It's rare enough to see any real information on traditional peoples, so I half-watched a History Channel International documentary about Haitian voodoo while helping cook dinner and setting the table (On Monday, May 18, 2009).  After exploring two confirmed cases of people who had been turned into zombies and come back to tell about it, there was some talk from scientists who tried to make their own zombification potion from the natural neurotoxin of the porcupine fish.  Somehow, they convinced some seasoned Voo Doo priests to provide them a recipe for the zombie formula. 
    Of course, the zombie potion prepared in the University lab failed miserably.   My wife and Queen, who can spot racism from TV commentators very quickly (and usually picks up some racism everyday from the news channels), simply said that "science" had failed to take Faith into account on the power of Voo Doo religion. The people who believe the religion will always get more out of it than people who don't.
    But it got worse.  A white North American scientist then went on to further explain the failure of the lab-produced formula.  He said the Voo Doo leaders were smarter "than you might expect, even though they don't have an education." Who might expect?   Academics? The presumed white American audience of the History Channel?  What kind of education?
     He revealed his own racism. He expected the rural Haitians to be ignorant and unsophisticated, and had gotten hoodwinked by them, with his Ivy League credentials providing no protection.  
    Despite having to view Haitian culture through the racist commentary of others, it was still good to see it.  Maybe better programming is still to come.  

 

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