is to women. When women are defined as helpless, whennthey are treated as if they are helpless, when they go alongnwith the charade and pretend to be helpless, they eventuallynbecome helpless. One would expect feminists, of all people,nto grasp this simple analogy, but like most free Americanncitizens nowadays, they go along to get along, and they willngo anywhere.nIt is now illegal in California to give blacks IQ tests.nAtlanta will follow suit if some educators there have theirnway. Noting that whites constitute only 6 percent of thencity’s public school enrollment but 45 percent of its giftednand talented program, Thelma Mumford-Glover, the programndirector, has devised a plan to get more blacks into it:nThe Alice-in-Wonderland insistence ofnIQ-test innovators that down is up, bad isngood, low is high; and the hystericalncontention of Egyptomaniacs that white isnliterally black, raise the question of whethernblacks as a group are becomingnmisanthropic.n”We recommend the elimination of IQ and achievementntests from the criteria.”nNancy Amuleru-Marshall, director of research for thenArianta public schools, seconded the motion with a statementnof such sublime ignorance of the connection betweennpremise and conclusion that it has to be read twice: “Anyntests that emphasize logical, analytical methods of problemsolvingnwill be biased against minorities.” The crimes thesenso-called educators can excuse and even persuade themselvesnto call virtues they do not blush to commit, so Atlantanis developing IQ tests based on “athletic ability, ‘streetnsmarts,’ and interpersonal skills.”nMeanwhile, the philosophers of Lilliput are busy in thenself-esteem division of affirmative action. Claimingnthat the study of Western civilization is “cultural genocide”nand “intellect victimization” aimed at blacks, Afrocentristsnare demanding that curricula at all levels be rewritten toninclude the contributions of black Africa — which assay outnto just about everything ever invented, written, and builtnthanks to the scholarly technique they have devised: thenmugging of ancient Egypt.nAround 1915 there was a popular vaudeville numberncalled “The Irish Were Egyptians Once.” Now a growingnband of black scholars is insisting that blacks were. This isnmore than educational pluralism or equal time. It is andeliberate attempt to denigrate and destroy Europeannculture, for by placing themselves in ancient Egypt, blacksncan claim that they antedated and influenced ancientnGreece, and thus take credit for all the seminal discoveries innmathematics, architecture, sculpture, astronomy, and philosophynthat make up Western civilization.nThis is precisely what they are doing. The leadingn26/CHRONICLESnnnEgyptomaniacs — Martin Bernal of Cornell, Asa G.nMilliard III of Georgia State, Theophile J. Obenga ofnGabon — contend that Greek philosophers “sat at the feet”nof black Egyptian priests, who taught them all they knew.nMilliard also claims that Rameses, King Tut, Moses, Cleopatra,nJesus, Buddha, and Aesop were black; and that studynat “the great African universities” was “fairly common”namong the ancestors of American slaves. He concludes:n”Since Africa is widely believed to be the birthplace of thenhuman race, it follows that Africa was the birthplace ofnmathematics and science.” It follows? If geometry andnstructural engineering had been based on that kind of logic,nthe pyramids would have collapsed on the Jewish slaves thatnthe black Egyptians owned.nThe most outiandish claim comes from an Oregonnteacher, Carolyn Leonard, who has solved the riddle of thenSphinx: “Napoleon shot ofT its nose to alter the facialnfeatures so people wouldn’t know it was African.” Thisnhappened to a lot of old statues, according to Leonard.n”They were not eroded by time, but deliberately altered tonrid them of the vestiges of African features.”nAfrocentrism is catching on. Stanford University hasnalready yielded once on the content of its Western Civilizationncourse and, having so readily shown weakness, will nondoubt be pressured to yield some more. SphinxologistnLeonard is ensconced in the Portland school system with thenglorious tide of Coordinator of the Multicultural-MultiethnicnEducation Office. The New York State Departmentnof Education has created a new “curriculum of inclusion.”nAnd in Washington, D.C., a former 60’s activist, AlbenanWalker, is conducting a “pilot program” in one elementarynschool. According to the Washington Times, her curriculumnemploys yoga. (“In through the noses, out through thenmouths. … all the spiritual sciences have their roots innAfrica. . . . Invoke your ancestors, breath in, breath out.”)nJohn Leo of U.S. News & World Report calls Afrocentrismn”a sort of Tawana Brawley theory of history, in whichnfacts do not matter, only resentments and group solidarity.”nHowever, Leo adds that when he called seven prominentnEgyptologists at random to ask their opinion on the BlacknEgypt theory, all seven said it was not true — “then askednthat their names not be used.” One told him it wasn”politically too hot” to get into.nEgyptologists tend to be dependent on grants fromnfoundations, which are dependent on government tax laws.nMost people erudite enough to dispute Afrocentrism arensucking on some public or semipublic tit, which explainsnwhy only four scholars so far have come forward to do battle.nTwo of them are unassailable emeriti of history almost asneternal as the pyramids themselves: Henry Steele Commagernand Arthur J. Schlesinger, Jr. The other two are WilliamnH. McNeill and Diane Ravitch, who was called “MissnDaisy” by the offended Egyptomaniacs.nThe four have formed the Committee of Scholars innDefense of History, but who will be brave enough to lendnthem public support? Certainly not the enterprising merchant,nthe thriving tradesman, the careful farmer, or the restnof our virtuous citizenry who do not wish to control society,nbut quietly to enjoy its protection and send their children tonits schools. They, who have little time or inclination for thenunprofitable and disquieting task of being called racists, willn