The Road of Black Americans
Editor note: This email was sent to a local radio station which generated a reponse, so I decided to post it for public viewing.
It was a change to hear you on radio (I will not use the station call sign because they are bias in their commentary) substituting for that other talk-show host. You’ve talked repeatedly about the founding father and black family; I fail to see the connection. For an intellectual who have spent sometimes working in the black community in North Omaha, I would like to give you some insights into black family culture. Blacks have been in this country since the second half of the 16th Century before their emancipation in 1863. Because of politics and policies of the founders of this nation, blacks were treated as chattel/property up until the end of the Civil War.
Although the Emancipation Proclamation signed on Jan 1, 1863 granted black slaves their freedom, personhood; however, they were confronted with humiliation, discrimination and peril for the next 100 years thereafter. There were never flag waving, embracing the Declaration of Independent or singing God Bless America. If blacks were to choose their own song, it would likely be ‘Lift Every Voice and Sign’ releasing them from bondage.
America social order is what ruins black families over 300 years of servitude and repression. You’ve related all the ills in the black family to a lack of a core unit structure. Maybe it is that and more; but that is your assumption.
America will be bless when it address the issues of poverty. Your biggest weakness in your argument is that you know less about black history which was by design left out of American History. We see history through a different prism. We have a parallel experience in history. Our history does intersect at certain points in history; but we don’t have a common experience. What I keep hearing from white America is how their grandparents immigrated to this country and made it. Well sir, blacks are not immigrants. You just don’t understand and/or appreciate the black’s experience in America.
It was a change to hear you on radio (I will not use the station call sign because they are bias in their commentary) substituting for that other talk-show host. You’ve talked repeatedly about the founding father and black family; I fail to see the connection. For an intellectual who have spent sometimes working in the black community in North Omaha, I would like to give you some insights into black family culture. Blacks have been in this country since the second half of the 16th Century before their emancipation in 1863. Because of politics and policies of the founders of this nation, blacks were treated as chattel/property up until the end of the Civil War.
Although the Emancipation Proclamation signed on Jan 1, 1863 granted black slaves their freedom, personhood; however, they were confronted with humiliation, discrimination and peril for the next 100 years thereafter. There were never flag waving, embracing the Declaration of Independent or singing God Bless America. If blacks were to choose their own song, it would likely be ‘Lift Every Voice and Sign’ releasing them from bondage.
America social order is what ruins black families over 300 years of servitude and repression. You’ve related all the ills in the black family to a lack of a core unit structure. Maybe it is that and more; but that is your assumption.
America will be bless when it address the issues of poverty. Your biggest weakness in your argument is that you know less about black history which was by design left out of American History. We see history through a different prism. We have a parallel experience in history. Our history does intersect at certain points in history; but we don’t have a common experience. What I keep hearing from white America is how their grandparents immigrated to this country and made it. Well sir, blacks are not immigrants. You just don’t understand and/or appreciate the black’s experience in America.
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