Pearl Duncan: Lost History in Downton Abbey

Pearl Duncan is completing two books, tentatively titled, “DNA Adventure, Rebels’ Birthright Reclaimed,” and “A Pirate Ship of Old New York:  Colonial Slavery, The Founding Fathers and a Remarkable 9/11 Discovery.”Now that it is announced by the producers of Downton Abbey that Gary Carr, the star of the BBC’s Death in Paradise, a mystery set on a Caribbean island, will join the show as an attractive, charming and charismatic jazz musician, some viewers who love the popular British television show set in the 1920s, flushed with Edwardian style, fashion and upstairs downstairs shenanigans, ask if the show will continue to be historically accurate.  Why do they ask?  They ask because the jazz musician being added to a show about British aristocrats and their servants is black.

Why the Volkswagen Super Bowl Ad Isn't Racist

by Pearl Duncan

It was appropriate that in the pre-game festivities leading up to the Super Bowl from New Orleans, with so many of the musicians descended from African American ancestors who remembered their native language(s), played the “Iko, Iko” song, directly created from their ancestors’ blended languages.“My grandma and your grandma Were sittin’ by the fire. My grandma told your grandma: ‘I’m gonna set your flag on fire.’Talkin' 'bout: Hey now! Hey now! Iko, Iko, unday Jockamo feeno ai nane`. Jockamo fee nane`.*