It is rare that one gets an opportunity to correct misconceptions of history and
culture of this magnitude, and I believe just such misperceptions explain a piece of
the puzzle of why children of color, especially African Americans do as poorly as they
do within the system.
To begin with Africans weren't "impressed" into Slavery. It was not as if Julie the
Cruise Director was standing by the first Slave ship with a brochure on the midnight
buffet, and they were all "impressed" enough to get on. No they were captured,
abducted, assaulted and any other form of violent kidnapping you can think of.
In your own words, some history for you: the African Slave trade and the institution
of American Slavery were like no atrocity committed before or since then. You cannot
compare it to the Irish or Jews of medieval Europe, it is not the same. It's like the
difference between shooting a bullet and throwing it.
And yes, you can say they had choice, the same way a rape victim has a choice to be
raped or not, or the way that a Gay person has a choice to be Gay or not, because
either of them could kill themselves and then they wouldn't be raped or Gay, they'd be
dead. People who jump out of windows also have the choice to fall or not.
No, my friend, there wasn't a choice like the Irish chose to leave Europe. It's very
hard to kill yourself when your shackled to 200 hundred other people, stacked on top
of each other like dead fish at the Farmer's Market, starving in darkness. Some
people did get free and kill themselves, some others were chained to boulders and
tossed overboard because the traders misestimated supplies. An estimated 20 Million
died on the Middle Passage (the ocean journey to America) alone.
And the reason why the traditions did not remain intact had nothing to do with
"animist beliefs" as you called it, but rather with the fact that when Slaves were
sold, they were separated intentionally from their tribe and family members to prevent
communication and make them easier to dominate, as if the raping, mutiliation,
whippings, starvation, assaulting and murdering were not enough. And despite what you
may believe, Africa was not an ignorant continent steeped only in animist beliefs and
comical witch doctors. In addition to being the cradle of mankind, the cradle of
civilization, the center or learning in antiquity, it is also the birthplace of
Christianity. Up until the time of Constantine, Alexandria was the capital of
Christiandom and Egypt was securely Christian before Greece or Rome. Slaves embraced
Christianity sometimes because it was a return to some of their cultures, sometimes
because they were tortured into.
No, this is not some simple choice to be made or a simple experience to overcome. We
are talking about hundreds of years of bondage and oppression, hundreds of years of
brainwashing Whites and Blacks into the inferiority of Blacks, and well over 100
Million killed within the institution of Slavery in addition to the Middle Passage.
There is truly nothing like it, and without such a precedent, you cannot logically say
how easy it is to get over.
Michael has it right (can't believe I'm agreeing too) and as an extension, the problem
is two-fold. The foundation does lie in the racism inherent in the system. And as
much as Doug Mann does a good job of delineating this part (this is like Twilight Zone
scary that I'm actually saying this about Doug too), there is another part of the
solution and the trend and that's what Al Gallmon did point out. Now I happen to
think that Al only pointed out part of the problem, but you can't dismiss it as false
because it's only partly true.
Krasnov's statements show the other part of the problem and give validity to Doug's
statements about racism in the system, the miseducation of people into the belief of
the intellectual inferiority of Blacks permeates our society, to the point that even
Blacks believe it.
Now you come to today where thug culture is more glorified than college culture. That
is you're not a "playa", you're selling out. And in my opinion , all of the
foundation of that has come from racism and the practices of racist people who have
instilled that dynamic. Yet and still today, that is the root cause, but the reality
extension is the dissolution of the family bond and the support system promoting
education. As a boardmember for Morehouse College's National Alumni Association,
whihc is the premier institution for African Americans, I see the trends, I've talked
to parents and students alike. The problem is how Al describes it, just no solely
that.
And for those of you still laboring under the illusion that Blacks chose Slavery, were
better off in it, or were lost without it, I would suggest you venture a little
outside of the World Book Encyclopedia or Birth of a Nation for your examination of
history, and would be happy to suggest some books if you email me offline.
Jonathan Palmer
Victory
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