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Understanding the Past to Better Our Neighbor's Future
Understanding the Past to Better Our Neighbor's Future
The United States is said to be “home of the free,” yet does not fully portray this quote because of its unforgivable history and continuous behavior towards blacks and African Americans. Past history illustrates the Unites States as a place that allowed slavery and oppression towards African American men and women. As well as, recognized white men as superior beings and had them ruled over everyone else, this includes white women and enslaved workers. Nevertheless, enslaved African American women had more in common with enslaved men since they shared equal labor, punishment, and experiences when compared to white women who undergo gender oppression.
Is illustrates that both male and females slaves were seen working on the cotton fields.
It is claimed that enslaved black women have more in common with enslaved black men when compared to white women because of the shared experiences enslaved black women and men had. It is known that enslaved men were enforced with a lot of physical abuse, looked at as property, and forced to perform hard labor. As explained in Women, Race, and Class, Angela Davis expresses that enslaved women were treated the same as their male counterparts. They also endured physical torture and punishments, worked beside the men and were seen as precious property because of their ability to reproduce more slaves.
Enslaved men and women shared the same torture, but what makes them extremely similar is how they were dehumanized and never truly experience manhood or womanhood. In contrast, enslaved women had it worse of all because of the rape and domestic violence they had to endure from their owners and other white men.
This makes it clear that white women did not have much in common with enslaved African American women; although they did experience gender oppression, they had different experiences. A white woman may not have had legal statutes like slaves, which is known as the system of coverture, but they hold power over those that were owned by their husband. For instance, they had the power to beat and treat the slaves poorly whenever they wished to.
This small illustration was taken from an article, which shows a female slave (a mother) reaching towards her children as the slave owner takes them from her.
Furthermore, a white woman’s experiences of oppression is seen to be different because they were covered by white supremacy. Meaning that they had privileges that African Americans did not have. On the contrary, they shared similarities with enslaved women because they were too used to have sons that would then inherit the family’s property and slaves. However, enslaved women did not have the right to have a family, husband, or children of their own. Instead, slaves would have their children be born into slavery and cared for the children of white families instead of their own.
Such examples illustrate how the slaves were treated in the past, yet to this day the system of slavery impacts the black communities in the United States. In a documentary, 13th, many interviewees brought to light the truth behind why black people are seen as criminals. They revealed that even though the 13th amendment abolished slavery, there is a loophole that aids to control people of color and blacks. This was accomplished by including a line that mentions that only those that are being punished due to committing a crime can be treated and considered as a modern time slave. Therefore once slavery was abolished, many freed African Americans would be placed in prison and forced to do domestic labor for small crimes committed. Today this trend carries on as illustrated by the many black neighborhoods that are targeted by those in power.
Despite the fact that enslaved African American women suffered tremendously, many resisted slavery and continue to resist anti-black racism today. Such as many women, including Harriet Jacob, successfully escaped slavery. Harriet Jacob’s story is very unique because she hid for seven years in a dark and extremely small attic, but would have rather done so than be owned by a white man. Not to mention, slaves would secretly learn how to read and write. This knowledge was extremely valuable because slave owners were threatened by their newly found knowledge that could lead many to rebel against them. Today there are black feminist organizations that are lead by strong black women. With that being said, the past history including slavery and racism will never push down our black brothers and sisters.
My Thoughts on How to Move Forward: Reparation
My Thoughts on How to Move Forward: Reparation
As I got ready to write my reflection, I noticed that I did not have a complete grasp of what reparation consists of. Reparation is restoring and healing the group of people, in this case, those whose ancestors were slaves, and creating a process that will help them gain back the human rights that were taken from them due to historical discrimination. The United States has a continuous problem involving discriminating against people of color and criminalizing their actions even when innocent. This problem has never been solved due to the lack of striving to understand the past history of slavery and racism. I come from a Hispanic background and do not pass as white. I support and will keep on supporting African Americans and people of color. I do so by actively listening to their stories and acknowledge their pain and anger. As well as, support organizations or organizers that seek to repair families who suffer from the unfair system the United States continues to push on them. I think that the first step the U.S. needs to take in order to repair the harm done is to come out with a political statement declaring that they have made a mistake and will take action to repair the money and land lost from slavery. Although this seems ambitious, I strongly believe that this needs to be the first step because the nation as a whole needs to be on the same page to repair the actions of the past. Once this public announcement is made, what was once a social movement (like the BLM movement) will become a political movement. With the knowledge gain from this semester, I feel as though it is possible to make things right, however, that all starts within ourselves.
Work Cited:
Pictures:Retrieved from the Digital Public Library of America <http://georgiaencyclopedia.org/file/7894>. Retrieved from the Digital Public Library of America <https://digital.librarycompany.org/islandora/object/Islandora%3A2752>. Retrieved from the Digital Public Library of America <http://digitalcollections.nypl.org/items/bc2baa4e-cf9e-3ad3-e040-e00a180624a4>.Work Cited:
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