Sign into an existing account

This book is just a list of black invention myths

Reviewed in the United States on February 24, 2023

This seems to just be a list of black invention myths. Let's go through the example pages in the images.

First page:
Why couldn’t Timothy listen to music? Electronics, speakers, and even the only replicable musical notation were invented by white people, not black.
This seems to be insinuating that the elevator was invented by a black person, which is an oft repeated myth. Alexander Miles did not invent the elevator, he simply improved upon an existing automatic door closing mechanism (which hasn’t been used in elevators in well over a century).

Second page:
Frederick Jones did not invent the refrigerated truck in 1938, refrigerated trucks (as well as rail cars and shipping containers) had been in use for decades before this. He simply took an existing refrigeration unit and attached it to a truck, albeit in a new and useful way at the time. Jones was also half Irish and half black.

Third page:
I can’t read most of these, the image is too small. The one I am familiar with is the 2nd, Patricia Bath who many falsely claim invented cataract eye surgery. She developed, and named, a new method of cataract eye surgery that improved upon the current process that was in use for a decade.

Fourth page:
It seems Timothy still can’t listen to music because all he knows about is reggae and rap. This says pop but I have yet to see any argument how blacks invented pop music.

Fifth page:
Alexander Miles again, refer back to my comments on the first page.
Frederick Jones, again refer to my comments on the 2nd page. I also find it interesting they drew him extremely dark, he was only half black and was light skinned if you see an actual photograph of him.
Osbourn Dorsey improved upon an existing doornob, but did not invent the first one ever.
Phillip Downing improved upon an existing mailbox, but he did not invent the mailbox.
Thomas Stewart got a patent on a mop with a clamp, but it was hardly the first or the best mop patented at the time.
Richard Spikes was not the first to invent turn signals, he had a patent that was used once on one car. He did not invent the automatic gear shift, those had been around for nearly 30 years already, as had automatic brakes.
Garret Morgan did not invent traffic signals, those had been invented for 50 years. His traffic signal was simply a cross shape where the side pieces could be raised by someone pulling on a rope. It was never used anywhere and obsolete before he ever patented it.

This entire book seems to just be the author’s inability to understand that just because someone holds a patent for something doesn’t mean they invented the first iteration of whatever it is. I could come up with a new spoke design for a wheel and get it patented but that doesn’t mean I am the inventor of the wheel.

The question about this book is this: did the author write it not knowing these were all wrong? In which case she (and the editors and publisher) should be ashamed of how little effort fact checking they did. Or did they know they were wrong and publish anyways? If so, are they just doing it for the money? Or for propaganda?