They also espoused the notion of jesus christ as their "own" - no? Ditto for the conquered peoples of Latin America. Does that mean that christianity was basically a beneficial force for blacks and American natives?
As the Old Man aptly observed, "the class which has the means of material production at their disposal, has control of the means of mental production." Consequently, the lower classes often accpet the mythologies rationalizations of their masters as those of their own.
For example, one of tricks pulled by neo-racist "scientists" (such as Robet Gordon of JHU) is to have a black assistant flipping the charts on the projector during their presentations. This is suggests to the audience that some blacks "accept" the views being presented - which thus implies their validity.
These are all variations of the old "ad hominem" - focusing on the characteristics of the persons espousing an argument to either rebut or support it, instead of analyzing the argument on its merits.
wojtek