True to form I received an e mail today about Gerald Lawson. The e mail contained the following language:
So I clicked on the link. It described the development of Fairchild Channel F. First of all, if you read the entire article, what you see is:This engineer and inventor is the reason why disc-based home video games exist. Gerald A. Lawson, a largely self-taught engineer who became a pioneer in electronic video entertainment.
Before disc-based systems like PlayStation, Xbox and Wii transformed the video game industry, before techno-diversions like Grand Theft Auto and Madden NFL and even before Pac-Man and Donkey Kong became the obsession of millions of electronic gamers, it was Mr. Lawson who first made it possible to play a variety of video games at home. To read more about Mr. Lawson please visit https://www.biography.com/people/jerry-lawson-21330375
That already tells you that he was part of a team. But then I Googled "Fairchild Channel F" and got this article:In the mid-1970s, Lawson helped create the Fairchild Channel F, a home entertainment machine that was produced in 1976 by Fairchild Semiconductor.
https://www.fastcompany.com/3040889/the ... -cartridge
What it reveals is that neither Fairchild in general or Lawson in particular developed the technology. The technology was developed by a couple of guys named Wallace Kirschner and Lawrence Haskel then it was "...streamlined and turned into a commercial product..." by "...a team at pioneering electronics company Fairchild."
Here's another article identifying the true inventors of the game cartridge as Kirschner and Haskel:
http://www.ign.com/articles/2015/12/28/ ... -cartridge
So why do people do this thing of putting out misleading propaganda exaggerating contributions by people of that ethnicity? And it's the same as always. If you do what I just did and point out that some Black History Month tidbit is basically a lie then you're the bad guy.
BTW it's hard to find pictures of Kirschner and Haskel but I'm pretty sure this is one:
I don't think they're Black History Month material.