I have avoided sharing my thoughts and opinions on racism in America on this platform for years. But now in these days of Trump, I feel I have a responsibility to speak up. Some of you may be offended by my perspectives that come out of my own experience. So be it. But if you are truly my friends, you will at least listen.
For a long time I have listened to and in many subtle and not so subtle ways suffered from the demonization of African Americans for the events broadcast across the media spectrum today. It is my opinion these are judgements of the overt displays of the discontent of African Americans and are in response to the "symptoms" of racism but not the "disease" itself. And as any doctor will tell you, you can't effectively treat the symptoms if you don't understand the disease from which they originate.
So this begins a series of posts that are intended to illuminate the disease of racism that has infected this nation for 400 years so those of you who will listen can process it as you look around and begin to see the symptoms for what they are more clearly. It is my hope that you will be enlightened and moved to be change agents in making this a society of "liberty and justice for all."
So I begin at the beginning.
Excerpt from: Inventing Black and White, www.FacingHistory.org "The events in Jamestown were alarming to the planter elite, who were deeply fearful of the multiracial alliance of [indentured servants] and slaves. Word of Bacon’s Rebellion spread far and wide, and several more uprisings of a similar type followed. In an effort to protect their superior status and economic position, the planters shifted their strategy for maintaining dominance. They abandoned their heavy reliance on indentured servants in favor of the importation of more black slaves."
