Why Can't Those Blacks Just Get Over It?

Answer: I can’t go for that. 

Question: Why don’t those Blacks just get over it?

The value, importance, and respect for the Black experience in America can be summed up in three little words that have been echoed repeatedly by conservative commentators and whites when no Blacks are around: Get over it! 

But you know, it’s always been troubling to me that when it comes to Blacks and America’s history of racial discrimination against us, the answer is that we need to get over it.  I never hear those same conservative commentators tell Jews to get over the Holocaust, for Japanese Americans to get over World War II, and for Native Americans to get over the Indian Wars, Indian Removal Act, and the battle of Wounded Knee.  But us Blacks, we need to get over it. 

Isn’t it quiet convenient that America has allowed itself to have a selective memory when it comes to the atrocities committed against Blacks?  It’s almost as if they’d just like to sweep everything relating to the Black experience from 1877 to 1977 under the carpet because it’s too much to deal with.

Along with white America’s selective memory, I forgot to mention that Blacks are supposed to come down with a severe bout of Stockholm syndrome.  We’re supposed to just accept the fact that from the first ship’s arrival with it’s cargo of African slaves that our experience here in America is what it was always meant to be.  And any talk of it from the perspective of truth constitutes as harboring some form of racism towards whites.

And that my friends is precisely the problem.  We’ve been all too willing to accept the current state of Blacks in America for what it is and our voices have been silenced on the issue for fear of being considered racist or politically incorrect.
But as tradition would have it, this has been a conversation that has gone on for generations behind closed doors away from mixed company, and not only in Black homes as Senator Obama eluded too in his “race and politics” speech. 

But one speech isn’t going to right the wrongs of years and years of institutionalized racism that has resulted in the current state of Blacks in America.
The United States government could start with an official apology to Blacks for its state sanctioned slavery and generations of racial discrimination.
Congress apologized to the Japanese-Americans in 1988 for holding them in camps during World War II and gave each survivor $20,000.  In 1993, Congress apologized to native Hawaiians for the overthrow of their kingdom a century earlier.  In 2005, the Senate apologized for not enacting anti-lynching legislation.
Why do we have to fight for reparations from a government that is very aware of the atrocities that it’s committed against African-Americans?  Furthermore, that apology shouldn’t have to come from the country’s first Black president.

The fight for reparations is righteous and credible.  Before the Japanese were held in camps and before conquering of Hawaii’s kingdom, Blacks were abducted from Africa, transported across the Atlantic Ocean, and sold into slavery for sugar, tobacco, or some other product, and that’s just those of us that made it through the Middle Passage.  Many of us did not and wound up at the bottom of the Atlantic Ocean.  And those of that did make it here wished we had died once the realization of the life that lay ahead kicked in.

So, please don’t tell me to get over it.

That one act, the act of invading Africa’s coast and kidnapping her people and bringing them to a foreign land to be sold into a slavery that involved being tortured, raped, beaten, murdered, and exploited, made sure that Blacks would never play on an even field as whites. 

We were set up for failure from the jump.  And while many of us found a way to make it within a system that wanted us to fail, many of us did not.  And I don’t buy into the notion that because some of us “made it” that there’s no excuse for those that didn’t.  The disparity between whites and Blacks tells the story.

So here we are in 2008, still living in a state of denial and labeling anyone who dares to speak the truth as being a racist simply because it’s an easy way out of having to deal with something that’s just too uncomfortable and unbearable a situation.

But since when has ignoring something ever made it go away?  Exactly.

Where this conversation goes next is anyone’s guess.  While Senator Obama is not the first to say what he did, he is the first to say it on this level and at this time.

Obama is not in a position to lead the fight for reparations or an official apology from the U.S. government to Blacks, and nor should he.  That’s a fight that should be taken up and lead by others in the community.

While I don’t agree with Obama making excuses for Dr. Wright’s comments, I understand the position that he finds himself in and what he must do to continue on.

I don’t feel in any ways the need to justify my feelings about being Black in America.  Knowing my history and owning that history doesn’t make me a racist, just like it doesn’t make Dr. Wright one.  You either get it or you don’t and labeling Blacks as racist who refuse to be coddled by the notion that we’ve somehow transcended race with Obama is just a cop out for those unable or unwilling to see the situation for what it really is. 

Just because you voted for Obama doesn’t mean you’re not racist, it means that you voted for Obama.  Don’t let it go to your head.

And just because Obama is where he is doesn’t mean that Blacks should get over it [slavery].  I am not sure this is something that Blacks will ever be able to get over and nor should we have too, especially given the fact that we are still dealing with the effects of slavery.  A good place to start the healing however would be with an apology and reparations.

Comments

[L.A.]

I'm calling on a challenge! I challenge for any American who feels that African-Americans and Africans should receive a public apology from the government and reparations given, to sign a petition. Or better yet, why not start a protest?

Ms.Cannick, I would love to work with you to orchestrate an online petition for all Americans to sign if they believe in this cause and what it stands for. Then we can organize rallys and have protests if our petition is ignored. Take it straight to the WHITE HOUSE.

[PastorKelly]

"If we accept and acquiesce in the face of discrimination, we accept the responsibility ourselves and allow those responsible to salve their conscience by believing that they have our acceptance and concurrence. We should, therefore, protest openly everything ... that smacks of discrimination or slander."

Mary McLeod Bethune

The International Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination is observed annually on 21 March. On that day, in 1960, police opened fire and killed 69 people at a peaceful demonstration in Sharpeville, South Africa, against the apartheid "pass laws". Proclaiming the Day in 1966, the General Assembly called on the international community to redouble its efforts to eliminate all forms of racial discrimination --> http://www.un.org/depts/dhl/racial/

Racial discrimination is alive and permeating the global community. As an Black citizen in the United States of America, I am concerned with how this nation is upholding, advocating, and supporting racial equality and eradicating racial injustice within our socioecnomic sytem.

A review of the United Nations assessment on America's progress in this area reveals that this nation is not yet brave enough to take the steps necessary to create a nation that is truly the land of the free. Read and review for yourself, http://www.pww.org/article/articleprint/12708/ .

Racism in America is not resolved because we as a nation refuse to come to the table and look at the historic development and present sustainment of racism. An honest dialogue cannot be had when the terms are pre-defined and the outcome pre-determined. We must be willing to remove all vestiges and verbage of discrimination.

We cannot hold ancient documents more precious than human dignity. America needs to form a Racial Repentance and Resolution Forurm. This body would begin the endeavor of creating a more perfect union by having founding documents of colonialism and racism removed and call for the drafting of documents that create a society that is not built on racism or patriarchy.

The uplift of women is, next to the problem of the color line and the peace movement, our greatest modern cause. When, now, two of these movements-woman and color-- combine in one, the combination has deep meaning.
WEB DuBois

Continuing to add to documents that were wretchedly and patently discriminatory in their creation does not transform those documents to egalitarian. We cannot recreate using the same pathetically flawed reason and expected to reach conclusions that will be reasonable and right.

In America in the new millenium Blacks experience disparity is social and physical ills. Our generations suffer from Post Traumatic Slavery Syndrome, and Racism Denial Disorder to the point that even some Blacks have begun to believe the delusions fed to them by mainstream media and society. Sadly, some of us have become so desensitized to the vernacular of racist code that we do not recognize or translate the meaning. For example, the encouragement for Blacks and other minorities to adopt and adapt to 'American Values' = Assimilate.

There is also a faction of Blacks refusing to assimilate who are just as toxic because they want to hold the community of Blacks hostage to the past and demand that we as a race stagnate. These confused souls want us to hold on to the dear and departed leaders and their practices as if there is no possibility of new generations bringing forth dynamic, intelligent, and focused leaders for the present. We honor the past; however, we must embrace, uplift, support, and respect those rising from our communities to lead our community beyond the point that Medgar, Malcolm, and Martin left off -- far too early.

Our children are more likely to experience incarceration than education, our health is impeded by capitalistic system that denies health insurance by sending our jobs overseas or refusing to create jobs with living wages and benefits in our own nation. Our communities suffer economically and ecologically as businesses flee the urban core leaving huge plants and waste in our neighborhoods and our people unemployed.

The March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom took place in Washington, D.C., on August 28, 1963. What will we be doing forty-five years later...August 28, 2008?

The revolution is at hand, and we must free ourselves of the chains of political and economic slavery. The nonviolent revolution is saying, "We will not wait for the courts to act, for we have been waiting hundreds of years. We will not wait for the President, nor the Justice Department, nor Congress, but we will take matters into our own hands, and create a great source of power, outside of any national structure that could and would assure us victory." For those who have said, "Be patient and wait!" we must say, "Patience is a dirty and nasty word." We cannot be patient, we do not want to be free gradually, we want our freedom, and we want it now. We cannot depend on any political party, for the Democrats and the Republicans have betrayed the basic principles of the Declaration of Independence. MLK 8-28-63

The opinions and positions are indeed mine!
Pastor Kelly Oglesby
Peace and power are in Jesus Christ alone!

Read my contemplations on the following sites
http://gospel.yourblackworld.com/
http://www.yourblackworld.com/life/

[Patience]

White slave owners receive cash benefits from work that black slaves, not themselves, do.

A century later...

Black Americans receive cash benefits from work that their great grandad, not themselves, did.

How is this not the same thing? Are you any more entitled to make money off the blood sweat and tears of your great grandparents?

All white Americans are now viewed by blacks as “Europeans?” “They” currently systematically rape black women, use black men for stud farming, and slay and lynch black leaders? “They,” “They,” “They”??!! Hey, put down the Hateraid!!!

Isn’t America full enough of angry people who drain America, hate America, disrupt America, and state that their allegiance and identity is to another country, not the U.S.?

Isn’t it time for Homeland Security to look into putting these anti-American folks on planes with a one-way no-re-entry plane ticket to the country of their choice?

[New gal on board]

Sorry, I’m another sistah who’s reached her tolerance level for whiners. Reparations? Well, didn’t this country engage in a civil war among its own (that was won) to put an end to discrimination? Didn’t white people fight in that war? Haven’t there been over 60 years of taxpayer-funded legislation, welfare, food stamps, affirmative action, head-start programs and quotas in an honest effort to right the wrongs? Or are we now to disrespect these efforts and those ancestors as well?

I can’t prove my people come from slaves, but I should put my hand out for $20,000? Well, whether I do or don’t, I know a hundred ghetto types on my block alone that don’t know or care about their ancestry, but be the first to come around for a gimme from Uncle Sam -- that will come outta my (and your) pocket!

You want people to get hopped up about a few drunk university pranksters and a bar performer that nobody seems to know or has seen (I’ve asked around, especially my gay friends) at the same time we’re supposed to claim the Jena Six verdict is over-reacting? No, thanks. I’ll spend my time raising my kids to accomplish and make their own way, and not waste time looking over their shoulder in bitterness.

Ms. Cannick, I hope you do go into politics. You’ll be so easily thrashed for your shrill intolerance that hopefully it’ll serve as a great example of how these things are NOT done. The Wrong Reverend embarrasses me, too.

[Christine Anderson]

I've read a lot of the other postings and I agree that some are being written by the same person. Which lead me to wonder... The real issue is not the posting or the ignorance of a few or less.

The real issue is the psychological damage that has been done to the African-American community over generations. You can not look at the current state of us and claim that the European community over generations had no part in the social destruction of us. They certainly benefited from our presence in America. I used to be one to say “get over it” until I started to read about why we can’t just get over it. Please read on Black Psychology. Please look into the teachings of Maulana Karenga and others that have done the studies and that have learned not only “white” but “black” history. We need to stop telling one another to “get over it” without first finding out what it is that we are supposed to get over.

Are we supposed to get over the fact that our women while treated like animals during the day and were raped by night? Are we supposed to forget that our men were treated like baby making machines to ensure there would be enough slaves? Are we supposed to forget that our men were lynched for having sight and were thought to be looking at white mans most precious possession (white women)? Are we supposed to forget the slayings of our great leaders because they were trying to open our eyes?

Why would we forget any of these things (and plenty more not mentioned) when they are still happening TODAY?

You look at your situation right now. You may have been raised in a good community, but you are black. You may have been the only black kid at your school, but you are black. You may have even had a European girlfriend or boyfriend and the family accepted you at the time (O.J. Simpson), but you are black. In the eyes of people you are black.

Descendents of Africa, please wake up! We were kept from reading and now we don’t want to read. We were kept from making money and being free and now all we want to do is go to that 9-5 job to make the money that they feel you should make. Yes, we have come along way but have such a long way to go. Don’t get complacent, we have done that for too long.

WAKE UP DESCENDENTS OF AFRICA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[BJ]

Anger causes more harm to the person that is angry. With that said, this is a bog, which is an electronic journal if I am not mistaken. So feelings based upon historical facts are allowed and should be respected. Racism and the denial of the harm that it has caused within the African American psyche is sad.
Like Jasmyne said, every other race that had a "race issue" has had their issues addressed and no one tells them to get over it. Also besides affirmative action, what has America done to address or rectify the issue? And some people are even upset with affirmative action. Recently, Australia made a public apology and is attempting to make amends with the aborigines, but what about the U.S.? And it is not considered pointing fingers or blaming someone for our injustice, it is factual, who did it? Your ancestors did, and in every other culture it is recognized that a child pays for its parents decisions, good or bad.
"You" may not have beat, raped or murdered our ancestors but you benefited from our labor. And this does not go out to all because some people did not own slaves. But if the shoe fits wear it and stop making it seem as if African Americans are exaggerating or making a big deal out of nothing. Let me beat, rape and then murder your kids and get away with it. Then I want you to watch and see how it affects them and every generation after them.

[Patience]

Alright I promise that I am not one of the people who has already posted!

But I will be another voice of dissent: I do think black people need to get over it. I'm sorry. I'm admitting it. *exhale*

Nobody could ever deny that what happened to black Americans was devastating; a series of events starting with systematic dislocation, followed by systematic racism and topped by systematic oppression that would make it difficult for large sections of the affected group to ever rise from under.

But damned if I don't feel, as a black woman, that at this point, there are some of us who are oppressing our GD selves more than anyone. There is NO white man making black women have all these babies. NO white man making black men eschew school as "for nerds." NO white man is making you spend your money on rims, instead of books. That, unfortunately, is all part of the uniquely black American illness which, until we wake up and take some personal responsibility, will not EVER go away. And that's the TRILL.

But I'd be foolish to pretend my class hasn't iinfluenced my thoughts. I grew up in a comfortable home with mom and dad; I notice that oftentimes the most angry black folks are the ones who've had the hardest luck. I can't say I wouldn't be the same way ... but that speaks to class issues, not race issues, and is pretty telling.

I sometimes think I didn't get my "angry black person" gene. Even as a child, I never felt I was experiencing "racism" though my cousins did; I think that too was very telling because at age 8, exactly how much racism can one experience in this day in age?

Anger permeates and when you have 8 year old suburban Virginia black children hollering racism, well, you can bet someone handed down their anger.
It's a self fulfilling entity. Recognize that.

[Serene]

I think you illustrate my point beautifully, you are angry at every white person. It is this blind anger that is forcing the racial divide even further. I am sorry if you can't see beyond your own anger to see that. For every white person out there who has dressed up in white face, there are probably about 100+ that have not and would not because they respect what black Americans have been through. And honestly, you truly believe that there are not white and black americans who make fun of Jews? Seriously?

You can be content with your anger, however, I will use mine while working with all Americans to actually try and bridge this racial divide.

No Serene we will get over once WHITES as a whole will stop thinking they're DAMN superior to us. Forget the slave trade and segregation this post right here with the suggested pics above explains it all!

Why don't these college students depict and mimic Hitler and the Holocaust. That won't happen and why? Because they respect the Jews and that is the difference between them and us.
They have no respect for us and YES as I move forward as a STRONG, HARD WORKING, And BLACK AMERICAN GAY Male. At times I will have anger. We always have to be the ones to turn the cheek. You only get 4 after that IT'S HELL TO PAY

And your Mothers story is no different from mines. She had 2 mines had 10 and worked to keep MIND, BODY, and SOUL together. However, whites still are being shady to us.

The Bottom Line is R E S P E C T !!!!
Once they can respect us and consider us as equivalent and not feel SUPERIOR. Then we all can move forward!

[Lovely]

I cant help but wonder if some of the previous posts were written by the same person. It really looks that way to me.I think one thing to remember about past events like slavery and jim crow is that even though some people living today did not participate in them they still benefited from them or were negitively effected by them and that is the truth. I would love reperartions its only fair this country was built on my ancestors backs and they didnt get squat for it. Like I said reperations would be awesome, but i would settle for and apology. I wont hold my breath though.

[Truth]

Babe, just because you're black doesn't mean you can't be racist. Ditto Wright. Ditto Obama, for that matter.

What makes you a racist is the presumptions and assumptions you make, the wild generalizations, the constant "us vs. them" crap that you seem to need to believe. Why?

Talking as if you or anyone alive today participated in the disgrace that happened HUNDREDS of years ago. B.S. phrases like "institutionalized racism" which you assume you don't have to define (because you can't, America has laws).

Whack crap like assuming that a white gay male couple must be out to try to destroy a black child they'd like to adopt, simply because you're mad at one of the guys cuz he wouldn't let YOU petulently dictate the direction of an organization HE was running.

Whack crap like blaming white co-workers (!) because a friend who happens to be black (and a presumptuous racist, obviously) decided he better avoid you when you were seen lunching with them whites (oh, horrors, lunching with whites - they must assume you don't have friends?!)

All these constant accusations just because you say so, huh? No proof, just more bile. More insults. More hate. Well, thinking minds can and do pick apart the biased, racist, homophobic (yes!) nonsense you spew, and are saying "B.S.!"

You constantly talk like a petulent two year old, pretending you speak for all blacks and know the minds of all whites. All you speak is your own personal misery.

Better sit and figure out the internal low self-esteem issues that propel you before you make even more of a fool of yourself. Your issues are showing, babe.

[Realness]

What injustices to certain people does America need to own up to, live up to and admit?

Who, exactly, should be doing all this admitting? The far-distant kin of perps to the far-distant kin of the victims? How about all the folks that never, anywhere down through their family, had anything even remotely to do with the injustices of hundreds of years ago, let alone now?

What does walking around with a gigantic chip on your shoulder, pointing fingers at and making accusations to complete strangers who are interested in voting for a potential president who happens to be black accomplish?

Taking one's personal current self-esteem issues out on strangers simply because they have white skin is foolish and self-destructive.

[Serene]

Remembering history is not degrading. Insinuating/calling all white people racist is degrading, and is a theme that Jas write about a lot. It is common for many of the posters here, and yes it most certainly is degrading to white Americans, for not all white Americans are.

It is a slippery slope to walk, if white help is needed in bringing change to this country(which it is), we all have to find a way to work together. And to me, I do not understand how continuing to keep them in the crosshairs of anger is going to move the country forward.

[emylpmis]

Serene,
I'm confused. How is Jasmyne's commentary about not forgeting about her history and the history of America degrading any one? So, when Jewish Americans remember the Holocaust, are they too degrading any one? The problem is that America does not want to own up to,live up to and admit its injustices to certain people. A sorry excuse from a sorry excuse of president does not equal atonement.

[Citizen Politician]

"...for he is a lover of his country who rebukes and does not excuse its sins..." Frederick Douglass

Read the entire speech: "Love of God, Love of Man, Love of Countryby Frederick Douglass"
URL: http://www.infoplease.com/t/hist/love-of-god-man-country/

[Serene]

You truly confuse me. How does this help the state of the racial tensions in America? There are so many injustices due to race, gender and religion, and I fail to see how constantly degrading the people from whom you want to see a change in is going to help matters.

The ancestors of some Americans have sinned, no doubt about it, however, your constant insuations that all of the white Americans are racist is flat out wrong, and not helping solve any issues. Everyone understands you are angry, and there was definitely a time to have unbridled anger, but whether you want to admit it or not we are living in a different time. Not all of the racism is gone, there is not equality for all races yet, but there have been many great leaps and gains. Many leaps and gains that black slaves still living in African nations would love to have. But it is not anger that will bring around equality.

No one is saying get over the slave trade, slavery or the blatant racism in America, but at some point you do need to get past your anger. It is a destructive emotion that will never amount to healing the racial divide. And in fact will prove to be a tool of divisiveness and exclusion, and will continue to make this divide larger and larger.

It is possible to channel our anger in a way in which we can better ourselves, and work at putting ourselves in better positions in our communities, in our workplace and in our families. My mother struggled as a single mother of two children, with one child who constantly was in the hospital, working full time as a secretary while doing part time in home work to make the ends meet, while putting herself through college and then graduate school. She did this because she knew there was a better way for her, she knew that the best way for her children to succeed in our society was to show them what they could be capable of, and was not going to allow the bitterness seen in so many other people to consume her children.

I hope one day you will find a peace far beyond passion.