Flutterby™! : getting over being on the losing side

Ta-Nehisi Coates: Nathan Bedford Forrest Has Beautiful Eyes, reflections on myth-making from the losing side:

I don't propose that blacks are alone in our myth-making, or in our desire to ennoble ourselves. But given the power dynamics of this society, we're the ones who can afford the comforts of myth the least. This is doubly true for those of us who are curious about the broader world. By the time I came to Howard University, I was beginning the painful process of breaking away from the "oppression as nobility" formula. But the clincher was sitting in my Black Diaspora I class and learning that the theory of white kidnappers was not merely myth--but, on the whole, impossible because disease (Tse-Tse fly maybe?) kept most whites from penetrating beyond the coasts until the 19th century.

Via a Mefi entry which pulls another quote: "The temptation to continue to lie, to see yourself as the victim in a grand play is formidable".