Black and White
I saw a story on NewsNet today that first made me roll my eyes, then gasp, then launched me in to a full-on stupor. I only saw the story briefly, mind you, so forgive me any minor errors.
Apparently there is a politician in Virginia who has come out and said that African Americans need to "get over" slavery. The state has some kind of 400th anniversary coming up, so some local groups had proposed that this was a reasonable time for the state to apologize for their role in slavery, which prompted buddy's comments.
To be fair, he backed up this astounding statement with the fact that no one currently alive had anything to do with slavery, kind of insinuating that it is silly for a black man to eye whitey with a "you hurt my people" kind of mentality.
Can you imagine being that naive, or that prone to publicly saying whatever comes in to your head without thinking it through?
Of course no one alive today had anything to do with slavery. But let's not forget that slavery is, by and large, how the first African Americans got to North America. Ninety eight percent of the people currently on our continent didn't "start" here, we all came from Away. But there's a huge difference between me telling you, ".... and things got kind of rough in Scotland, so my ancestors came here", and a black person saying, "....and everything was happy and peaceful in my ancestors' village until some white guys with guns showed up, rounded up the men of the village, and sold them. More than half of them died on the trip to America, but hey, we all need to start the American Dream somewhere."
That being said, an idealistic part of me actually does agree with his comment. "Look, I didn't do that horrid thing and never would, so let's be friends and forget about all that bad shit." Unfortunately, that type of argument only works at the one-on-one level, and it only works if the people involved in the discussion don't have racist leanings.
The way African Americans were treated in the past needs to be recognized and acknowledged. Okay, okay, slavery has been over for a long time. But it also seems to me that less than 50 years ago Rosa Parks sat with her stomach churning and her calves shaking, while she tried to maintain her dignity on a bus. And I'm sorry, but somebody needs to apologize for THAT at the very least, so step up.
And just to compound the problem, this same politician (and I truly don't doubt he was well-meaning in all of this) supported his argument by saying blaming white folks for slavery is like blaming Jews for killing Christ.
Aww dude, come ON. It's not hard to tell someone is desperate when that argument comes up. Let's put it in context. Jesus was an actual historic person, no one denies that, but I will leave his spiritual signifigance up to you. Did Jews have a role in his murder? Well DUH. But let's not forget that we are maybe talking about seven people who happened to be Jewish, and Jesus Himself was a Jew, and they certainly didn't do it alone, they had a bunch of Romans with them as well. So should be blame Italian people for killing Him? Should we walk past a synagogue and say, "Those people killed the Saviour." ? And to put in context with today's world, should we say that because a few nut-jobs blew up a building, it is the fault of Islam?
Of course not, it's utterly ridiculous.
But what happened to Jesus is not what happened to African Americans, alright??? Jesus was one guy, and what ended his life was a one-off deal. It may suck, but it was the culmination of three or four months of plotting against one person for a specific reason. It was not 400 years of subjegation, murder, forced labour, family separation and cultural death.
At the end of the day, I'm sorry buddy in Virginia is an idiot. I'm also sorry that people like him think they can invoke the "J" word to support any argument they choose.
And just to put things in context, I am a 37 year old white woman, who is a Christian and a Canadian. You know, Canada, that place black people dreamed of when they were enslaved. So maybe the way I look at history is different than some guy in Virginia. All I know is that what was done to African Americans ( and, going further back, to Africans) was wrong. Should we beat ourselves up about it? No. Should we say we're sorry? Yes.
Apparently there is a politician in Virginia who has come out and said that African Americans need to "get over" slavery. The state has some kind of 400th anniversary coming up, so some local groups had proposed that this was a reasonable time for the state to apologize for their role in slavery, which prompted buddy's comments.
To be fair, he backed up this astounding statement with the fact that no one currently alive had anything to do with slavery, kind of insinuating that it is silly for a black man to eye whitey with a "you hurt my people" kind of mentality.
Can you imagine being that naive, or that prone to publicly saying whatever comes in to your head without thinking it through?
Of course no one alive today had anything to do with slavery. But let's not forget that slavery is, by and large, how the first African Americans got to North America. Ninety eight percent of the people currently on our continent didn't "start" here, we all came from Away. But there's a huge difference between me telling you, ".... and things got kind of rough in Scotland, so my ancestors came here", and a black person saying, "....and everything was happy and peaceful in my ancestors' village until some white guys with guns showed up, rounded up the men of the village, and sold them. More than half of them died on the trip to America, but hey, we all need to start the American Dream somewhere."
That being said, an idealistic part of me actually does agree with his comment. "Look, I didn't do that horrid thing and never would, so let's be friends and forget about all that bad shit." Unfortunately, that type of argument only works at the one-on-one level, and it only works if the people involved in the discussion don't have racist leanings.
The way African Americans were treated in the past needs to be recognized and acknowledged. Okay, okay, slavery has been over for a long time. But it also seems to me that less than 50 years ago Rosa Parks sat with her stomach churning and her calves shaking, while she tried to maintain her dignity on a bus. And I'm sorry, but somebody needs to apologize for THAT at the very least, so step up.
And just to compound the problem, this same politician (and I truly don't doubt he was well-meaning in all of this) supported his argument by saying blaming white folks for slavery is like blaming Jews for killing Christ.
Aww dude, come ON. It's not hard to tell someone is desperate when that argument comes up. Let's put it in context. Jesus was an actual historic person, no one denies that, but I will leave his spiritual signifigance up to you. Did Jews have a role in his murder? Well DUH. But let's not forget that we are maybe talking about seven people who happened to be Jewish, and Jesus Himself was a Jew, and they certainly didn't do it alone, they had a bunch of Romans with them as well. So should be blame Italian people for killing Him? Should we walk past a synagogue and say, "Those people killed the Saviour." ? And to put in context with today's world, should we say that because a few nut-jobs blew up a building, it is the fault of Islam?
Of course not, it's utterly ridiculous.
But what happened to Jesus is not what happened to African Americans, alright??? Jesus was one guy, and what ended his life was a one-off deal. It may suck, but it was the culmination of three or four months of plotting against one person for a specific reason. It was not 400 years of subjegation, murder, forced labour, family separation and cultural death.
At the end of the day, I'm sorry buddy in Virginia is an idiot. I'm also sorry that people like him think they can invoke the "J" word to support any argument they choose.
And just to put things in context, I am a 37 year old white woman, who is a Christian and a Canadian. You know, Canada, that place black people dreamed of when they were enslaved. So maybe the way I look at history is different than some guy in Virginia. All I know is that what was done to African Americans ( and, going further back, to Africans) was wrong. Should we beat ourselves up about it? No. Should we say we're sorry? Yes.
posted by Jenn at
11:47 p.m.
1 Comments:
dude! that was a full-on rant! right on.
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