Martin Bernal is a Sinologist who specializes in Chinese politics (Muhly 1990: 85). At a young age, he was surrounded by intellectuals, because his mother wanted him to be surrounded by acceptable role models.. He attended King’s College, Harvard, and Berkley and was a member of the Royal Air Force. He received his doctorate in Oriental studies from Cambridge (Berlinerblau 1999: 13).

Decades ago, this would have been more than adequate experience for him to become an armchair historian and publish his own views on Ancient Greece. Today we want more. We want proof in the form of  new archeological findings, carbon dating, new original sources discovered, and multiple translations of historical works put into context, just to make sure no one is pulling the wool over our eyes.

Since the publication of Black Athena, Bernal has spent much his time defending his theories against the rigors of the academic study he asked historians, archeologists, and anthropologists (the professionals) to delve into.  This culminated in him writing Black Athena Writes Back, which was published in 2001. The new book methodically goes through criticisms against his work and tries to pick them apart and support Bernal’s theories once again. His “dogged” pursuit of defending his ideas often annoys his detractors (Levine 1998: 347).

Because of his views, he has often been accused of being an Afrocentrist. However, he doesn’t see himself as one, and Afrocentrists themselves usually don’t consider him in their ranks, either (Berlinerblau 1999: 143). Instead, both parties seem to see him as an “outsider” scholar with no real connections to any larger organization.

A quick browse of the internet reveals that Bernal spends much of his time today keeping himself partially in the public eye through writing, lectures, internet chatting, and providing information for documentaries.