From: Armond C Simmons
To: Birmingham News
Sent: Monday, July 16, 2001 2:54 PM
Subject: Letters
Elizabeth Washington , in a letter to the editor, Jul 16, 2001, "Racism, its effects continue to exist:" opined, "My suggestion is to heal the pain and suffering of slavery by acknowledging its causes and effects. Then, we can focus on the future, heading in the same direction, on equal footing."
I agree. .
We should all acknowledge that the causes stemmed from a time of a lesser worldwide civility when black Africans sold blacks as slaves to others of all races as a matter of accepted commerce and those of other races with equal incivility, purchased and placed these blacks into slavery.
We also should all acknowledge that the effects were devastating to those sold into slavery as it had been devastating to slaves throughout the world since the beginning of mankind. It must be remembered, however, that slaves sold to our countrymen were only the most recent victims. And in deference to their inhuman exploitation, ironically in an historical context, they were the most fortunate of all slaves. In contrast to the terrible fate of all our ancestors, many who became the first known slaves, history's most recent slaves, black Americans, enjoyed the fate, at the hands of a more civil nation in more civil times, of participating in the last historical remnants of slavery and were freed as they witnessed its ultimate abolition.
The effects on the descendants of slaves living in this country as compared to their kin who are the descendants of those black Africans who escaped the sale of slaves are phenomenal. The black African kin continue to live in squalor and with little freedom in Africa today.
Wouldn't it be interesting to witness a reunion of today's living descendents of slaves shipped from Africa, joined by today's living descendent kin of those who eluded slavery and remain in Africa to date? How revealing would be the round-table discussion of contrasts in quality of life, freedoms, wealth, discrimination and the need for restitution. An "Oprah Moment" for sure.
So, when Ms Washington states, "focus on the future, heading in the same
direction, on equal footing", one might ask, "equal to what?"
Armond "Si" Simmons
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