The Florida political leadership has decided to balance the stain of slavery with some sprinkling of benefits offered by Southern White ownership of Blacks in history books for students in the State. These revisions are designed to lower the guilt associated with that institutional practice and normalize particularly the separation of the Southern White community from its own history.
This process of rewriting ethnic and racial history in America points to a fear and, at times, a violent resistance to a developing stream of circumstances that is making the country less White. Our nation fought a civil war (1861- 1865) and adopted the 14th Amendment to the Constitution in 1868 in part to end slavery and reverse the notion that one person can own another.
The effort in Florida to educate children about the “good” part of slavery regresses White people’s relationship and view of African Americans to a time when that “peculiar institution” was driving the wealth creation of the agricultural South. Teaching students that being a slave “was good for you” and in some way “makes you a better person” exacerbates the decline and decadence of a majority that is beginning to show that it is not fit to govern.
I was 7 years of age when our crew was assigned to work a spinach field in Central Texas. As we toiled in the field, we noticed another large crew working in the distance.
That crew was supervised by men on horseback with rifles. We saw that they were prisoners when the group got closer and we could see them better. As they came nearer, I got scared because the men on horseback began to also surround us. It soon became clear that we had for the moment lost our freedom and were subject to the same conditions as the prisoners.
Later I found out that we were kind of detained and not allowed to do anything other than work forsecurity reasons. However, the feeling of having my family and myself subjected to the decisions of others for that long afternoon has stayed with me and influenced my life. Because of this, I also have wondered about how one can live a whole life under those conditions. To me, slavery was something one reads about in the Bible or world history but not live it.
In the Old Testament, Moises removed the stain of slavery for the Jews and led them to freedom in the Promise Land. The Black slave community in the United States did not have that option because their masters broke up families and facilitated the loss of identity with the various regions of Africa.
So, despite efforts to find a new home for the African American community in places like Liberia, it was all along evident that Black folks were “home.” It was America that had to accommodate to the destiny of these traumatize people.
Now in Florida, the original covenant that came about as a result of the American Civil War is beginning to erode as the backward step toward a favorable view of slavery is taking place in authorized history books. This appears to be part of a plan to indoctrinate children about the value of power exercised by the oppressor over the oppressed.
This brand of power politics features an attempt to control a people by revising their history, diminishing their humanity and schooling the next generation to do the same. The evil in Florida shows again why our country deserves leaders that love America.
The views expressed by David Conde are not necessarily the views of LaVozColorado. Comments and responses may be directed to news@lavozcolorado.com.
