(#6064) Slavery is white history, surviving it is black history

      Just so we are clear about the facts of white human ownership of black humans. This fact is not disputable. So for white folks to tell black folks to get over being a race enslaved for 400 years on American soil is an arrogance beyond all logical understanding. Firstly we white folks were not enslaved so our perspective on slavery is imagined. We are surely aware of the advantages of owning people but not the disadvantages of being owned. I was a poorer white child growing up but that would have been a dream for most enslaved black children.
     I am writing this today because yesterday I saw that Ruby Bridges turned 71. She is less than a year older than me and it struck me that we would have gone through school together in today's more normal circumstances. Ruby was the symbol of desegregation to our nation and because of her we are now a more integrated society. Not perfect but we are at least beyond segregated. My life has been lived during a time of significant history. Presidential assassination that changed the trajectory of our democracy in a worse way. Landing on the Moon as an example of what we human beings can achieve in moving out into space.
     If the last several centuries were deemed the enlightened period then today's centuries are the discovery period. Science is pushing the envelope on many fronts including nuclear fusion as a source of power of an unlimited scope. Everything daily is changing and keeping up with it requires us to be constantly informed. What we cannot do is go backwards. Paradigms like slavery must be acknowledged in the proper sense. Generations of black folks dealt with the loss of freedom through excruciating manners. We white folks must be prepared to admit our fault and offer to rectify where we can. I am ashamed of my white race for their actions and feel no less remorse because I wasn't born during that time of chosen brutality.