Dealing with the long lasting effects of slavery

People get mixed emotions when the word "slavery" is heard.  Some people feel overwhelmed with sadness, others guilt, anger, despair, and a larger group of people simply wish to forget about the whole thing and refuse to think or talk about it.

Whatever feelings a person has about slavery, only one thing actually matters regardless of emotions...It happened, SLAVERY HAPPENED.  People need to deal with it, and all the other things that went along with it like segregation, Jim Crowe laws, perpetual poverty, racism, the civil rights movement (and the back lash that went along with it), the harmful stereotypes placed on blacks, and even the slander of our black president by factions such as the birther movement.

How can we heal as a people?  When I think of slavery, I get images of limp black bodies hanging by their necks from ropes tied to trees.  When I think of slavery, I think of my ancestors standing on an auction block being sold to the highest bidder, as though they were beasts of burden.  How can we heal when we know that our traditions and culture and knowledge of our tribal blood lines were stolen from us?  How can we move on to better days when we know that the true history of our people has been marred with lies and omissions, or  our achievements wrongfully claimed by other groups of hateful and jealous persons?

Today, it is politically incorrect to talk about slavery or racism, or the need for groups like the NAACP, because many want so badly to believe that these things are long gone and that to continuously bring it up is just an attempt to start racial wars or to bring back something because some people refuse to let it die.

I believe that in order for us to recognize the way we are treated in this country, the place we have been put in this society, and the way for us to pull ourselves up, we must go back and look at what it meant to be a slave.  Some may think that slavery does not matter anymore, but the effects of slavery and everything that followed emancipation and civil rights still linger in our beings.

Unfortunately, we do not live in a country that actually believes that all men are created equal. Only a small percentage are treated with perpetual respect, and the rest are treated "any kind of way" unless they band together to DEMAND their justice.  Our people have suffered enough to not have to endure situations like Emit Till,  Trayvon Martin, or Kenneth Chamberlain.  Some may say that Trayvon Martin and Kenneth Chamberlain were not deaths as a result of racism, and whether that is true or not, the lack of diligent investigation and serving of timely justice shows just how far we've come from slavery and not mattering.

Please visit the link above (Slavery Happened), if you are interested in how slavery still affects African Americans.  If you need more information, please use the Contact Us link above.