African Americans come from a very rich, strong history that has lasted for hundreds of years. In the continent of Africa, historians and archeologists have found some of the most wondrous treasures and artifacts. Black History Month heralds the significance that we as black people do not allow our youth or ourselves to forget the history of our ethnicity. Little is offered in schools; our children can only equate black history with Martin Luther King Jr., Malcolm X and Michael Jordan. Many black adults simply have forgotten where they came from. It is important for families of black youth to introduce and support black history in the home.
African tribes were highly developed and practiced commerce, politics, medicine, education, spirituality and a very strong sense of family; all of this was bound by traditions that were passed from one generation to the next. Our ancestors thrived and did well in respecting the earth and each other.
Slavery changed all of this. Human life was harvested in the most brutal and cruel acts known to man. African men, women and children were torn from their homes, beaten and abused. The Middle Passage and the Point of No Return are just a few places that remain to remind many of these atrocities. There aren’t any artifacts to show any African voluntarily boarding slave ships; this was not a pleasure cruise. Africans were chained together on these ships shoulder-to-shoulder, foot-to-foot. Sharks followed these ships for hundreds of miles feeding off the dead that were thrown overboard.
In over 400 years of slavery in America, millions of Africans were killed for “human harvesting.” Slaves were given the lowest food, clothing and living arrangements and were expected to survive. Slave culture was destroyed and deemed immoral. Acclimation and assimilation was enforced. The African became the Negro, the nigger, the colored person, and finally the African American. Over the 400 years, slave blacks were used for medical experiments and labor to build and expand America in all of its aspects. No other race of people has endured what blacks have in slavery, oppression and discrimination that remain present today.
Qualities that are not taught to our youth about black history are: resiliency, unity, perseverance, indomitable strength and courage that our ancestors demonstrated. These actions were necessary to survive, to develop into a new culture of people in the midst of extreme violence: To take the unwanted parts of animals and make them into traditional cuisine, to communicate through quilts when education (learning to read) was denied, to be forbidden to speak native languages or practice spirituality, a new music was born (Jazz) along with spiritual practice (gospel). Today slave quilts sell for thousands of dollars, millions support gospel music and just about everyone has had some Southern cooked food.
The fascination with blacks in America is simple: you cannot look or go anywhere and not encounter black contribution. Blacks were a part of the development of the Declaration of Independence, building beloved historic places; many inventions we enjoy today were from black inventors. America has not fully embraced the simple fact: the African/black nurtured this new country and black contribution is a part of all of us. The slave is really the master: America and the African black are juxtaposed. America simply would not be the country it is today if it were not for the slave/black contribution.
Sadly, black contributions made to America have not been reciprocated. The 40 acres and a mule promised has yet to materialize – instead blacks were given affirmative action. It cannot be ignored that there are other immigrants who have also made positive contributions to America; yet it is blacks that are stigmatized and discriminated against more than any other race/ethnicity. Even with over 400 years of slavery and systematic psychological oppression and the destruction of the black family from what was in Africa, blacks still persevere. Black people should never forget our ancestors and what they survived so that we stand here today. Never forget that we came to America as immigrants and we built this country to what it is today. Stand and be proud of what is within and the color of your skin. Black is all colors of the spectrum.