Bitcoin Forum

Original Title: Racial Healing Comes Only By Understanding the Past, as ‘400 Years of African-American History Act’ Is Introduced in Congress

A group of lawmakers has introduced legislation to recognize the 400 years of Africans in America. In a nation whose citizens do not know their history–where Black people know little of their millennia of existence before slavery, and whites know absolutely nothing about Black people aside from negative media imagery—this legislation is significant and something we must examine carefully.

The legislation, named the 400 Years of African-American History Act, is sponsored by U.S. Senators Tim Kaine and Mark Warner, Congressmen Bobby Scott, Don Beyer and Congressional Black Caucus Chair G.K. Butterfield, as WVEC reported.  Co-sponsors of the legislation include Congressmen Randy Forbes and Scott Rigell of Virginia, and civil rights veteran Congressman John Lewis, with support from the NAACP and the Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights.

The act would establish a commission to plan activities and programs in 2019, coinciding with the 400th anniversary of the arrival of Africans in America.  Further, the commission would focus on the resilience and contribution of African-Americans, and acknowledge the pain and harm caused by slavery and racial discrimination.

“One of the things that I always stress in my classes… is that African-American history is American history,” Asst. Prof. Andrew W. Kahrl, who teaches African-American studies and history at the University of Virginia, told the Cavalier Daily. “This is not something that is some sort of an addendum or something that is separate and apart from what we traditionally think of as so called ‘American history.’”
The legislation is similar to others that have established commissions for English and Hispanic heritage, the 400th anniversary of Jamestown, Virginia and the 450th anniversary of St. Augustine, Florida. “If English lives matter, if Latino lives matter, then African-American lives matter, and they mattered every day since the landing” of the first Africans in America, Sen. Kaine said at a press conference, adding that the country would be “unrecognizable and much the poorer” without the contributions of African-Americans.  “The story has a lot of pain to it, but it’s a story that has to be told to commemorate that we as a nation – had it not been for 400 years of African-American history – would be absolutely unrecognizable. What we hope to do with this bill is engage in something we should do to tell the story in a different way than it may have been told 50 to 100 years ago,” Kaine added.

“It’s a story that we need to continue to talk about, study and frankly get better at,” Sen. Warner said. “And I can’t think of a better opportunity than creating a federal national commission that would focus from both the [historical perspective], but equally important, looking forward about how we create a more perfect union that includes all Americans.”

“The commission established by this legislation will play a key role in recognizing, understanding, and celebrating the resilience and contributions of African-Americans in the history of our nation,” said Hilary Shelton, director of the NAACP Washington Bureau, noting the commission would also create an opportunity to discuss the growing influence of Black people in American life.

At a time when America is struggling with the racial sins of the past and present, it is impossible to set things right unless we know what actually happened.  How does a nation heal itself if it fails to acknowledge who was hurt and who inflicted the damage, or is even unaware that the damage was done?

Rob Sigler wrote in the Oxford Eagle, a book of interviews with former enslaved Africans written during the Great Depression, as part of the Federal Writers Project, a division of the Works Project Administration of President Roosevelt’s New Deal program.  At the time, the emancipated enslaved people of the prior century were dying out, and their oral histories were to be recorded and preserved for generations to come.  Oral histories from around the South were published by the FWP in Washington, DC, and each state and county had at least one historian to record and transcribe the interviews and send them to the Library of Congress.  “Due to the nature of some of the interviews, they were suppressed and filed away in the basement of the Archives building. When the various states volumes were printed, Mississippi had fewer interviews than many of the states. It was not until the 1970s the balance of the interviews were bundled up and sent to Washington,” Sigler said.
…[One] of the former slaves that was interviewed was Jane McLeod Wilburn. She had been born a slave near Lafayette Springs, east of Oxford. Her first owner was a man named Scrivener, who later moved to Oxford and Jane Wilburn came with the family. Later Angus MeLeod purchased her mother, three siblings and herself. He gave Jane to his wife Betsy.

She was to help with the house and be a nurse to the McLeod children. Miss Betsy taught her to read but she tried and failed to learn to write. She related to the interviewer that it was just fine with her that she never learned to write. As she stated, she might have ended up in “de pen” just like some other folks.

And as Steven J. Niven of The Root reported, this Slave Narrative Project provided compelling accounts of what Black people faced during their enslavement and struggle for liberation.  One example is a Civil War-era letter written by Spotswood Rice–a soldier in the 67th Regiment of the United States Colored Infantry who had escaped from the plantation –to Kittey Diggs, the white woman who still owned his children.  Rice wrote the letter from an Army barracks hospital bed near St. Louis:
I received a letter … telling me that you say I tried to steal, to plunder my child away from you. Now I want you to understand that Mary is my child and she is a God-given right of my own. You may hold on to her as long as you can, but I want you to remember this one thing: that the longer you keep my child from me, the longer you will have to burn in hell, and the quicker you will get there …
I want you to understand, Kittey Diggs, that wherever you and I meet, we are enemies to each other. I offered once to pay you forty dollars for my own child, but I am glad now that you did not accept it. Just hold on now as long as you can and the worse it will be for you. Never in your life did you give [my] children anything … not even a dollar’s worth of expenses. Now you call my children your property. My children [are] my own and I expect to get them.

There are many untold stories from the 400-year legacy of Black folks in America.  Lest we conclude that slavery is merely ancient history with no connection to the present, it is important to reclaim this legacy and retell all its troubling, unsettling details, so that we may understand its impact on present day realities.  If those who fail to learn from the lessons of history are condemned to repeat that history, then America has much to learn when it comes to its Black heritage and what it has done to African people on these shores.

http://atlantablackstar.com/2016/02/15/racial-healing-comes-only-by-understanding-the-past-as-400-years-of-african-american-history-act-is-introduced-in-congress/

Honestly TECSHARE you need a hobby LOL. But that's fine. If you want to come and play in my threads, I guess there's no choice... I wonder how I can put you to work... I should start considering this, since you're obviously so into being close to me...

Since I promoted you to promotions in the other thread, I wanted to congratulate you here on your hard work. xo Please continue spreading my message! >^^<

Not only from understanding the past but relating those problems to the present day then we might have a solution to understanding why there is so much racial hatred and discrimination in the world today.

Sadly, you can do anything and everything to enact change but no true change will ever come as hatred has been around since the dawn of humanity. Teaching blacks and whites about black American's history in America...neither of the groups this is intended to reach are interested or care to where this is going to touch and inspire them to change their thinking.

 ::) This is a load of bull. Please open a history book. Or I don't know, watch a news program and get in touch with the millions of humans trying to change this shit system.

You need to re-read my post - those who are trying to change the system are obviously aware or informed and are not those who need to be reached.

There has always been tension between races since man first stepped foot on this earth, God made people differently for a reason, not to bear grudges against one another for being a different color or race but to come together and live in  peace and harmony.

I don't see too much chance for some sort of "racial reconciliation". Racism is a good business on all levels. The political elite often exploiting ethnic tensions to keep us divided, distracted and/or get more votes (e.g.: "If you want a nigger for a neighbour, vote Labour").

And why is it bad to be Marxist and/or critical about capitalism? You seem to love capitalism so much it's an argument in itself TECHShare...

Racism kills people, you dumb shit. How old are you? Who let you on the internet?

No I really don't. You said that neither of the groups this is intended to reach are interested or caring.  ::) Please have something useful to contribute.

Let me go get the mirror for you before you started slinging more rocks around. See most people can talk without calling people names or at least do it in a more intelligent way.
For some one that claims to write for a living, I question the product you offer.


Racism is a fact of life and the more people acknowledge they have racist views the more we can work on it.
Its actually engrained in our brains to dislike those that are different and we all have it to some extent due to survival back when someone from a different tribe could harm you.
Its the reptile brain we can thank for this.
If we continue to blame and throw accusations then you get stuck in the same cycle and get nothing out of it.

You're spending a lot of time bothering me too. You're not in a place to assess my actions with a full perspective, because you don't understand what I'm talking about or why I may not want to waste energy talking nice to guys who will attack or be violent with me at the drop of a hat. Even you.

You're stalking a black woman around the board because you don't like that she talks plainly to guys who don't give a fuck about their own privilege. Rather than incorporating what I'm telling you, you're continuing to use your skewed ability to interpret what is harmful that is compromised by your own prejudice against women and inability to understand white supremacy, not to mention a lifetime of privilege. If you weren't, you wouldn't be bothering me - you'd be using your energy to deal with your bros or be constructive.

We don't stop racism by not talking about it. We stop racism by telling people they're being stupid and harmful. White people have *NO USEFUL INFO* to offer people of colour when it comes to dismantling racism. They are the largest perpetrators of it so they should sit down and shut up. Forcing a minority to set aside their own feelings around racism to be express themselves in a more acceptable way is the definition of privilege and extremely violent.  ::)

I should promote you to promoter just like TECSHARE because then at least if you're not listening, your hot air serves a purpose.  ::)

You reach for points,lets break this down and I will ignore the first 2 sentences.

You're stalking a black woman around the board because you don't like that she talks plainly to guys who don't give a fuck about their own privilege.

You attempt to personalize to much in agruments. Why bring up sex or race in this manner,its like saying if you have not been through x you can not understand why I am the way I am. It allows you to carry on in this way without any one calling you on the b.s!
You presume every one here that has a opposing view to you is white and privledged,this may be another attempt to discredit in your mind a view that makes sense but is opposing to you. Think its a bias you should look at.

Your ability to interpret what is harmful is compromised by your own prejudice against women and inability to understand white supremacy.

How do you know what my view of women could be,you jump down every ones throat because you think you are entitled to being this way.
No need to even address the white supremacy aspect since we are unable to get by the fact you write off every ones views.

We don't stop racism by not talking about it.

Is this what you are doing or are you looking for fights? Talking is one thing but you start cursing as soon as some one disagrees.

We stop racism by telling people they're being stupid and harmful.

That has always gone well through out history,telling people they are dumb really brings them around. Harmful yes but you lose them when you slag them.

Forcing a minority to set aside their own feelings around racism to be express themselves in a more acceptable way is the definition of privilege and extremely violent. 

No one is telling people here to set aside their feelings,if anything you are circling the issue and closing off discussion by making it personal.
You are a firecracker in many aspects,you come into this forum hot looking for trouble and want to change people you have taken little time to get to know.
If the people here are so twisted why stay,move on and enjoy life. Its to short.
You don't understand it so you think I'm being mean.


Of course I do not understand your perception of the world. I think you are quick to anger for sure and I can only take being called a idiot so many times before I forget to say Uhmmmm and move on.

You should know that you're ignored now. xo

The world would indeed be boring if we were all white? Our hearts beat like one another we are all the same, whether we are a shade lighter or darker than anyone else is irrelevant and not important, the question is can we live in peace on this planet that we all share together?

If history is our gauge,I say we are doomed to repeat.

Because marxism destroys entire societies and is directly responsible for the deaths of several dozens of millions of people. Marxism is not the opposite of capitalism, and one can criticize marxism without implicitly supporting capitalism.

It is relevant because great harm has already happened. To say that it's not important also erases the need to address the ways in which our world is still very racist and doesn't ease suffering.

In the world today there are distinct groups of people, the yellow ie chinese far eastern ethnities,the asian, india, middle-east etc, Europeans, America white skinned etc, and then the blacks in Africa etc. Exactly different people makes our life keep on moving without getting bored. Really racism is boring and need to be buried.

Meh? What the fuck are you talking about?
Capitalism is responsible for millions more death than Marxism... You seem completely biased ^^

Let me say it again...

CAPITALISM IS NOT THE OPPOSITE OF MARXISM

Just because Marxist rhetoric is anticapitalist does not make Capitalism its counterpart. Criticizing Marxism is not automatically a defense of Capitalism. I am criticizing Marxism here, not cheer leading for Capitalism. The only reason you have to bring up Capitalism is so you can distract from the reality that Marxism has DIRECTLY caused millions of deaths.

I am not bias, I am informed and educated about the history of Marxism, Communism, and Socialism and know how very destructive it is to entire nations. As a matter of fact Marxism's entire purpose is to tear down society to make way for Socialism, then Communism. This is from Karl Marx's own mouth.

Your accusation of bias is a logical fallacy. You claim because I am antimarxist, that I must be procapitalist. Capitalism is not under discussion here, Marxism is.

https://yourlogicalfallacyis.com/black-or-white
https://yourlogicalfallacyis.com/ad-hominem
https://yourlogicalfallacyis.com/tu-quoque


Here is JUST PART of the horrors of Marxism from one single regime:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Holodomor

https://news.stanford.edu/news/2010/september/naimark-stalin-genocide-092310.html

http://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2008/04/was_the_starvation_of_the_kula.html

:). Wake up, take a look at the world as it is, and then maybe you will understand what I'm talking about.

He never said the contrary, he just said they (governments and banks and shit like them) won't let you go for your racial reconciliation because they use racial tensions.

And I clearly agree with Snail2

Lol, here you go with your logical fallacies shit again xD
While making my point in your own answer, thx.

You just said Marxism is here to makes way for socialism and communism, which are the opposite of capitalism. Hence Marxism is the opposite of capitalism, or at least the first step of the opposite of capitalism but here it's just semantic xD

Capitalism is directly responsible for millions and millions of deaths since the begining of history... Crusades, wars, genocides, WWI and WWII, every USA wars, colonialism... It's all due to capitalism.

You might be educated but you're clearly not intelligent or objective. Sure Staline + Mao makes a great combo, but it's only 2 events ^^

Actually he has valid points. In a socialist/marxist society the working class not owning the means of production any more than in a capitalist society. All that stuff belongs to the state what effectively means the ruling elite and its loyal servants. You can see it as state capitalism or in best case as syndicalism. Anyway the working class will get only peanuts again, while the ruling elite will get the power, privileges and profit.
Go for anarcho-syndicalism if you want a real workers state :).

BTW the marxists of the 20th century were not a bit better than their capitalist counterparts, they had only different rhetoric, fewer resources and shorter time to do harm to mankind.

you are absolutely right.. we must take lessons from the past to demolish our modern world's problems...  we should understand past mistakes properly..

There is a major difference, Socialism/Communism was not better because it was also an elite class leading the working class. But today with our current technology it's perfectly logical to imagine a truly democratic system where the means of production are own by the state but controlled by the people. A simple annual voting in each sector of activity for the great decisions, that sounds like a much better plan that what Sanofi is currently doing (French company, 15billion € profits last year, 8billion for the shareholders, 14 000 jobs are going to be deleted next year).

What you described above, that's mix of state socialism and syndicalism. I think until you have a "state" you will have a ruling elite as well. If you have an elite then it's just matter of time when they took absolute power. Otherwise I agree, with our current technology a fast reacting direct democracy on all levels and a scaled down state would be feasible.

What we have currently is not really a democracy in fact.
You can have an elite without it being able to take the power as long as the constitution is voted by the citizens and the laws too ;)

Of course the elite can influence the people, but limited influence is not a bad thing in itself!