The Universal Language of Freemasonry - ArchiMeD - Johannes ...

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Chapter 3 - Overview of Rites
That black pride is shaped and limited by the white standards of what
one should be proud of is strikingly illustrated where black Masons
have traditionally attempted to be most aggressive in their self-image:
their claims that the blacks are the descendants of the ancient Egyptians.
[...] The linking of Afro-Americans with Egyptians makes sense only in
terms of the silent dialogue between whites and blacks in America. It
means that middle-class blacks accept white evaluations of what
civilization and culture are (i.e. Pyramids "yes," Bantu villages "no"),
and gains its nationalistic and prideful quality of turning the tables on
the dominant race only after the white man's ground rules have been
accepted. 259
We can only understand this peculiarity of black Masonic "history" when we
keep in mind the status of the black slaves in America, and the wish of the black
Mason, who belongs to a black elite, to depart forever from this slavery image.
Therefore, black Masons prefer to be identified rather with a Biblical people of
slaveholders than with one of slaves, as it is true for white Masons when they
trace themselves back to Solomon, king of the Jews, a race enslaved by the
Egyptians. Thus, the black Masons, for psychological reasons, reverse the
master-slave-relationship:
To the whites the Egyptians were the great builder race, the fathers of
Mediterranean and, therefore of Western civilization. To claim descent
from them was, first, to accept white values of what greatness was and,
second, to present oneself to whites as deserving of their solicitude.
(The fact that the Egyptians held the Jews in bondage and were
slaveholders, not slaves, may not, on some deeper level, be displeasing
to many middle-class blacks who want to forget their history of bondage
in America.) 260
For reasons of establishing race-pride among their members, black Masons
have challenged their white counterparts who refused them legitimacy by
denying them Masonic regularity with a falsified historical conception. The
inheritance of an alleged Masonic past furnishes the blacks with a glorious
history, contrary to their image as a marginalized, underprivileged, oppressed
group coming out of slavery and fighting apartheid. As Muraskin quotes from
Californian Proceedings, dating 1936, " 'Indeed, the black Mason is not even a
member of the 'profane' world, since 'In the strict and ancient and technical sense
of the word Masons are a 'peculiar' people - a people dedicated and set apart.' " 261
Thus, the blacks can consider themselves a 'chosen people' that is distinguished
from the profanes and intended to lead the world. This chosen group alone is
invested with the knowledge of a "mystery" that remains incomprehensible for
259 Muraskin, p. 212/213.
260 Muraskin, p. 212/213.
261 Ibid, p. 198.