Friday, September 11, 2020

Why Black Lives Need To Matter: A Black American History


400 years ago, white men traveled to Africa to abduct thousands and thousands of men and women, ripping them from the arms of their families, loading them (in most cases, stacking them) into the holds of crowded ships in filthy and inhumane conditions) for a journey from and to hell. Those black souls who managed to survive this dreadful voyage were then sold as slaves, many times they were separated from whatever family unit might still remain. These slaves lived out tortured lives working and living in sub-human conditions until they died from either overwork, lack of care or a broken spirit, usually a combination of all these.

Black people “lived” this way for roughly 250 years. While white men ran the country and created its laws and its systems of government, 10 to 15 generations of white families got to grow and flourish and make choices that could allow their lives and the lives of their descendants to prosper and flourish.

Then 150 years ago white men were forced to “free" black people from slavery, but angry white men then created laws that made it impossible for blacks to vote, to own land, or to participate in society. White people even erected monuments glorifying people who had actively fought to keep blacks enslaved. 

All this happened while another 5 to 10 generations of white families got to grow and accumulate wealth and gain land and get an education and again pass these advantages to their descendants.

Then 60 years ago white people made it "legal" for black people to vote, and to be "free" from discrimination, but angry white people still fought to keep schools segregated while closing off neighborhoods for white people only. White people made it harder for black people to get bank loans, or get quality education or health care, or to (gasp) marry a white person. All this, while another 2-3 generations of white families got to grow and pass their wealth down to their children and their children's children.

Finally we entered an age where we had the technology (cell phones with cameras) to make PUBLIC the things that had already been happening in private for centuries- the beatings, the stop and frisk system, the unequal distribution of justice, the police brutality (which in the south began as slave patrols designed to catch runaway slaves) and which have been going on in one form or another for four centuries. Only now, are we BEGINNING to truly have a dialogue about what it means to be black.

White privilege doesn't mean you haven't suffered or fought or worked hard. It doesn't mean that today’s generation of white people are responsible for the sins of their ancestors. It doesn’t mean you can’t be proud of who you are.
It DOES mean that we need to acknowledge that the system our white ancestors created was built FOR white people and FOR their prosperity.

It DOES mean that Black people are, and have been (for 400 + years) at a disadvantage because of the color of their skin.

It DOES mean that we owe it to our fellow black citizens to acknowledge that, and to seek a remedy to make our world just and equitable.

Why is it so hard to understand that when we correct these injustices, we will all become the beneficiaries of that correction. Until then ......

BLACK LIVES MATTER!

And God help us -
We haven’t even begun to confront the gross injustices wrought to Native Americans.

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