Black History Month should serve as a reminder to all Americans | Opinion
Black History Month is a time for observance and remembrance of important events and people of Black African descent in America. It’s also a time when African Americans can, through reflection and study, validate and rededicate their commitments to honor their racial identity and the legacy of their ancestors.
The primary event to be remembered is the horrors of Black Africans being kidnapped, domesticated, and enslaved by White slavers as chattel property - to be owned and transferred as inheritance from one generation of White racists to the next.
The ideology of White supremacy and Black inferiority coupled with the belief that Blacks felt no physical pain and had no soul justified unspeakable brutality by many Whites. Thus, unlike any other non-indigenous racial or ethnic group that comprise the United States’ population, Black Africans did not come as immigrants. They were brought here to be domesticated, much like other farm animals i.e., a chicken, cow, horse. They were breaded similarly. Once domesticated, using heinous techniques, Africans became White America’s man-made, “Negroes.”
The history of African slavery in America is vast and rich with pictures, personal slave and slave owners’ testimonies. Many writers use 1619 as the start date to discuss Black history, some start before Columbus and the Mayflower. Other writers start with the founding of the country, as a nation of laws, with a Preamble that states that “all men are created equal with inalienable rights…”
To be upstanding citizens, laws must be obeyed. These laws governed the behaviors of White people only during that time because Blacks had no rights whatsoever.
Laws relating specifically to slaves were: 1710 law, “Meritorious Manumission” addressing approved slave behaviors. the 1789 U.S. Constitution that reads slaves were “three/fifths of a man”; the Fugitive Slave Act of 1793, “returned escaped slaves back to slavery, and the 1857 U.S. Supreme Court ruling that “Blacks had no rights Whites were bound to respect.”
Other laws stated that slaves could not get married, could not be taught to read or write, or assemble in numbers more than five. A Tennessee 1910 law classified any individual with “one drop” of Black blood a “Negro” i.e., Afro-Asian, Afro-Latino, Afro-European.
Some White religious institutions justified indifference towards Blacks’ suffering because of their wrongdoings in a celestial preexistence, slaves being disobedient to their masters, and biblically interpreted curses of Cain and Ham that included dark skin, etc.
The legacy of these laws and biblical interpretations continue to prevent the descendants of enslaved Africans from realizing their full humanity, full freedom, and full citizenship, from 1619 to present.
Black History Month reminds all Americans that there is indeed a rich history that helps explain the current tension between the two races. However, there are still powerful political interests that profit from this tension and seek to keep this liberating Black history hidden.
Today’s challenge for all Americans is how to move forward with redressing the injustices of its slave legacy. For most descendants of Black slaves, the “just get over it” solution is totally unacceptable.
Educational reforms are minimizing opportunities to teach and learn about Black history. Race related books are banded, and CRT courses prohibited. These developments are concerning and pose a threat to resolving racial divisions in the country.
Nonetheless, Black History Month gives the nation a yearly opportunity to revisit the “dark side” of Black enslavement and how its laws shamefully produced and maintain the current Black underclass… (Ref: YouTube: The Psychology of Racism in Jim Crow America). Black freedom is not free. It demands vigilance and sacrifice to safeguard it for future generations.
Dallas E. Barnes, Ph. D. Sociologist, is a retired administrator and professor from Washington State University, and a longtime Tri-City advocate for racial justice.
