A Commentary by Bud Meyers
Re-evaluating racism in the United States today.
Though it was wrong then, but because of circumstance and history, did the ancestors of those enslaved native Africans eventually fare far much better in America today?
Even though slavery can be traced back as far as 760 BC (Code of Hammurabi), should the United States of America be held fully accountable for the practice even though Ancient Egypt, Rome, Greece, and the Muslims did this for centuries, long before Columbus even discovered the West Indies? After all, although the trans-Atlantic slave trade ended shortly after the American Revolution, slavery still remained a central economic institution in the Southern States until after our Civil War (est. 618,000 Caucasians died in that war to free African slaves - a tragedy for both whites and blacks alike during this time in American history).
Do the ancestors of slavery in other countries (where it was also practiced) hold the same long-held resentments from 135 years ago and nurture them as they do today in the United States? Do they also still feel the same rage?
I myself am appalled, and saddened that there are those here in America who had Euro-American ancestors that enslaved native African people by inducing their local tribal Chiefs (with cheap trinkets) to sell their own people into slavery to those Euro-American ancestors for forced labor (here, and in the rest of the Americas). What should have happened upon Abraham Lincoln's "Emancipation Proclamation" to those wrongfully enslaved native African people that were then living here? Should they have immediately been sent back to their original and rightful homeland at U.S. government expense?
After 1865, slavery has ended. Now what?
Had they been sent back, would those poor people then have escaped the suffering from having to endure the years of prejudice, racial hatred, police profiling, social injustice, and discrimination in this country? Would they never have had to fight for Civil Rights or Affirmative Action? Would they never have had felt the need to loot, burn, and riot in Watts? Would terms such as "diversity" and "Green" only have applied to people of Hispanic and Asian decent in America today?
If those Euro-American ancestors had immediately sent them home, then today (with their proud African heritage) would they most likely all be happily living amongst their own honorable ancestors while enjoying their God-given freedoms in their original intended and natural homeland in beautiful places such as the Congo, Rwanda, and *Sudan (sarcasm) - Though unfortunately, we never would have had Gangsta' Rap like we so much enjoy today - (more sarcasm). It's a disgrace what those Euro-American ancestors did to those poor enslaved people, and it's a shame that we cannot (because of the cost our social programs today) afford to pay reparations to them, but we can't do that for the native American Indians nor to the Neanderthals either (just a little more sarcasm).
So, did the ancestors of those enslaved native Africans eventually fare far much better in America today?
Where would these highly respected, wealthy, and successful people have been today if there was never slavery in America? And is it ironic that history (no matter how horrible it was then) actually provided a better future for their ancestors today?
Barack Obama - The U.S. President (thought not from the majority of whites) received overwhelming support from "young" whites, a majority of Asians, legal Americans of Hispanic origin, Native Americans, and most African-Americans (even despite their own personal ideologies.) Even Michelle Obama said she was proud of her country!
Just to name a very few who prospered and fared economically well:
Mike Vick - Philadelphia Eagles
Kevin Johnson - Mayor of Sacramento California (and ex-NBA star)
Mark Lloyd - Obama's FCC "Chief Diversity Officer"
Eric Holder - U.S. Attorney General
Henry Louis Gates Jr. - Harvard Professor
Donte' Stallworth - Cleveland Browns
OJ Simpson - Heisman Trophy
Van Jones - Obama "ex-Czar"
Johnnie L Cochran, Jr - Defense Attorney
(And some of my all-time personal favorites)
Michael Jordan - Retired NBA basketball player and active businessman
Colin Powell - Retired four-star general
Jimi Hendrix - Guitarist
Condoleezza Rice - Secretary of State under Bush
Michael Steele - Chairman of the Republican National Committee 2009
Denzel Washington - Actor
Tiger Woods - Pro golfer
Richard Pryor - Comedian
One of my favorite movies (Based on a true story.)
Valerie Jarrett's (Obama's top advisor) maternal great-grandfather Robert Robinson Taylor was once an architect and the vice principal of the Tuskegee Institute. ("Robinson", spelled just like Michelle Obama's maiden name.)
*It is estimated that as many as 200,000 people had been taken into slavery during the Second Sudanese Civil War which began in 1983 - The slaves were mostly Dinka people - and 1.9 million were murdered. As slavery still exists on the continent of Africa, so does extreme poverty, famine, disease, and social injustice.
So, should African-Americans in the United States today still continue resenting the ancestors of those distant European-American enslavers, even though, if only by fate, they fared far much better in America today than they would have elsewhere?
I didn't enslave anyone. Today you are free, now I only ask that you free your mind. So stop blaming me and stop hating me, I did nothing to you.
See my post - Race and the Dust Bowl
http://tobuds.com/blogs/blog5.php/2009/09/13/race-and-the-dust-bowl
Ancestral Ties to Slavery
http://tobuds.com/blogs/blog5.php/2009/09/12/ancestral-ties-to-slavery
The Scourge of Slavery - The Rest of the Story
http://www.christianaction.org.za/articles_ca/2004-4-TheScourgeofSlavery.htm
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