Attention: I Am Not A Slave And Neither Are You….

And after being involved  in the Jewish community for 20 years I learned one thing, they party, they celebrate LIFE (cha'i), and they enjoy their freedom as Toni_M  calls us to do, but they also REMEMBER, it is never DONE!

 DUsher I understand where you are coming from, but I think the comparison is a bit unfair because the Jewish people did not originate with the Holocaust. For many African Americans, slavery is the "origin" of our people. Yes, we know that African Americans have roots in Africa, but as the majority of persons today have no idea where those roots go, and to which country or ethic group or what have you, it's a bit of a moot point.

The problem has never been acknowledging slavery, Jim Crow, or ongoing racism. The problem is the inability to separate the history from the pain and suffering. You pass on history; you don't pass on pain and suffering. You relay the fact that one's ancestors were forbidden to read and write; you do not pass on the fear to learn or be "as educated as white folks" because of a fear that if one is as educated as white people they will be punished.

Yes, there are of course many black people who ignored that message and strive for better, but I'm sincerely convinced that certain pathological behaviors that exist today are the direct result of attitudes and behaviors passed down from slavery born out of fear and shame. Rather than let that fear and shame go, persons limit as if slavery were still relevant because that mental capacity is what they have been taught.

Not only that, there are some people, plain and simple, who need any excuse they can muster to stay put and not feel responsible for their own choices and behaviors. And using this one remains despicable for the reasons I mentioned. 

There's a difference between remembering where you came from so you can work that much harder to honor the memories of those in the past and trying to return to a state of bondage to validate your own fear and self-hatred and purposely rewriting history in order to allow yourself to do so.

I think sensible people can talk about the history of oppression and atrocities that have occurred, as we should, as a failure to discuss and understand history often means being doomed in some way to repeat it. But I think this particular point of view and behavior is harmful and disrespectful, and I can't imagine anything positive being gained from me co-opting someone else's life and experiences, especially if it allows me to validate my willingness to do nothing of note with my life.

 DUsher  It's a good question to ask.  To me, the comparison isn't apples to apples though.  Jews worldwide had already developed a sense on themselves as one people, scattered in a diaspora, without a real homeland.  One of the main reasons to "never forget" the Holocaust was that it was the Jews from the most assimilated European countries (Germany, Austria, the Netherlands) who were exterminated first and most vigorously.  That was a huge wake-up call, as the equally horrific extermination-level violence had been going on in Eastern Europe and parts of the Turkish and Arabic Middle East almost forever, so it wasn't really shocking there.  It's no coincidence that the death camps were located in the East. There was a sense that Jewish people can't get complacent and must remain vigilant, even in the "safest" circumstances.  One can see these underlying philosophies expressed in the conservative/rightist Israeli and American Israel hawks.

In my views, Jewish people also focus on THEMSELVES in the :never forget" narrative, not what the Germans did to them.  They talk about what they overcame, how they rebuilt, what suffering they have moved beyond.  Some even talk about forgiveness. There will always be bitterness, and it's hard to say people who suffered such losses directly shouldn't be bitter, but that has never been the centerpiece of this narrative.

Jewish remembrance is also criticized, how heavily depends on one's perspective I guess.  It's a running joke in Hollywood that any movie with WWII/The Holocaust as a backdrop will be nominated and rewarded by the Academy.  

African Americans and other descendants of the African slave trade, on the other hand, can't really point to the specifics.  Who their ancestors were when captured was irrevocably changed and can't really be known now..they are new people now, and in many cases the descendants of these people are not even of majority African ancestry anymore.  The ethnicities that we claim now were created as a consequence of slavery, "race" mixing and migration.  We have largely NOT focused on ourselves in remembrance, but on what was done to us by White people (but strangely, not the African tribes who sold "us" first).  Perhaps it is because the denials of harm have been so sustained.  Perhaps it is because the legacy is so painful and so hard to overcome.  Still, at some point it is psychologically harmful to keep the focus on the evil that someone else has done to you, especially when they won't atone for it.  Bitterness seems to be at the center of this narrative, and that's the difference I see.

The pendulum can definitely swing too far, but to me too many Black folks are mired in a mentality that is so destructive to themselves and their own progress. What is that saying about the effect of not forgiving?  That it's a poison you take yourself by hoping someone else will die? Look at the poisonous effects of not moving on.  White people are not "dying" or impacted much by it, and now there is more credence given to those who say "so what? Get over it!" 

 DUsher I think the question you're asking is a good one.  I also think one of the reasons why slavery is "avoided" is because it happened here and Americans did it.  It was a very shameful part of our past as a country.  And don't get it twisted.  No one discusses the atrocities committed against Native Americans because Americans did it.  My brother's former fiancée is Native American and was elected chief of her tribe.  She told me that there seems to be a concentrated effort to "bury" the Native American past and NAs are allowing it to happen by staying hidden on reservations.  She told me a lot goes on there that is bad (high alcoholism and drug use, crime, OOW births, etc) but it's off the grid because it's contained on the reservation.  She, her sister and her children (not OOW, BTW) are off the reservation now.  Her kids went to college and are working in corporate America.  She is a CPA by trade, her sister is a Harvard educated lawyer.  She says she was considered a traitor because, during her time as chief, she assisted the DEA in a drug raid on a particularly vicious drug cartel within the reservation.  Therefore, she was not re-elected.  Lots of stuff going on but off the grid.  This is her opinion and she said there are many parallels between the NA and Black folk, particularly those who use atrocities against their ancestors as an excuse not to do better or to hate White people.

I believe the reason why the Holocaust is remembered in an almost hushed reverence is because it was in a century where people still live to talk about it and there is tons of physical evidence to show the atrocities committed.  I'm sure the Germans are sorry they were ever so anal about capturing their "experiments" on film.  Same with the internment of the Japanese and 9/11. The atrocities committed against Black people as slaves and against Native Americans are largely remembered through writing and stories handed down; I've never seen a photo of the Trail of Tears nor have I seen one of an overseer whipping a runaway slave.  It doesn't make them less important but people are affected by what they see, over and over again, even if it's just in photographs.  I was working at the State Department when the Holocaust Museum opened.  They had a display of photographs in the State Department entryway that had been blown up to bigger than life size, which meant the atrocities of the holocaust were in one's face as they entered to go to work.  I remember all of them very clearly and that was 13 years ago.  When one has a photo of a dead man in a bathtub, covered by ice to test how low his body temperature can go before he dies in one's face every day, for three months, it has a tendency to stay with one.

I'm not looking for an argument either nor am I saying that slavery is less important than any other atrocity.  I'm just offering an opinion as to why it may be relegated to the "It happened a long time ago and it's time to get over it" department.

 vthewriter  No, I pretty much experienced the same thing today, and I've been experiencing it all week. It's what prompted this article. I think some of us are just plain old TIRED of the silliness of a segment of black folks and those people are too busy with their heads in the sand to realize a shift is taking place.

 VintageNarcissa "Acknowledging that black people have it tough in this country is one thing (ain't like we're the only ones anyway, hello Native Americans!) but using that as an excuse to remain in mediocity is a completely different thing."

Amen!

 eugeniaberg  "I live a good life b/c they couldn't I owe them at least that."

THIS. So many people suffered and fought for better, and I think it would make them weep with joy to see a black woman having descended from them, sitting in the comfort of her own home, filing her nails, sipping tea and being free and content. 

@Toni_M this would make mt grandmother weep for joy and she died in 1997, I'm living a life she could only dream of. I'll be darned if I waste it complaining.

 Zindzi_Zenani

"but as my grandma told us, "if you've got to work twice as hard to get half as far, GET TO WORKIN."

Good advice..I've heard something along these lines from my parents and older black people too..They mean well, but I wonder if it's doing black children any good to be told they are going to have to work twice as hard..or that you will have to jump through hoops to get somewhere in life. In some instances, this may be true...but not always. There are some situations where I didn't have to work twice as hard as anyone else. Is this setting black children up to have inferiority complexes or just being realistic ?  What do you all think? I'm curious.

 MySmile In my experiences, she was absolutely right.  However, even if she weren't, I don't think its ever a bad idea to instill in children that they should work harder than others.  It may be a bit tiger-momish (LOL), but I don't think it can set them up for anything but success.  My mother also made sure I knew to work harder than my classmates (in grammar and high school), most of whom were Black or Hispanic.  It paid off then, and it certainly paid off when I attended a predominantly white university.

I'm glad my grandparents and mother were blunt about racism with me though.  They didn't teach me to despise or fear anyone.  But, I think about all the times when I experienced racism in my life and I know it might have been quite traumatic for me if I hadn't known how to process it beforehand.

 Zindzi_Zenani  "My mother also made sure I knew to work harder than my classmates (in grammar and high school), most of whom were Black or Hispanic"

Yeah, this might just be parents in general...my parents were like this too, whether most of my classmates where white or most of them were black or Hispanic. They just wanted me to be a hard worker in general.

I have also experienced obvious racism ,especially when I lived in a predominately white area in Alabama as a child (In the 90s!). I've even been spit on, classmates made rude remarks about black people, the school made excuses for not letting me in the gifted program, etc.  My parents mentioned it a few times, but nobody really prepped me for it. :-/ Like you said, it can be beneficial to have that type of advice.

 MySmile Yeah, if my mom thought that was about racism, she would've YELLED IT FROM THE ROOFTOPS!  So would my grandparents, aunts, uncles, cousins, whoever else.  They wanted us to be aware racism is still alive and well, so we could know what we were up against.  Like I said, I'm so glad they did.

 Zindzi_Zenani Zindzi_Zenani. I see what you're saying...not everyone who brings slavery up has a slave mentality or is living in the past. Slavery has affected the current race relations in America. I just don't like when people bring it up all the time or as an excuse not to at least try to be a productive member of society.. I guess we can mention slavery without co-opting the struggle of slaves in the past. We all struggle in different ways, but we are not slaves of course. A lot of black people today struggle with mental slavery, though, of course. I am passionate about racial inequalities and race relations, but like I said sometimes it's exhausting to think about :-/ . Plus, I'd rather focus on the subtle racism today and how to get around that...but sometimes you can't talk about the present without mentioning how we got to this point...

Also, I don't  think the use of "us" or we when describing a group of people is problematic in itself (I do it sometimes..I think everyone does), but the "Us against them" mentality can be. I feel like it's me against whatever individuals bring negativity into my life, and that includes racists and prejudiced individuals.

 MySmile Yeah, like I said, I agree with Toni that its not ok to blame the atrocities of the past on your lack of ambition.  I don't have a problem with "co-opting" other people's struggles.  People do it all the time (i.e. gay folks co-opting the CRM).  As long as it doesn't hold you back, its all good to me.  Do what you, as an individual, feel you need to do.  But, like you said, you can't talk about the present without talking about how we got here.  

I don't have a problem with saying "us."  Of course, when there's an "us," there's going to be a "them."  However, it doesn't automatically have to be an us VERSUS them.  

 FriendsofJay 

Some stuff doesn't sound right coming from us.  I am OK with that.

 FriendsofJay Like your comment, although I've observed that there are a ton more critically thinking people at BBW than there are throughout the internets overall.  In other words, if it's truth this group wouldn't care who points it out.

 vthewriter ugh.. i love this (no sarcasm). everything you wrote i've thought as much every time the history of slavery is used to scapegoat current complacency. its disrespectful to the memory of the black slaves we descend from and discounts their efforts for 2.5 centuries to secure their freedom and the freedom of their children, often to death. 

 vthewriter If I could "Like" every sentence in your post I would. Yes, claiming "slavery" for not achieving when you should/should have is a cop out. As harsh as it sounds, I find it pathetic that some of us will use our ancestors experiences as a reason to not even attempt to make something out of themselves. As a result of our country's founding, American society does still contain bias in favor of Whites (regardless of when their family entered the country or whether they owned slaves) and elements of racism (specifically, anti-Black racism) that can restrict quality of life and/or the effectiveness of methods to address wrongs. That being said, the racism that Black Americans face today is FAR less barbaric than what our ancestor's faced 200 years ago, and FAR less dehumanizing than what our grandparents and great-grandparents in the early 1900s. I'd rather have to learn from substandard textbooks, than live in an era where I'm breaking the law by learning anything academic.

The experiences of our ancestors shouldn't be used as a crutch for lack of achievement or a justification for harming each other. If anything, we as Americans (but especially us slave descended Black Americans) should be using those experiences as motivation to get on the ball. 'If my Black great-grandmother can get her highschool diploma in the south, *pre*Jim Crow, I've got no excuse.' 'If my great-uncle saw enough value in the dark-skinned men and women in his family to suffer a lethal attack defending their humanity, it's the least I can do to no longer support or stay silent in the denigration of such individuals.' 'If my great/grandparents can work 12+ hours a day and still raise literate children, there's no excuse for my child knowing the latest Niki Minaj song word for word but not knowing how to count to 100.' etc

 vthewriter

"But let's pretend for a second that these people are right. They aren't happy with their lives because of the legacy of slavery and the everlasting psychological ramifications. White people have a conspiracy to keep black folks down. It's all true. So why the hell would you let them win? Why would you bend to the wishes of the evil white folk? If they're keeping you down, and you stay down, guess who won? I guess it really does make you a slave."

This is perfect!! Like you were saying, I understand how the past shapes the present, and am aware of the subtle ways in which racism presents itself these days...but I don't believe in the whole "the white man" is trying to keep us down thing. I can also acknowledge inequalities without dwelling on them...I believe there are certain people and certain groups who are biased against black Americans (I think we are all aware of that), but there is no conspiracy amongst all, or even most white people, to keep black people down. People usually just go about their own business and live their lives (Though it does bother me that many are oblivious to the racism that still happens today).

Like you said, even if somebody was trying to keep you down..why would you let them?!!! This goes for any situation. You have to find a way to get around obstacles. It can be very rewarding in the end.

I am taking an African American Social Thought class and the slave mentality of my classmates really gets to me sometimes. I have heard all types of comments from the NBABM and GAT-DL crews! There is a frequent use of "they" , "them", and "us"...and the general opinion is that white people are the enemy, our oppressors, hate us, and want to see us fail :-/ There is this "them against us" mentality. Even young black Americans of today allow that to mess with their minds too much. I understand how that happens though and it makes me so sad. Race is a heavy topic and sometimes I'd rather not think about it. Sometimes I wish the past could be erased so we could stop all the hate. I worry for people's emotional health...but I can't worry too much, as I am working on my own. I really wish something could be done..but you can't save everyone.

 Brenda55 I ♡♡♡♡♡♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♡♡♡♡♡♡♡ this!

 Kia

 I love that movie!  now i have to renew my netflix membership.  Thanks!  LOL

 Brice Cameron

 "I think perhaps some people wrongly think that by not dwelling on slavery, you are letting white people off the hook.  That is not the case.  White people don't care about slavery.  Most feel no guilt about slavery."

They don't need to feel guilty about slavery . . . no white person alive today had black slaves in America.  The vast majority of white people came here between 1890 and 1939.  They weren't a party to slavery.  In fact, slavery was abolished in most of Europe before it was abolished in America.

Trying to make white people feel guilty over slavery is silly and a waste of time.  No one alive today had anything to do with it.  What should they feel guilty for?

 MixedUpInVegas  Brice Cameron I think it's more complicated than that. It's not just about guilt. I think it's about acknowledgement that it happened and that it was wrong and then trying to figure out what that means and if it means anything at all. Somehow the idea that it means nothing at all leaves me a little sad. 

Most Germans alive today were not the one's killing Jews in concentration camps, but that dark time in their history reverberates in their present culture- some do feel guilt, some shame, some don't care and it has nothing to do with them. 

Some white people do feel guilt. Most are liberals. But guilt is the wrong word. From conversations I've had I think it's more some people feel that even today they are benefitting from slavery through what's been handed down to them....something like that and it makes them stop and think. 

I think it's false to say that White people don't care about slavery. Many do and are passionate about history and different causes that have to do with minorities. White people were also abolitionist and helped fight for emancipation. Their descendants are alive today and well aware and proud of their ancestors. 

Just to be clear though, I agree with Toni. I just don't think we should be dismissive of what either White or Black people think on the subject just because it is something from the past.

 dasdbobb Thanks for commenting. :)

The thing that frustrates me about how slavery is often used is that people want to speak as though we're still slaves, when no we're not. In fact, many people act as though the heritages of all African Americans begin at slavery, but that's illogical because your ancestors had to come from somewhere. That's why that whole "African" gets placed in front of the American: The whole betting on your people coming from the African continent....somewhere, even if you have no idea where or how they came here. 

Then there's the sense that having been a victim of slavery is shameful, more shameful than the act of oppression itself. You can never be as good as anyone else because someone way back in your family history was held hostage?

Addressing racism in present tense NEEDS to happen in present tense. Yes, you CAN appreciate the history of slavery, xenophobia, white supremacy, and the civil rights struggle and how these things impact life today. But there's a difference between empathizing the struggles of so many people then and now, and falsely claiming an identity and experience that is not your own. Especially if it is used to justify problematic and limiting behaviors.

You should be understanding how the worst of humanity is something not to emulate and how you are better than the lowest of the low no matter what anyone thinks. Not looking for ways to concern troll and limit yourself because you want to uphold a racist status quo.

Some people are desperate to keep the slavery conversation going NOT because they want to emphasize the necessity of respect for human life and dignity, but because it legitimizes their own hatred, fear, ignorance, and self-imposed immobility. When you go out into the world, you realize that there are all kinds of people, good and bad. And that the determining factors for either go much deeper than the skin.

 Toni_M

 Exactly my point! 

We need to show claiming the slavery issue is NOT the way to approach the subject. People need to look and move forward, no matter what obstacles they face, to work to overcome the fear and ignorance of these horrible times and act on the instinct we all have to improve quality of life, and contribute to the growth of yourself first and everybody second. You're passion to improve one's self, and be able to share those improvements with others is the first step in regaining stability and growth in your lives. Until people recognize this, It will be very hard to move forward. Baby steps first, and once moving, don't stop for anything. Anything at all!