Now is time to learn history of rights

Recently, I showed my students a video about the arrival of the Portuguese in West Africa in 1450. Though initially trading for foodstuffs and gold, the Portuguese soon found out African emperors were willing to trade fellow Africans.

Over a period of 350 years, various European countries were to transport 12 million human beings into the Western Hemisphere. The video’s narrator, a native Kenyan noted that the speculation is that for every one African that reached the Americas, “another died in transit.” Africans weren’t stolen away. They were sold away by other Africans who possessed the military might to squash the slave trade.

One scene in the video, drawn by a modern day artist, showed a white Portuguese slaver, standing over a cowering black female with her hands chained behind her back. When the video was over I asked my tenth graders about that particular scene. What became obvious in my students’ responses was a clear pattern. The white students acknowledge the inhumanity of slavery but, did not feel responsible for it. As for my black students, most connected the scene to the here and now and felt a visceral empathy with the black female. One student said that it reminded him “of the Rodney King thing.”

We had a comfortable and revealing discussion that day. The class was filled with verbal energy. My job was to stay neutral and simply be as equitable as possible in calling on the many upraised hands that were pleading for classroom airtime.

I believe what I stumbled in to that day was revealing in a much larger sense. For my African American students, the past and the present are welded together. Regardless, if the president is George Washington or George Bush, black kids perceive a white definition of what counts in America. Where many white Americans possess almost a museum image of history, black Americans view history as an undeniable set of racist footprints that begin on the beaches of West Africa and end in their own neighborhoods.

Are the black kids right? Is there a modern day connection to America’s racist history that manifests itself today? What would explain the disproportionate amount of black crime in America? The disproportionate amount of poverty? The angry messages of rap lyrics? The many fatherless black families? The continual gaps in educational performance? The you’re not welcome here areas of our inner cities?

Once, I heard a black man’s comment on a local radio call in show. The topic for the program was, “Does Racism Still Exist?” The caller responded with a resounding, “Yes.” He pointed out that there, “Must be something to this racist stuff or, we’re the biggest cry babies in history.”

I don’t have answers to such complex matters. I do have feelings based upon 35 years of personal observations and the teaching of American history. The European roots to the histories of Western Hemisphere countries is fact, America inherited slavery. It didn’t invent. However, the America that existed from 1776 to 1876 — independence to the end of Reconstruction — formulated its own unique forms of racism that evolved into an apartheid culture labeled Jim Crow. I was born into that America. I saw it. I participated in it. I benefited from it. Every white person did, either directly or indirectly.

The white racism that exists today is an insensitive mutation that is firmly rooted in the mentality of that was then, this is now. On one hand the country wallows in the glory of its past achievements. On the other it asks of its newest citizens a willingness to interpret its racist practices as a cultural anomaly that has no current relevance. In fact, many whites feel that the teaching of the struggles and triumphs of African Americans is a perverted effort at keeping things stirred up. I wonder if the modern day Jewish admonition regarding the Holocaust of “Never Again and Never Forget” is just a Semitic version of stirring things up?

We live in a competitive culture. You know. The one where you’re told as a child to work hard and get ahead. White America’s race to success began in 1776. It continues to this very moment. Black America has gotten in the race in my lifetime. I’m 57. White America has more than a 200-year head start. If we expect African Americans to simply forget about that 200-year gap, then it makes perfect sense why black kids connect the past to the present. If one subtracts 200 from 2006 you get 1806. America, 200 years ago, still had two years left to import as many Africans on slave ships as it could cram into their holds. The descendants of those people are seated in front of me each day.

I wonder what it feels like to try to win a game in which you haven’t been allowed to meet your teammates, you’ve been forced to do menial work while you wait to get in, when you get in the rules are enforced by the people that made you wait, and, you’re 200 points behind. I would speculate that if a person did give it a try, it would be absurd on anyone’s part to think the latecomer had a realistic chance. It would be equally absurd to think the new player wouldn’t connect his late start to his present predicament. And lastly, you gotta wonder about the winning opponents. Are they really winning anything when the game is rigged?

One last thought. Why isn’t there a white version of the N.A.A.C.P.? There is. It’s 120 years older. It’s called the Federal Government of the United States of America. What law has that organization ever made that the white majority didn’t agree to? The answer is, none.

There is an excellent book called the Continent that goes through the history of Africa and slavery. The Zulu's the most powerful tribe attacked and took as slaves the men of other tribes.

When Capt. Van Dorf came around the cape of good hope and started trading with the Zulu's the Zulu's used their slaves in exchange for material goods from Europe.

Africans kept slaves and, in areas of Africa still do to this day.

What law has that organization ever made that the white majority didn’t agree to? The answer is, none.

Uh, no. How about affirmative action? How about 20,000 gun control laws? How about legalized sodomy? How about busing? In local politics absurd over-zoning. The endangered species act as currently interpretted.

We live in a competitive culture. You know. The one where you’re told as a child to work hard and get ahead. ... White America has more than a 200-year head start. If we expect African Americans to simply forget about that 200-year gap, then it makes perfect sense why black kids connect the past to the present. If one subtracts 200 from 2006 you get 1806.

So, white Americans were learnging how to work hard and get ahead in 1806, like Blacks today?

I hope this guy doesn't moonlight as faculty advisor for the debate team.

The book you read is not very accurate. The Zulus did not become a powerful tribe until the early 19th century, when the slave tribe was well along in the process of being destroyed by the British. They were also much too far south for the Arab slavers, who had more accessible markets.

The Zulus had slaves, but not very many. They instead generally either incorporated adopted tribes into their nation or exterminated them.

In any case, they were marginal players in the slave trade. Now the Ashanti...

At least the teacher started with the salient fact that;

"the [traders] soon found out African emperors were willing to trade fellow Africans."

Someday, (like hopefully, tomorrow, or at least day after) they may also be able to ponder on the truth, of your statement;

"Africans kept slaves and, in areas of Africa still do to this day."

When, or if that day come, it might well lead to a groundswell of support, to rise up "as one", and condemn the present day murder and oppression that SOME Africans in power, subject those Africans to, whom are unfortunate enough, to be under their thumb.

Target-rich environment.

Wonder how he explains the considerable academic and financial success of recent black African, Carribean and Asian immigrants. All three of these groups are wealthier on average, I believe, than white Americans.

This is nonsense. There is no one alive today, white or otherwise, who was alive 200 years ago. Every one of us started our "race" they day we were born. What happened to some other people before that is irrelevant.

As a colonel in the Air Force, I commanded an engineering unit of about 200 people. Some 30 of my engineers were blacks. They were the equal of their co-workers. I promoted several of them (Civil Service) because they deserved it, not because they were blacks. They started their "race" the day they were born, and they managed to come out equal to the rest of those who worked for me.

Over the years I've had the opportunity to work with quite a few immigrants: Chinese, Vietnamese, Nigerian, Indian, among others. The Vietnamese, in particular, arrived here with literaly nothing but the clothes on their backs. They've all been successful here. I'm tired of hearing excuses for those who won't take advantage of the opportunities this country offers.

The video’s narrator, a native Kenyan noted that the speculation is that for every one African that reached the Americas, “another died in transit.”

I find it remarkably offensive that in my own country I should have to tolerate the gratuitous attack on a country that did not exist for another 350-some odd years!

This Kenyan can kiss my red-white-and-blue American butt!

Where has his country taken him? Why is he not documenting the endemic failures of his country and his still-stone-age continent? Is it simply "easier" to attack the civilized and the successful?

Time to re-read the recent excellent reference book, The Slave Trade, 1440-1870, Hugh Thomas, Simon and Schuster, 1997.
Time to refresh my memory, about where all those slaves went, between 1440 and 1793 ...

For my African American students, the past and the present are welded together.

That is because race baiters like Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton and liberal apologists who truly believe that blacks are inferior make sure of it.

I’m 57. White America has more than a 200-year head start.

I'm 56. I didn't get that 200-year head start. At best, I've been at this for about 56 years.

It does seem true that Black culture habits tend to hinder the devlopment of Black youth. The cultural differences are a bit more than 200 years apart if you take the apparent "age" of European society vs the apparent "age" of the stone age society encountered by Europeans when they entered Africa.

I'm not sure where I am going by this. I see people from different places that are not really different in raw intellect. One develops a technological society, the other doesn't. Sometimes I think religous beliefs inhibit progress.

At any rate, there might be racist inhibitors in today's America; however, I see more of a social inhibition on the part of Blacks. It is almost like they prefer not to "go with the flow". This is not unlike the Native Americans that languish on the reservations.

I hope I don't sound racist. These are musing of one who is bewildered.

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