A Theory You've Never Heard Of | Michael Robinson | TEDxUniversityofHartford

This lecture underscores the importance of understanding the past on its own terms instead of projecting modern ideas and attitudes back into the past.

Guys. This man is explaining history and a theory that existed; not his personal views/opinions. He ends the video explaining why it's wrong and the damage it has caused and why it's important to remember. He is trying to understand the point of view of the theory's author. There is no racism in this video. If you see racism, it seems like the mr Magoo effect.

I'm Ethiopian. In Ethiopian you can find from the blackest to nearly white person. I think Ethiopians are the most diverse people in the world. And those people on the illusion are actually my ancestors. They live on the northern part of Ethiopia. That is how they use to live and dress back those days.

As a Native American (Purepecha, Kickapoo, Comanche) it was always so interesting to me and questionable the history of humanity being so lineal. I always thought there was much more to it, talking solely of the Americas there is evidence and indications of world wide populations being present in the hemisphere. Australian aboriginie DNA is found in some Native American nations, so is African and European vestiges pre dating Columbus are wide spread. The folklore of the world has so much in common

It's REALLY obvious that people commenting are not actually watching the video. He very clearly does not support this theory, he's outlining how it shaped European colonization of Africa. Watch the damn video before commenting.

I'm Rwandan and this theory is very right, the Hamatic theory literally caused the genocide, Tutsi and Hutu used to be social classes, but when this theory was weaponized and used as part of the divide and rule policy of the Belgium what was a social class became a different race. That's why so many Tutsi were thrown into rivers, it was to literally send them back to the Mediterranean Sea through the Nile River, where they supposedly came from.

The Mr Magoo hypothesis is spot on , on how humans filter out what they accept as the truth

Amazing talk. this talk makes me feel that, anthropology nowadays has been developed by hundreds of years, and near half of them are misrecorded, in African history, especially. I'm a stem student, but this video makes me give more attentions on the history and the development of different races.

I think people are confused because this looks like a lecture but it's only an ad for his book.

...and in 5 more years it’ll be presented to me for the third time as “a theory youve never heard of”....testing my memory or some algorithmic dingus...

As a good rule: Explanatory theory does not describe; descriptive theory does not explain. But, really, theories work not because they are irrefutable -- they work because they are a best "fit" for reality confirmation, and what is real here is just about anything that is fairly predictable.

Interesting. As a genealogist I recognize that many times there may be inaccuracies in paper recorded history, some errors made through simple recording mistakes, some through record translation problems, some through background and experience mistakes, and some through malicious intent, but what genetic genealogy is now showing us is that DNA testing and analysis doesn't lie. Perhaps the way to resolve some of these paper historical questions is to focus a bit more on DNA testing and analysis. However, I've tested with five current fairly large DNA testing companies and found that none of them agree with each other 100%, and that is largely because they all test different parts of the DNA string. But, one of the side benefits of most DNA testing lab results are the migration maps that are often provided, and they could perhaps help resolve some of the white tribe questions. But this effort, because of the numbers of potential records involved, might (would) take a lot of human effort and involvement. Perhaps a problem better resolved by computer, eh? But, would the human written computer algorithms be true, open, and honest, or would they be biased? Humans are such complex animals...

Those explorers very well may have misinterpreted what they saw, but "blonde" is a very specific descriptor that you can't mistake for anything else.

And there's the Dafaqarwi tribe. They are the ones in the long grass that jump up and down and shout "where Dafaqarwi?"

As an African, I can't help but feel bemused by the attitudes of these early European travelers. I refuse to concede that they "discovered" anything really, because all these people and places had their own identity and heritage long before their vessels littered our horizons. Further, I am deeply saddened to learn that early Africans accepted and adopted these ideas regarding themselves. However, I am glad that there are scholars out there seeking the truth, for its own sake. Thank you for your work, Mr. Robinson. Love from Kenya.

Very insightful information. I'd like to add that there are ancient tribes in Africa that were light skin resembling more Asiatic people, and it didn't have anything to do with white people, but perhaps positioning of how far from the equator they were. Also, you have to take into consideration the military movement from the west of Europe into those places. There are deserters or others that for some reason decide to switch or stay with the opposition, it happens more frequently than not. Americans staying in Vietnam after the conflict, buffalo soldiers switching sides in the conflict in the Philippines and on and on.

I am Ugandan. 🇺🇬 The entire story surrounds my place of origin (Western Region of Uganda) so I feel particularly touched by such a discovery. I have for long sought to find the cause of difference in color among the natives, which is usually attributed to intermarriages with foreign nations. This theory opens up a new field of discovery. Fascinating

Amazing talk...Never forget history is written by a person, or even worse by governments.

We are all brothers and sisters floating in space on a rock💯

I'm baffled as an anthropologist, why he finds it fascinating to find caucasoid DNA in Africa because the Northern African regions have caucasoids called Berbers.. you also have carthaginian DNA, and Greek DNA, Roman etc... I always feel it's better called Southern Mediterranean than North Africa!