Where are you from?: You’ve got to know where you came from to get where you’re going

“Martin Luther King, Jr. dreamed of the day when black kids and white kids would happily play together. It was a nice dream, but 30 years later, it’s still not that way. African-Americans and whites are from different areas of the world, and come from different cultures and different backgrounds. “[Whites and African-Americans] cannot be further separated. There is no togetherness,” states Westchester senior, Leilani Downing. How could we ever be peaceful with one another?
Some whites, that really don’t seem to understand too much about African-Americans, and really don’t care, say: “Why don’t you guys just forget about slavery? It happened so long ago!” Impossible. We as African-Americans are in a state of destruction. There are too many of us robbing and murdering each other on a daily basis. There are too many of us creating children we don’t care about. There are too many of us calling each other “sell-outs” if we get good grades or speak properly. Not too long ago, we had to fight to be served in restaurants. During slavery, we were lucky if we were able to create children without them being sold off to greedy slave owners. It’s only through knowledge of our heritage that we can discover why we are losing the battle.
It seems that in history classes today, there is a lot of history missing. Going through elementary and junior high school I used to always wonder, “Are there any important African-Americans in history?” Of course teachers overdid it with Martin Luther King. I guess he was supposed to represent all that was great about being African-American. Also, the subject of slavery was discussed very little; and when the African-American students asked for more information about slavery and notable African-American figures, the teacher didn’t know. At first it made me kind of embarrassed, because I thought only whites did things that helped the world. So eventually, I began my own search to discover what really happened to my people, and the things that they accomplished. First I found out about slavery.
In 1619, 20 Africans were landed in Virginia as indentured servants. As more employment was needed, importation of Africans grew, and by 1790, blacks numbered almost 760,000 in the United States. Eventually, attempts to hold blacks led to the legal establishment of slavery in all of the English colonies by 1750. For the next hundred years or so after that, Africans were horrifically robbed of their precious culture, family and dignity. European traders traveled to Africa, and captured Africans were generally marched in chains to the coast and crowded into the holds of slave ships for the dreaded Middle Passage across the Atlantic. The conditions were terrible—little food, bad weather, and no bathroom-type facilities. In tight, suffocating packages, they were forced to lay and live in each others’ waste. Shock, disease, and suicide killed off at least one sixth during the crossing.
Once in America, blacks were easily distinguished as targets for enslavement. Also, the belief that they were an “inferior” race with a heathen culture made it easier to rationalize slavery. Laws known as slave codes regulated the slave system to promote absolute control by the master and complete submission by the slave. The black slave was not a person, but chattel—a piece of property and a source of labor that could be bought and sold like an animal. The slave was allowed no family, little privacy, and was prohibited by law to learn to read or write.
Individual resistance by slaves took such forms as mothers killing their newborn children to save them from slavery. When the slave trade ended in 1808, the growth of domestic slave trade emerged. Then arose slave breeding, in which women slaves were persuaded to conceive as early as 13 years of age and to give birth as soon as possible.
After discovering all of this information, I became very angry and upset. I was so mad, I even wanted to take revenge somehow. For a long time, I avoided having any contact with whites. I thought all white people hated African-Americans, so I figured, why not hate them, too?
Then at Westchester, I took African-American History. This was my favorite high school class. It helped me build a lot of pride for my people, by giving information I never knew about. Learning about the struggles African-Americans went through during the Civil Rights Movement also helped me to appreciate what we have today. I realized that even though it’s not as much as we deserve, the freedom we have today is more than African-Americans could have hoped for earlier in the century.
Soon I stopped wasting my time hating whites. Yes, I was still very cautious, because you never know when you may be a victim of invisible discrimination or psychological slavery, but I realized that I must succeed for myself and my people no matter what. I realized that without the knowledge I had obtained, I would be less of a person. I realized that the past does play an important role in the present and the future. I realized that the brutal rape of female slaves, the split of family bonds, and the beating of slaves are all issues which created great fear and psychological harm to our race, then and now.

Seek knowledge
Westchester student Joel Weinberg said: “To dwell [on the past] is to hurt yourself. You can go nowhere if your mind is stuck in the past.” This is true, but one can also go nowhere without having the knowledge and experience of what has happened before. The key is also to be unselfish. Ignorance is what is killing our people everyday. So if you discover something that is important to helping us succeed, share it with your brother and sister! There are many organizations which can help spread knowledge.
Young Black Scholars is an organization dedicated to the uplifting and support of young and intelligent African-American students. Spread throughout the state, it’s centralized in many schools. On the campuses of these various schools, there are meetings held that incorporate discussions, special speakers (speaking on topics relevant to African-American society), in addition to activities within the group. Off-campus are activities in order for the Young Black Scholar and perhaps their family members to gain insight. There are workshops for college, for various college preparatory classes the student may be taking, such as physics and chemistry, and picnics for many people working towards the common goal of positive success to kick it and relax. This is only one of the many positive ways African-Americans can help others, by first helping themselves, and possessing pride and a will to succeed. If you are interested in joining, you can contact the YBS office at (310) 794-0554.
There are so many questions that still remain about our state in America (Land of the free, home of the brave?).
Do African-Americans not succeed in school today because they were not allowed to learn in the past?
Do the majority of African-American marriages fail today because African families were destroyed in the past?
Do African-American males possess a natural sense of rage and rebellion today because of the mental torture and physical abuse they endured at the hands of white men in the past?
These are only a few questions, but think about them. Until we have the answer to every single one of them, we will never forget the torture, betrayal and suppression of our culture that forms African-American history.”

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