Lest we forget...
With the coming days celebration of Dr. King's Birthday, let us not forget what it was like a few generations ago.
What goes through your mind when you read this? Black, Hispanic, Asian or white readers...any and everyone should feel something.
Is it anger, sympathy for the(black cause), gratitude it wasn't you, numb because you can't relate, proud because we have come so far or motivated to make the best of your life?
Care to share?
Enjoy the long weekend and tell someone about the legacy of Dr. King!
I'm really feelin this video right now!
15 comments:
A combination of things run through my mind when I read this...
I mean...naturally, I'm grateful that it wasn't me but I'm still angry that it was our people.
It bothers me even more that children were just as easily sold and in most instances separated from their own families in the process "based on the purchaser".
The fact that these slave masters put such a low valuation on human life makes me livid beyond words.
The only thing I feel, really, after reading that is sadness. But it is a very important document. I am glad that you posted it. Thanks.
its a defiente combination of thoughts that run through my mind...
the fact that we sold for less than cattle
the fact that i know my great great great grandmother (for a FACT) was rapped by her slave master
the slave system was designed to divid anc conquer (hence the separation of parent from child, man from wife) it was systematically created to divid us a people, and unfortunately TODAY we still suffer from the systems that were set in place
as a matter a fact, there are now modern day slave masters, such as drugs and violence, drugs specifically that were placed in our community to yet again divid and conquer
so what it does is inspire me to talk about the issues, to keep pushing forward with the working to uplift and uphold the values that has kept our community during slavery until now....
we must keep pushing forward!
thank you for posting this...
excellent comments...wow Im not surprised from the commentors.
you guys all have tremedous character. thanks for sharing!
Keep em comin'
Alot of feelings...yes alot of feelings...angry and sadness of course...but it does remind me of how we have come a long way.
What I feel is frustration. That after all these thousands of years, we never seem to learn anything. We make the same mistakes over and over. I also feel frustration that it went for as long as it did. In the early days of American slavery, the white folk were vastly outnumbered. But how can you organize a revolt when you have no contact with any outside the small area where you live? Strange land, strange people, bondage, no contact. As much as I'd like there to have been a revolution, I understand why it never happened. But what have we learned? Like we aren't slaves to the classist system here and now?
I feel a combination of things...sadness, anger (enough to go out and whip a random white person).
What bothers me the most is that it is going on elsewhere in the world (or was a mere few years ago) in places like the Sudan, and probably more places than I know if.
Thoughts: Am I random enough?
Happy New Year to you too!!
I just finished a piece about this. Past present and future.
May we all know the past so we don't repeat it in the future.
@dave: you touched on somethin that I've been speaking about for a long time.
@mis: along way to go as well!
@TOSG: I experienced that feeling when I was in a racial confrontation at my first college.(in which I was hospitalized for being a black man who knew a white girl from my class in a white bar). I acted on those feelings and I still see the image of the guys I beat the shit out of to make myself feel better.
@dmarks: history has shown that the people change, yet the enslavement of someone lives on in every corner of the world in some form or fashion. excellent point.
@mystery: where did you do it? care to share? I'd enjoy that read.
@OMO: sadness was the first. a fleeting thought. then i was enveloped with a myriad of other emotions as well.
@TC: Speak girl, speak.
@ms b: the value of lives...black, native american, asian and some other cultures as well have had no value to their oppressors. Also...you made excellent points about the separation of children from their family.
Powerful piece. Like some of have said, I'm glad it wasn't me. I'm disturbed that it happened to my forefathers/mothers. It hurts that some of the things they sacrificed their lives for, this generation is taking for granted. So many things come to mind.
I showed this to my 15yr old the other day. He was looking at the screen dumbfounded. It's as though all the stories that he had heard by his grandparents and great grandparents was a fabrication of momentous proportions. Although he went to school the next day, speaking about it to his friends, did they really get it?
This generation of self entitled thinking f*cking children is the by product of my generation. when we as the grandchildren of people just out of slavery or one parent removed wanted to show/give more to their heirs...because they never had it or couldn't enjoy it in their younger years.
Each one..teach one. I hope!
uenLOVE PUBLIC ENEMY
They were the catalyst for the Music Industry to control the evolution of RAP.
You get propers for that POST no Doubt !!!
I feel PRIDE that I am a descendant of the STRONGEST people on the PLANET! I Feel frustration each day as I struggle to MAINTAIN my position as a link in the chain & do them PROUD by upholding my "end" of the bargain. I was raised on: What don't Kill U makes U stronger.
Stay Strong GOOD PEOPLE & keep those memories ALIVE! thanx for this post, DC!
The document really makes my blood run cold. During law school in my contracts class, we studied slave contracts. My professor, David Hall, http://www.northeastern.edu/aa/
pdfs/dhallbio.pdf, was really wonderful to expose us to these documents. Seeing these words in black and white makes all those things that you just heard about very real and exposes the brutality.
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