Thank you for your detailed comment and for reading.
Why is it important to remember that at the signing of our founding documents slavery was practiced globally? It is not important because it does nothing to minimize the violence, brutality, raping, and terrorism that the savages who were enslavers inflicted upon Africans in this country.
My position in this article is not to question the fact that slavery existed around the world before it was initiated in the new world by European settlers. My position is to ONLY address the founding fathers of this country.
While the US did not create slavery, does that make what was done to my ancestors any less egregious? It’s troubling to me that the often knee jerk reaction to slavery by Whites is to “educate” me on slavery around the world. I’m well aware of history and firmly believe ALL slavery is horrendous, including slavery imposed by Africans that led to Africans being sold into bondage to Europeans.
However, my point that no one seems to address is that the US is the ONLY country to engage in chattel slavery while simultaneously claiming to be a democracy where “all men are created equal”. There is no explanation to justify those actions. It is blatant hypocrisy that Americans of today find too difficult to digest so it just isn’t discussed.
Only part of America’s story is taught so those of us who study history must teach our children and communities more than what white America allows to be taught in schools.
You referenced “woke” which is an African American term that was hijacked by conservatives and gentrified for ill intent. To be clear, that term was created by Black activists and simply means that Black people must stay ALERT in the face of white indoctrination which runs ramped in this country.
The fact that not one person who has tried to “teach” me history does not address the hypocrisy of these men and I’m sure has never read a slave narrative or showed any interest in hearing my ancestors’ stories is very telling of the current condition of this country.
Americans gloss over the Transatlantic Slave Trade, the single most horrific atrocity and largest slave trade in the world that killed 60 million people. No one bats an eyelash at that, but instead want to remind me that whites were also enslaved and that Africans were enslavers.
There is no comparison to the incidious nature in which Europeans willfully subjected Africans to for greed and personal profit. We all acknowledge the US did not create slavery, but what it did by raping African women for the sole purpose of breeding new generations of enslaved people, denying Africans the right to educate themselves, earn wealth, or make wills to pass down any earnings to future generations AFTER emancipation is unmatched.
No Jew would want to hear anyone minimize the Holocaust by bringing up the fact that other countries endured imprisonment and heinous murder and that wouldn’t be acceptable even in America. Why then, is it okay for Americans to minimize the impact of slavery and to never address the founders of this country who engaged in this vicious and savage practice?
Also, there are MANY other leaders in the Black community besides MLK, past and current. It would be nice if whites researched more Black leaders and could send me paragraphs on them as opposed to telling me a history that I already learned about in grade school and college.
And the “lets do better and commit to integration” comment should be directed at white Americans, not me or any other person of color. We are not the groups who fought to keep us separate and rendered us inferior because of such an idiotic reason as skin color. It is America who needs to do better and stop making excuses for its wrongdoings, both past AND present.
