Friday, August 1, 2008

Dear Negro...My Bad...Love, Uncle Sam

'Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist within the United States, or any place subject to their jurisdiction'

So reads the 13th amendment; the one the effectively abolished slavery. That was 143 years ago. Since then, there have been 27 United States Presidents. On July 29, 2008 Congress issued a formal apology for the atrocities commited against people of African descent during the Trans-Atlantic slave trade and for Jim Crow segregation laws.

The resolution, while not speaking about reparations (thankfully), acknowledges the responsibility of government in correcting the “lingering consequences of the misdeeds committed against African Americans under slavery and Jim Crow.”

Not sure how I feel about this. I'm glad that it finally happened. I'm not glad that it took so long. I'm glad that the United States government is acknowledging that they did whatever they wanted to Black people, with no regard for their wishes, families, feelings or thoughts. However, I'm not glad that they don't acknowledge the fact that they are still doing the same thing today; firing 50 shots at unarmed black man Sean Bell, murdering an elderly woman in her home in Atlanta by way of a 'No Knock' warrant, black teenagers in Jena, La being arrested and charged with attempted murder after a fight at school stemming from a white student hanging a noose from a tree in the school's courtyard.

We don't want your pity, we don't want your understanding, we don't want your reparations. All we want is an acknowedement that you FUCKED us over! And for you to stop pretending that you aren't STILL fucking us over! And for you to STOP fucking us over! That's it. Too much to ask for?

Food for thought. Now eat.

Hip Hop lyric of the day: Lord knows, thangs gon' change for better/Lord knows it can't rain forever/that's what I told my momma/...two days later Masta sold my momma

-Nothing 2 Lose, Field Mob

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