White scholars have regularly argued that the only role that Backs had played in Egypt during ancient times were those of slaves and low-ranking soldiers. However, in recent years, the more objective among them have changed their minds somewhat. Indeed, as the late Afrocentric scholar Asa G. Hilliard maintained, “They have quietly retreated into a multiracial Egypt.”

The most objective and intellectually honest discussion of the racial makeup of ancient Egypt I have found was in the September/October 1989 issue of Biblical Archaeology Review. Frank J. Yurco of the Field Museum of Natural History in Chicago, wrote an excellent article posing the question, “Were the Ancient Egyptians Black or White?”

In their book Race: The Reality of Human Differences, Vincent Sarich and Frank Miele write as though the Nubians were a low-achieving people. They write that depictions on the walls of the royal tombs show the Egyptians depicted as red, the “Asiatics” or Semites as yellow, the Southerners as black, and the Libyans, Westerners or Northerners, as white with blue eyes. (p. 33) However, on page 44, they acknowledge that one White scholar, M.J. Herskovits in Encyclopedia Britannica (XVI, 1960), described the Egyptians of ancient times as having “Reddish-brown to deep brownish-black” skin. (Not surprisingly, Sarich and Miele completely disregard a painting from an ancient Egyptian tomb in which Whites are believed to be slaves presented as gifts to the pharaoh from representatives of Ethiopia.)

Yurco wrote: “It is true that the Egyptians regularly distinguished themselves from foreigners living around them. But they did so in political terms. Foreigners were labeled by their regional or political names, and were depicted with distinctive features and dress.” (Biblical Archaeological Review, September/October 1989, p. 26.) Yurco went on to write: “Among the foreigners, the Nubians were closest ethnically to the Egyptians. In the late predynastic period (c. 3700-3150 B.C.E.), the Nubians shared the same culture as the Egyptians and even evolved the same pharaonic political structure.” (ibid.) Indeed, this is the prevailing view of most reputable Egyptologists today.

There was a great deal of mixing among the Egyptians. Pharaohs of particularly strong Nubian ancestry were found in several dynasties, such as the XIIth and the XXVth. Contrary to the claims of Afrocentrists, they would prevent other Nubians from coming into Egypt. Yurco wrote: “Why would this royal family [XIIth Dynasty] of Nubian ancestry ban other Nubians from coming into Egyptian territory? Because the Egyptian rulers of Nubian ancestry had become Egyptians culturally; as pharaohs, they exhibited typical Egyptian attitudes and adopted typical Egyptian policies.” P. 27)

None of this should be surprising. Ancient Egypt was a Nile Valley African civilization. Both Afrocentrists and Eurocentrists have been guilty of imposing modern-day conceptions of race on the ancient Egyptians. However, the ancient Egyptians simply cannot be so easily pigeonholed.

They were African. However, they mixed with others, and this seems to have benefited them greatly.

James G. Hamilton, M.D., of Durham, North Carolina, had studied the ancient Egyptians since 1969. In a letter to the editor of Biblical Archaeology Review, January/February 1990, he wrote:

. . . depictions of ancient Egyptians in funerary portraits, sculpture, reliefs, etc., clearly indicate a significant black African ethnic presence….My estimate is that approximately 39 percent of the genetic composition of the modern Egyptian population is of black African origin….I believe that the presence of a large black influence among the ancient Egyptians promoted what modern geneticists refer to as “hybrid vigor” in developing one of the most brilliant cultures of the ancient world. (p. 15)

Contrary to the claims of race scholars, Africans have made highly significant contributions to world civilization. Another great example of White scholars trying to hide this fact is the ancient palace wall at Zimbabwe. The wall was comprised of 15 tons of stone, and was considered to be an engineering marvel. However, white scholars simply could not believe that Blacks were capable of such an astounding feat, and they attributed it to a mysterious group of Whites.

And so it goes.

I have focused primarily on race scholars and their obsession with the supposed low intelligence of Black people. However, today, much of the focus is on the supposed low intelligence of Latinos.

Much of this is obviously politically motivated. Many Whites are, indeed, fearful of the fact that in a few decades, they will be a minority. For this reason, some of them want to repeat history and use IQ scores to decrease Latino immigration into the U.S.

However, Latinos also have a magnificent and complicated past, much like the Egyptians. Race scholars struggle with the fact that Latinos are not a race. They are comprised of Whites, Browns, Blacks, Reds, and mixtures thereof. In any case, race scholars totally disregard the great history of the Americas before the coming of the Europeans. Civilizations such as the Aztecs, the Mayans, and the Incas testify to the greatness and potential of people of Latino descent.

Finally, I offer the following news from the May 10, 2013 issue of USA TODAY:

In the span of just 12years, the percentage of Hispanic students headed to college has exploded, for the first time surpassing that of white classmates, a new report shows. Nearly seven in 10 Hispanic members of the high school class of 2012 - 69% - enrolled in either a two-or-four-year college last fall, up from 49% in 2000, even as overall rates remained flat. In 2012, 67% of white graduates headed straight to college, up from 64% in 2000. (p. 2A)

Read it and weep race scholars.