Black Art

When the bombs flew, there was a fifteen minute window where Humanity faced its destruction, as a whole. While this manifested itself with a sizeable section of the population just panicking (If they were even aware of it happening), some of the most emotionally charged words and images were produced on their primitive network, which was broadcast out to all the other races to near universal acclaim. Such art, such emotional depth, such artistic beauty from facing death unavoidably, Humanity gained the respect of its peers that it had lacked until that point. That's why it was bombed after all.