Abstract: 'The True History of an Oppressed People'

The diluted telling of American history comes down to the unambiguous bending, neglecting, and withholding of historical facts associated with American minorities for the betterment of an Ethnocentric historical narrative. Having analysed Assata: An Autobiography, several telling depictions of the impaired telling of American history are mentioned. The lengths of distance between what is taught in the American education system and what actually happened seem so far apart, that one can hardly rebuke the fact that the history of American minorities is diluted. Even if we consider that the historical examples from Assata’s Autobiography aren’t flawless and are subject to debate by historians. They are not compatible to what Americans perceive as the history of minorities in America. The external dictates and the constructed nature of Autobiographies are not to be neglected. Yet, it’s frail to dismiss the diluted telling of American history on the basis that all Autobiographies are subject to bias. If anything, it shows that no telling of history can be completely unbiased.

Concluding, Assata’s Autobiography tells a powerful first-hand experience of the perception of history. It tells the story of a women who always remained willing to learn and look critically at what was presented to her as historical fact. Assata: An Autobiography shows that finding the truth about history is a joined effort of critical discovery and analysis. Assata’s words teach us not to accept everything that’s presented to us, especially when it comes to the history of the oppressed minorities of America.