There is a tendency to exaggerate the contributions of non Whites. You can see an example of the effect in the impassioned response of April Ryan to some comments on Western Civilization by Steve King:
The Charles Drew comment is accurate as is the George Washington Carver comment. But then she goes on to express a couple of common myths when she credits Garett Morgan with inventing gas masks and traffic lights.
The "gas mask" patented by Morgan was a kind of reverse snorkel safety hood. It drew air from near the floor so someone could stand upright and have a better chance of being able to breath in a smoky environment:
It was not a gas mask and we do not owe the existence of gas masks as we know them to Garrett Morgan. I think that if we had to pick the person we owe the existence of gas masks as we know them to anybody, it would be Russian chemist Nikolay Zelinsky. He did it in response to German use of gas weapons during World War I (http://www.edubilla.com/invention/gas-mask/).
Then there's the traffic light. No, the traffic signal Garret Morgan patented in 1923 did not catch on to be what we use today. Here is what that looked like:
If we had to pick someone who invented what led to what we use today we'd probably pick Lester Farnsworth Wire, who came up with his electric traffic light in 1912:
And there's a lot of that kind of thing. We see these lists of things purported be things invented by "African Americans." Claims that we owe things like air conditioning, elevators, and X Ray machines to "African Americans." We see them a lot during Black History Month. But when you start researching each one you find that the overwhelming majority of them were not invented by "African Americans." It appears to be intentional misinformation designed to exaggerate the impact of "African American" inventors. No, we do not owe air conditioning, elevators, or X Ray machines to "African American" inventors. Usually the claim is based on the "African American" inventor coming up with a particular version of a pre-existing device. Like Frederick McKinley Jones inventing a particular portable X-Ray machine and that ending up with a claim that an "African American" invented "the X-Ray machine" (which was actually invented by German physicist Wilhelm Röntgen in 1895).
Of course when you point it out you become a a killjoy. You're raining on a parade. Being mean and/or hateful. I guess one could argue that it's harmless and maybe even that it'd be good for society if the perception of "African American" contribution exceeds the reality. Maybe the end justifies the means.
But it's still false.
