Why can't black folks just forget about the past? Why do you all keep bringing slavery up? We need to move forward! Slavery is all behind us! We can never make any progress if we keep living in the past — it's like a bad relationship — you got to move on!
These kinds of questions and statements just go on and on.
These are just a few of the bunch of nonsense questions and statements often made about the wrong-doings made against black folks in the past such as slavery, lynching, beatings, burning down black neighborhoods, and killing whole communities of black folks, bombing churches, shooting of black leaders, using black people for medical experiments without their knowledge, and so on.
It blows my mind why people want Black America to just forget about these horrific past events.
So, as always, this is my take on it:
Black Americans living now need to know the truth about these horrific events as a part of America's history; it doesn't matter how ugly.
White Americans living now need to know the truth about these terrible events as a part of America's history; it doesn't matter how ugly.
Right now, the world needs to know the truth about these horrific events as a part of America's history; it doesn't matter how ugly.
How can we forget when there is no acknowledgment that all of this ugliness happened, and there are many others I didn't even mention?
The truth about these past events isn’t even mentioned in our history books.
The Jewish community understands this more than most — they make it a point to educate everyone about the holocaust. It is done so that it is never forgotten! Why? So that it can never, never, never happen again!
But when it comes to the United States of America and what was done to Black America — we just want to forget and move on.
When we don't admit to this horrible past and don't educate ourselves, we don't learn from our mistakes; we will repeat them or come to a close facsimile.
This is one of the prime reasons why there is so much racial division and unrest in America.
The racist ideas behind slavery and all the other brutality against black folk still exist. It has never been thoroughly examined and analyzed so that it will never be repeated.
And because it has never been examined and understood, we are doomed to undergo it in many other forms of systemic racism or institutionalized racism.
It is ingrained and hidden in society's fabric, and no one knows how to wash it out.
I don't know how to wash it out either, but I wholeheartedly believe it starts with acknowledging the truth!
