There is never time in the future in which we will work out our salvation. The challenge is in the moment; the time is always now. James Baldwin
The year 1619 is referred, according to historians - in particular Leo Huberman (1903-1968) in his book "We, the People" - describing in a brilliant and accurate manner the dramas of the North American colonization since its discovery in all its aspects, in particular, the arrival of the first fleet of slaves forced from Africa to sweeten the greedy appetite of those interested in making easy wealth in a country of many resources, far from the tyrannical matrix of European countries, and conquered from the natives whom succumbed during the massacres triggered by the explorers.
In the so-called land of liberty, distant from the oppression found in Europe, there comes vast populations of white men of diverse creeds and ideologies. Some by will, others forcibly exiled.
The Atlantic crossing, which according to the weather lasted from 7 to 12 weeks until reaching Philadelphia, always caused large human casualties, if not by marine conditions and the precarious transportation itself, or by food contamination, sanitary and disease transmission in ships overcrowded by the most different kinds of populations. Whoever came with some money, could still enjoy the airy deck; the destitute ones bittered the worst human conditions.
And so, the North American continent was little by little been conquered... off to the American dream!
They came, both the willing and the unwilling. The movement begun with a few people in the early seventeenth century grew to hundreds, then thousands and 300 years later had to be measured in hundreds of thousands – in 1907 more than a million people entered the United States within the year. In the years 1903 to 1913 “every time the clock struck the hour, day and night (taking the average for the whole 10 years) 100 persons born in some foreign country, not including Canada and Mexico, landed on the shores of the United States.
However, “still another group of immigrants were brought against their will. When the early settler found it practically impossible to make good slaves of the Indians they found here because the red man was too proud to work under the lash, they turned to Africa where Negroes could be obtained. For the most of the eighteenth century over 20,000 slaves were transported every year. Negro slave-trading became a very profitable business. Many great English fortunes were founded on the slave trade. It is a famous example, the fortune of William Ewart Gladstone’s family, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom for 12 years.
As might be expected, the privations suffered by the whites in the sea crossing were as nothing compared to the misery of the Negroes. Here is a sample account of conditions on the slave ships:
She had taken in, on the coast of Africa, 336 males, and 226 females, making in all 562, and had been out seventeen days, during which she had thrown overboard 55. The slaves were all enclosed under grated hatchways, between decks. The space was so low, that they sat between each other’s legs, and stowed so close together, that there was no possibility of their lying down, or at all changing their position, by night or day… Over the hatchway stood a ferocious looking fellow, with a scourge of many twisted thongs in his hand, who was the slave-driver of the ship, and whenever he heard the slightest noise below, he shook it over them, and seemed eager to exercise it…
But the circumstance which struck us most forcibly was, how it was possible for such of number of human beings to exist, packed up and wedged together as tight as they could cram, in low cells, three feet high, the greater part of which, except that immediately under the grated hatchways was shut out from light or air, and this when the thermometer, exposed to the open sky, was, standing on the shade, on our deck at 89 degrees!
It was not surprising that they should have endured much sickness and loss of life in their short passage. They had sailed from the coast of Africa on the 7th of May, and had been out but seventeen days, and they had thrown overboard no less than fifty-five, who had died of dysentery and other complaints, in that space of time thought they left the coast in good health. Indeed, many of the survivors were seen lying about the decks in the last stage of emaciation, and in a state of filth and misery not to be looked at.”
What become of these swarms of people after they got there? They ended up becoming the most powerful nation on the planet!
And the saga of all those 400 years of exploitation, racism, prejudice, segregation and discrimination unleashed against Negroes’ populations, continues. The country of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (where the African descendant is included!), closed the eyes of a people who was and continues being a considerable contributor of all created wealth, in all aspects and activities, leaving an immense legacy in the history of this nation.
Since the most modest movement of recognition as a human being which left many martyrs, from the circus of horrors where black men were hanged on tree branches like strange fruits, women and children assaulted in their sacredness, progresses this procession of black men considered and called miserable and inferior, being led by the whip of the white man. Thoreau's Civil Disobedience movement, the great march led by Martin Luther King (this brilliant humanist and disciple of Gandhi) and other black leaders, of the Civil Rights movement, some attempts by white political leaders to soften this saga and scourge that has become indelible in the history of the United States, nothing solved until today, and still continues this stain on the moral and fragmented ethics of a country called Christian.
Paradoxically, white Catholic Christianity in the United States (church which contributed much to settle this situation), has forgotten the supreme ethics of the second commandment, but continues to claim a religious feeling in its actions and reactions, but not in attitudes; in GOD WE TRUST it's the official motto of the American currency! However, they continue to relegate their black population, under the rigid social caste, to the gutters of the social order.
In 1968, Martin Luther King is murdered! Many other leaders who fought for the cause of social equality, are now on the pages of history. Daily reports of deaths and violence against the black population are published on the news. And so, continues through history a process that seems to have no end... in the land of liberty!
The so-called white supremacy will never exist! The arrogance and ignorance of vast sectors of all societies guided by the power of white man does not have the ability to comprehend that skin color, cultural habits and customs are just a geographical circumstance; the human being is one, all over the planet. Thus, not accepting the harmonious coexistence between diversities. Advocating this white supremacy is just a cynical and hypocritical metaphor for power. Humanity will never be just white, it will be black too, it will be yellow, red and all other nuances of color presented by miscegenation.
No comments:
Post a Comment