“Study to show yourself approved unto God….” ⁓ Paul, 2 Timothy 2.15
“Education is for improving the lives of others and for leaving your community and world better than you found it.”
Marian Wright Edelman
The cruel conclusion by the State of Florida and its Governor that the enslavement of our Ancestors was a “benefit,” to African Americans is ludicrous. It is one of the most asinine statements ever to be uttered by ignorant people. In revising the books for Florida students to learn history from this perspective is to ignore the truth of history. Equally, to put that truth against the truth of the Holocaust is a tactic that racists have practiced for centuries.
Whenever and wherever racism raises its ugly head, it must be confronted. I am convinced that one reason it continues to raise its head is because people are afraid of genuinely being educated about the facts of history. You cannot dispute the fact that our ancestors were forced from our native Africa and brought to the Americas as enslaved people. We were not extended a gold-plated invitation to come to the New World and Europe. We did not come through Ellis Island. We were not given a helping hand to get started. We did not even get the promised 40 acres and a mule!
Attempts were made to strip our identities. Our families were decimated; our cultures were ripped; our women were raped and our men were emasculated. Benefitted? No African brought to the New World, a land that was taken from the Natives who were already here, benefited from the inhumane, brutal, harsh realities inflicted upon us.
We cannot allow the miseducation of a new generation of Americans or the global community to believe that lie. Never again! Amen.
