What does slavery have to do with Today?

Now that its Black history month, PBS is once again presenting a series of documentaries on the oppressive reality of black history in America. Each time I witness these documentaries and others like them, I never become acclimated or desensitized to the horrors and inhumanity of it. It was just atrocious, physically, economically and psychologically upon black people and it lasted an extremely long time.

Black people have been in America for 386 years. From 1619 to the year 2005, we have existed in this land. What that breaks down to in percentages is this. From 1619 to the emancipation of 1864 represents 245 years of black slavery, which constitutes 63% of our total time spent in this land, as a people, in slavery. After emancipation and up to the passage of civil rights laws of the 1964, there was 100 year period of peonage and Jim Crow were governments allowed for the oppression of black people via laws. Those 100 years represents 26% of our total stay in this land under a non slavery form of legal oppression. Thus, adding together the years in slavery and under legalized non slavery oppression of Jim Crow, 345 or our 386 years in this nation has been under the weight of government sanctioned oppression. That represents 89% of our time, as a people, in this land having been under the weight of legal oppression.

Now, invariably, there are people who will look at these documentaries and the inhumanity of it, then place it in a temporal vacuum. They will say "yes that was terrible and inhumane….but what does it have to do with today"? They will note that all the slave masters and all the slaves are now dead and gone and all that is now in the past...so move on. Some people then incredulously and or disingenuously ask, "And what does that past have to do with you or black white dynamics today?" Another way to ask that question where one can see it for its nominal face value is to ask "What does the past have to do with the present?" Well, given that the present is the summation and creation of the past, the past has everything to do with the present.

The physics of existence is that the reaction from impact expands exponentially greater in time and space than the actual moment and place of impact. If one throws a stone into a pond, the moment and place of impact is expanded by time and space in the reaction of the reverberation of waves expanding out in time and space. The actual time that blacks have spent in the impact of slavery will be much smaller in time and space than the reactions that reverberate from slaveries impact. There were 4 million blacks in slavery in 1864 and now there are 40 million black people in America. Slavery existed in certain states, but now blacks are spread all throughout the nation. Thus, physically black people have expanded in time and space and the problems inherited (such as the lack of wealth and problems with racial esteem and indentity) or passed down from our oppression reverberate as well, as long with the benefits to America from our oppression. However, the reverberations fatigue over time, but one cannot intelligently expect that an impact of oppression that lasted 345 years can naturally fatigue or dissipate in 40 years. Hence, the socio-economic gaps between blacks and whites in America are the direct resultant of years of oppression.

Of course there are others, motivated by attempts to obfuscate and misdirect, who will look at the presentation of such history as "victimology" or playing the "Blame game". What they are doing in effect is protecting the perpetrators and benefactors or accessories to the crime against black humanity. By eliminating the "victim" you also eliminate the "perpetrators or accessories" to the crime. If rapist can convince a rape victim that she wanted, enjoyed and benefited from the act as much as the raper, then she is no longer a victim and hence he is no longer a perpetrator or rapist. He can only be prosecuted if she is willing to see herself as a victim and hence pursue justice. Thus, his self interest is to convince the lady not to prosecute...if possible, by convincing her that she was not a victim. There is a movement to convince black people that we have not been rapped as a people, in order to keep the accessories (the US and state governments) from being prosecuted. They want people to take note of the child created from the brutal and tortuous rape, which we would not have to enjoy if not for the rape. That child is the America of Today, which comes to black people only by virtue of the enslavement of our ancestors. They want us to now look at Africa and think how blessed and fortunate we are to be here in America, the offspring of the brutal rapping of our ancestors and Native Americans. Thus, we are not "victims", we are "benefactors".

A lot of white people will try to separate bad white folks from themselves. "My ancestors never owned any slaves", is the dominant cry. White people have an aversion to connecting themselves to whites when it's something bad, but have no such aversion when it's something good. They will tell you that their ancestors never owned any slaves, but they will fail to tell you that their ancestors never lifted a finger to change the situation for the better. There have always been white folks, who fought against slavery, but they were as few as the slave owners themselves and most white folks are not descendants of them. Therefore, they cannot take credit for their "goodness", just like they refuse to make linkage to white slave-owners "badness". In fact, most whites were historically accessories to the crime, because they received benefit and knew what was going on. Anytime you eliminate a segment of humanity from the competition for economic opportunity and wealth, probabilities for opportunity and wealth are thus increased for those not eliminated. Moreover, the trickle down economic effect from the wealth created from slavery created many spin off industries and services for the white free economy. Also, more people became rich in America from real estate than by any other means. During the agrarian era, land was made valuable and productive via slavery. There is not question that this nation that whites flocked from Europe to is the fruits of black enslavement and native genocide.

When people like my self present these facts of history, I will invariably be gleaned as a person motivated by hate and resentment. Of course we all know this is an attempt to discredit the message via discrediting the messenger. They cannot refute the truth of the message so they will attempt to discredit the messenger in hopes to misdirect and obfuscate from the impact of the substance . The truth is they never accuse PBS or whites of being motivated by anger and hate when they present the same history and facts. That charge is reserved for black individuals with the audacity to speak the truth. Even though I have never stated in this (or any other) essay that I hate white folks or that I am even angry at them, this is the impression that many, if not most, will come away with. Given that I only presented history and not statements of emotions regarding my feelings towards whites, they must be "projecting" what their minds thinks should be the human response or reaction to such a history….which is anger and hate. In other words, they are telling me that had this been there history, they would be full of hate and anger. Well….its my history and I am not full of hate or anger. I just want the truth to be told, justice and reparations.