Unbury and unearth history. White House, Slaves, and Easter

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The White House has a dark history. Should it really be called white? And no, the inhabitants of Easter Island did not commit ecocide.

What Other People Say

“"I wake up every morning in a house that was built by slaves”, Michelle Obama, former first lady at the Democratic National Convention Speech, 2016

“In just a few centuries, the people of Easter Island wiped out their forest, drove their plants and animals to extinction, and saw their complex society spiral into chaos and cannibalism.” Diamond Jared, Collapse: How Societies Choose to Fail or Succeed, 2005

 What Do I Think?

I need to be more intentional about absorbing, remembering, and using facts that are rooted in actual historical narratives—not just the ones that are convenient or popular.

A conceptual digital illustration showing the White House in the background on a cloudy day. In the foreground, enslaved people are constructing part of the building. Towering beside them are several Easter Island Moai statues, symbolizing historical myths and buried truths.
AI-generated composite image by ChatGPT (2025).

Unbury — Who really built the White House?

 Looking back, it should’ve been obvious. Construction of the White House began in 1792, on land ceded by Virginia and Maryland—two slaveholding states. So yes, of course it was built by enslaved people. How could it not be? Michelle Obama once pointed this out, and unsurprisingly, the fact checkers confirmed it. Here’s ABC News breaking it down.

Now I find myself wondering: how did Michelle Obama manage to live there with her family for eight years, knowing that history? I can’t even bring myself to visit the Washington State Fair because of its connection to the forced internment of Japanese Americans during World War II. I wrote about that here.  So no—I couldn’t live in a house with such a deeply complicated and painful past.

Unearth — Did Easter Island commit ecocide?

Some historical truths take more effort to dig up. For years, the dominant narrative—popularized by scholars like Jared Diamond—claimed that the people of Easter Island (Rapa Nui) destroyed their own environment, leading to the collapse of their society. But that version of the story has since been proven false.

The Rapa Nui people actually took care of their land, developing sophisticated agricultural techniques like mulching and transferring minerals from rocks to soil. Carbon dating and other modern tools now show that their iconic statues (moai) continued to be built after European contact. In fact, the real collapse of Rapa Nui society came not from environmental destruction, but from the arrival of Europeans in the early 1700s—who brought invasive species, diseases, and opened the island to slave traders. Sound familiar?

Why should you care?

History isn’t fixed. It’s layered, often buried under generations of selective memory or outright denial. We have two tools at our disposal: we can unbury the truths that others tried to hide, or we can unearth new facts through evolving research and fresh perspectives. Either way, the call is the same—question everything. And when you do, apply those insights carefully. I’ve made that mistake—parroting the tired myth of Easter Island’s collapse as a cautionary tale for environmental ruin, only to learn I was echoing colonial misinformation. We owe it to ourselves—and the future—to get it right.

Want More Information?

  • Watch this great summary video from the BBC. 
  • Dr. Karina Croucher, University of Manchester -  An archaeologist studying a remote Pacific island, world famous for its strange stone statues, says outsiders - and not its ancestors - should be blamed for its historic demise hundreds of years ago. Read it here.
  • Robert DiNapoli, University of Oregon doctoral candidate - Research upends the timing of Easter Island's societal collapse 





What do others say? "Galeeb Kachra truly is one of a kind. A unique combination of optimism, can-do determination and relentless energy, he has the wiliness and moral integrity required to shake up sclerotic systems and sweep away logjams." (Michela Wrong, 2021)

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