“Two hundred fifty years of slavery. Ninety years of Jim Crow. Sixty years of separate but equal. Thirty-five years of racist housing policy. Until we reckon with our compounding moral debts, America will never be whole.”
– from ‘The Case for Reparations‘ by The Atlantic
“Slavery was ages ago! You weren’t a slave. Your parents and grandparents weren’t slaves. Slavery is over! Move on! Just GET OVER IT!”
That is a common reaction from the mouths of many–and the type very likely lurking silently in the hearts of many more… It is a major part of Americana. Many things are…
In 2014, if one cannot understand why ‘get over it‘ is often an offensive, divisive, logically fallacious and, thus, progressively invalid reaction to claims from within and without the American Black population for various forms of reparations for the 250+ years of varied terrorism visited upon the Black population in the United States of America, and, if one is not biased against Blacks,…
…then, one also lacks the faculties to comprehend claims from within and without the Japanese-, Chinese-, Native-, Jewish-, and other “-American” groups for the terrorism visited upon them over time by the government, government supported social norms (i.e., violent bigot militias), and ethnically biased institutions (i.e., banks, schools, police, etc) from the 16 & 1700’s thru 2014.
Shouldn’t they all just… move on?
Did your just mind stutter-step while deciding the answer to that?
Could you even imagine looking into the eyes of the children of Jewish Holocaust victims or those of pre-USA tribes stripped of land, liberty, and life, and saying:
“That was a long time ago. Get over it. Just move on.” (?)
Some people can imagine. Some act that out regularly.
Not abnormal: many people are biased culturally, racially, and ethnically. This is a far cry from being a hateful bigot. And, denial of such bias merely quietly warps or murders one’s take on equality. That is a very detrimental thing for the Self and Others.
Also, not abnormal. Many people were cultured to only stereotypically consider the lives, mannerisms, conditions, and aims of other cultures and ethnic groups. And, one is either cultured, schooled, or re-educated to consider contemporary and present effects of contemporary happenings, or one doesn’t. So, one either comprehends the real-world, real-time plight of real people, or one is not. Thus, one either applies universal logic to one or some ethnic groups (bias), or to all (not bias). One is either a bigot (subconsciously, overtly, or covertly stubbornly biased person) or is not.
When Black in America, it is commonly wildly disproportionately difficult to grow up well-rounded, self-assured, and into a productive member of society when that same society is conditioned to attack the average Black with biased laws, financial institutions, education systems, histories, religions interpretations, and an often Black-blaming reactionary norm.
If this nation is ‘post-racial’ and ‘color-blind’, then I’m the lovechild of Santa Clause and a Smurf.
Many people, of all backgrounds, just have not the frames of reference to, or instilled knack for concern for the on-going effects of trauma visited institutionally and socially upon certain groups of people. And, truly and horrifically, the effects of the Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade, American Slavery, Reconstruction, The Black Codes, Jim Crow legislation, the Civil Rights Movement, and more are very present in Black American grand culture.
And, I don’t wanna hear anything else about the Oprahs, Jordans, Magics, and Jay-Zs; …the allowed and symbolically necessary ‘exceptions’ to the rule [of global White supremacy racism]..
The system here has instilled in us Blacks to both to overall (culturally) despise assisting those of our own ethnicity and communities, and that those who attempt any real substantial, more-then-symbolic change… will be killed–reputation-wise or literally.
The Fresh Nēgüs 