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Telegraph.co.uk reports that 'A Black History Month website' has made claims such as :

[white people are the] genetically defective descendants of albino mutants

[white man can] “fantasise that he is genetically equal to the black male”.

Telegraph did not mention which website was in question, nor was there direct link to (archived) source. Archives of most likely source blackhistorymonth.org.uk/ has many edits and rudimentary search yielded me with nothing.

Thus, source is wrong or claims never existed. Either way, I remain skeptical.

Did 'A Black History Month website' make claims that whites are genetically inferior?

If so, which site?

David Hammen
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pinegulf
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    Lost in all this is that the core of the Telegraph story was that government agencies were somehow spending money on ads that appeared next to the content in question. – jeffronicus Oct 06 '21 at 01:28
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    Deleted an, at times, heated and unhelpful discussion. In summary: Yes, this is notable. Yes, newspapers sometimes don't link to the websites they are talking about. No, we don't trust news sites implicitly. No, the OP doesn't *know* what site they are talking about, but is making a reasonable guess. Let's now focus on the answers. – Oddthinking Oct 06 '21 at 05:28
  • I can't say about this supposed expression of the idea, but I can say that it is not new. I've seen it expressed in many places. My understanding has it originating in the 1970s, ironically after the CRA made it much easier for blacks to attend college. It's basically the same as the old 1800s scientific racism, with the superior/inferior parties switched (but maybe more theoretical, and less about measuring skulls and whatever). –  Oct 06 '21 at 18:36
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    Not what the question is about, but I'd like to point out that this is genetically illiterate nonsense. These claims do not match the available evidence about skin colour evolution nor the mechanisms of skin colour. – Jack Aidley Oct 06 '21 at 19:02
  • @fredsbend I'd say it lacks the veneer of rationality (as misguided and biased as it was) of that kind of scientific racism. A lot of "Black Supremacists" seem to have beliefs that sit with the most extreme conspiracy theories, some well into the supernatural, and are far more like their modern white supremacist counterparts. – Crazymoomin Oct 07 '21 at 17:41
  • @Crazymoomin Well, the mysticism/occultism illustrated in the top answer certainly is a new one to me, so if that's typical of this idea's adherents, you're probably right. Regardless, "genetic albino mutants" is a scientific claim at least, so I'd actually be happy with a question on whether that's even plausible. –  Oct 07 '21 at 21:07
  • @fredsbend Fair point, though I'd argue it is still different than most 1800's scientific racism. While that certainly presented non-white people as primitive and inferior, little better than livestock in some cases, it rarely considered them "defective", some kind of aberration of the natural order. The ideal world to them was a hierarchy with white people on top, not a world where non-white people didn't exist. – Crazymoomin Oct 07 '21 at 22:31
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    blackhistorymonth.io is currently available for $60. If I bought it and hosted a website on it claiming "the sky is orange" then the headline "A black history month website claims the sky is orange" would be true, but not meaningful. The article linked by OP even points out that organizers have disavowed the website, which they had nothing to do with creating. Of course this is not reflected at all in the headline, because the attack pattern in use is "incite racism in the headline, cover your ass in the body which no one reads" – QuadmasterXLII Oct 08 '21 at 03:41
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    @QuadmasterXLII: You're right that the existence of a website would, by itself, seem pretty disinteresting -- since, yeah, there're plenty of wacky websites out there. However, when a publication like the Telegraph reports on something like this, there's an implicit claim that the subject of their reporting is newsworthy -- this is, that the website is somehow notable. As such, a good answer to this question would need to establish not just that the website exists, but also address that implicit claim of its notability. – Nat Oct 08 '21 at 13:19
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    @QuadmasterXLII: The answers below provide evidence for that implicit-claim by discussing the background, e.g. commenting on Frances Cress Welsing and "_Melanin Theory_". By contrast, if someone posted an answer that merely linked the website, it'd have failed to address the implicit claim of that website's notability. – Nat Oct 08 '21 at 13:24
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    (To avoid confusion about notability: The Telegraph is generally considered a notable source at SE.Skeptics, so their claim's notability was accepted. The implicit-claim about the website discussed by the Telegraph being notable is a separate issue.) – Nat Oct 08 '21 at 13:27
  • By analogy: if someone put up a website at "Irish-American-Heritage-Month.com" that advocated for white supremacy, then the headline "Irish American Heritage Month website advocates white supremacy" would be misleading, because it would give the impression that the organizers of Irish American Heritage Month are racist to the 80% of people who only read the headline. Finding a racist irish person on twitter or even on a university staff would not be justification for publishing that headline. – QuadmasterXLII Oct 08 '21 at 13:35

3 Answers3

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It is indeed the site that you found. The article was entitled "Frances Cress Welsing: Melanin Theory". Frances Cress Welsing was a homophobic black supremacist writer. She claimed that the melanin in the skin of black Americans is able to talk to plants and can pick up signals from outer space and sense the existence of extrasolar planets. The website also had a part 2 and part 3 which credited Welsing with "changing our conversations on racism".

The Telegraph article notes that this website is privately run, "controlled by a white man," and that "one of the founders of the Black History Month celebration" complained about the website. It's not clear what this privately run website has to do with the UK's Black History Month. Anyone can create a website about anything.

Avery
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    According to Temple University faculty member and Black author Liron Anderson-Bell, Dr. Welsing was a "Renowned race scholar and activist... a vocal Afrocentrist and globally-respected educator, well-known among both progressive and radical Black activist circles." https://wurdradio.com/dr-frances-cress-welsing-transitions-at-age-80/ – DavePhD Oct 05 '21 at 15:06
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    She was also eulogized on NPR. https://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2016/01/02/461765446/activists-mourn-race-theorist-dr-frances-cress-welsing – Avery Oct 05 '21 at 15:18
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    @jwenting there are plenty of official government approved websites for local municipalities, e.g. https://www.lbbd.gov.uk/black-history-month – Avery Oct 06 '21 at 08:58
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    Some other examples, https://www.devon.gov.uk/equality/communities/race/bhm https://www.brighton-hove.gov.uk/news/2021/black-history-month-2021 – Avery Oct 06 '21 at 09:35
  • Does the UK even have a BHM? – mckenzm Oct 06 '21 at 10:17
  • @mckenzm recently a little bit https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_History_Month?wprov=sfti1 – Tim Oct 07 '21 at 07:34
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    +1, great find! The article reads a bit more like a review of her work, which also points out "critiques of Welsing’s theory". It suffers from false balance ("equally plausible", etc), and is definitely not critical enough about the subject, but I wouldn't say that the website itself "call[ed] white people 'genetically defective'" (just as websites documenting white supremacists and their viewpoints aren't making white supremacist claims, but just, well, documenting them). – tim Oct 07 '21 at 09:31
  • @mckenzm It's been promoted for a couple of years now, but when it's about 3% vs. 16% of the population, it's understandably less popular. IMO, a Indian/Pakistani History Month makes more sense to me in the UK, though I guess BHM might include them too. – Crazymoomin Oct 07 '21 at 17:44
  • Found [Frances Cress Welsing](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frances_Cress_Welsing)'s primary work [on Amazon.com: "_The Isis Yssis Papers: The Keys to the Colors_"](https://www.amazon.com/dp/1602819599). – Nat Oct 08 '21 at 13:34
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    Just read Welsing's book. It starts off arguing that an African mother abandoned her albino children, who then founded the basis for white-culture: the Roman Empire. Since then, whites have been fighting for survival, fearful that, as defects, they'd be eliminated by others' inherent superiority. In accordance with Einstein's Theory of General Relativity, all energy in the universe is connected, and all symbols reflect on the racial power dynamic. Then, the second half of the book explains how everything's penises. (Except Chapter 10, which is about testicles.) – Nat Oct 08 '21 at 16:01
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    The number of Amazon reviews is impressive – Avery Oct 08 '21 at 16:09
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    I'm confused as to if the reviews and such are real. I mean, there seems to be a lot of positive feedback about the book. But at the same time, it's _really_ silly. I mean, the central theme for the bulk of the book relates everything to penises. Complete with sketches of penises! And Chapter 10 ends with: **"_Ball games = war of the balls = war of the testicles = war of the genes = race war._"** (in bold, given its own paragraph). But then people refer to the author as a "_Dr._" and claim that it's intellectual. ...are they being serious, or is this one big joke, or what? – Nat Oct 08 '21 at 16:49
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    If you want to know how seriously people take it, check out this Twitter search https://twitter.com/search?q=%20Frances%20Welsing&src=typed_query&f=live – Avery Oct 08 '21 at 18:49
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Here's a cache'd snippet from Duck Duck Go pointing to this article.

snippet of blackhistorymonth.org calling white people "Genetically Defective Mutants"

https://www.blackhistorymonth.org.uk/article/section/science-and-medicine/frances-cress-welsing-melanin-theory/

This now 404's

Here's an archive link to the actual article:

https://web.archive.org/web/20210516082124/https://www.blackhistorymonth.org.uk/article/section/science-and-medicine/frances-cress-welsing-melanin-theory/

So to answer your questions, Yes- BlackHistoryMonth.org.uk posted an article that promoted the ideas of a late anti-white racist. This article was written by Abdul Rob, 08/01/2016.

Izzy
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    The actual article you linked to is a description and critique of the idea? As far as I can tell, it only "promotes" in that it "platforms" them (ie, talks about them). – Yakk Oct 06 '21 at 14:05
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    Oh? Exactly what critique was offered? I only noticed fawning from the author for the late "thinker." – Izzy Oct 07 '21 at 10:13
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It's not limited to one Black history website.

The site "Black Then: Discovering Our History" says:

Dr. Frances Cress Welsing is a psychiatrist who is noted for the “Cress Theory of Color Confrontation,” which explores the practice of ‘white supremacy.’ She is also the author of The Isis Papers: The Keys to the Colors, in which she explores the possibility that white people are the genetically defective descendants of albino mutants.

Dr. Welsing was born Frances Luella Cress in Chicago, Illinois on March 18, 1935. Her father, Henry N. Cress, was a physician, and her mother, Ida Mae.

In the 1960s, Dr.Welsing moved to Washington, D.C. and began her career practicing psychiatrist starting her career at Cook County Hospital as an intern, 1962-63. She also work at St. Elizabeth Hospital, resident in general psychiatry, 1963-66; Children’s Hospital, fellowship child psychiatry, 1966-68; private practice in general psychiatry, Washington, DC, 1966, and general and child psychiatry, Washington, DC, 1968; Howard University College of Medicine, assistant professor of pediatrics, 1968-75; Hillcrest Children’s Center, clinical director, 1975-76; affiliated with Paul Robeson School for Growth and Development, North Community Mental Health Center, Washington, DC, 1976-90.

In The Isis Papers, Dr. Welsing described the “melanin theory. The claim is that white people are the genetically defective descendants of albino mutants. She wrote that due to this “defective” mutation, they may have been forcibly expelled from Africa, among other possibilities. Racism, in the views of Welsing, is a conspiracy “to ensure white genetic survival.” She attributed AIDS and addiction to crack cocaine and other substances to “chemical and biological warfare” by whites.

According to Dr. Welsing's Isis Papers:

White skin is a form of albinism. There is no difference, microscopically speaking, between the white skin of a white person and the skin of a person designated as an albino. My central thesis here is that white- skinned peoples came into existence thousands of years ago as the albino mutant offsprings of black-skinned mothers and fathers in Africa. A sizeable number of these Black parents had produced, rejected and then cast out of the community their genetic defective albino offspring, to live away from the normal black skin-pigmented population with the awareness of their rejection and alienation (as in leper colonies).

See also the Black radio station website Wurdradio which has a January 2016 article written by Black author Liron Anderson-Bell which also explains:

In The Isis Papers, Dr. Welsing put forth Melanin Theory, which suggests that people of African descent are genetically superior and that whites are the genetically defective descendants of albino mutants who may have been expelled from the African continent.

DavePhD
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  • True — although the website in question in this case was rather more mainstream and associated directly with the popular Black History Month, I gather. Perhaps that is the reason this website was singled out. –  Oct 05 '21 at 17:20
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    I don’t think the existence of an extreme belief somewhere on the Internet addresses the question, though. – jeffronicus Oct 06 '21 at 01:21
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    I'm failing to see the question actually addressed in this answer as well. It seems the justification that this answer's content is relevant is a conflation of anthropological use of the word "history" and the social use of the word "history" in the phrase "black history month". –  Oct 07 '21 at 21:01
  • @fredsbend Blackthen.com is a Black History website with numerous articles about Black History Month such as "The Significance of Raising the Black Liberation Flag to Commemorate Black History Month" https://blackthen.com/the-significance-of-raising-the-black-liberation-flag-to-commemorate-black-history-month/ – DavePhD Oct 08 '21 at 01:48
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    After reviewing the question, I think I will take back my previous comment. It might be helpful however to show what gravity these websites have (typical viewers in a month, etc). Hopefully that can be used as a proxy to determine why the telegraph thought it was worth reporting. Also, "fringe creep" into mainstream matters. The website suspected in the question is not addressed here... –  Oct 12 '21 at 16:23