece who proceeds to tear down the tenets of Afrocentrism in her new book, "Not Out of Africa: How Afrocentrism Became an Excuse to …

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Publication information: Article title: Wellesley Historian Calls Afrocentrism Mythology in Book: She Rejects White-Racism Charges. Contributors: Innerst, Carol - Author. Newspaper title: The Washington Times (Washington, DC). Publication date: March 6, 1996. Page number: 2. © 2009 The Washington Times LLC. COPYRIGHT 1996 Gale Group.

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