400 Years In America
When the first enslaved Africans arrived in Point Comfort or Jamestown, Virginia in August of 1619, life for them would never be the same — not only for them, but for their future descendants as well. These 20 were so - called "Negroes" — as they were called because of the color of their skin. Negro pronounced, (Na gro) is Spanish for black; that's why they were referred to as "blacks" or "negroes".
They were stolen from a Portuguese Slave Ship, put on an English Warship flying a Dutch flag and brought to the English Colony of Jamestown. They were sold for food, water and other provisions needed by their kidnappers.
Stripped of their freedom, humanity, language, culture and religion, these enslaved Africans – by no choice of their own – embarked on a journey to a foreign land. This journey would not only shape and mold this place that would come to be known as "America", but shape and mold the African and his descendants also.
The 400 - year span since the sound of Africans in chains was heard in Jamestown is being commemorated by the government. They want to recognize and give attention to black people being here for 400 years, arriving in Jamestown, Virginia the first permanent English settlement as slaves.
After slavery was abolished in 1865, we spent another 100 years living under "Jim Crow" Laws up to 1965 that enforced racial segregation in the South.
During the modern Civil Rights era, 1954 – 1968, we fought for just basic civil and human rights, the right to be treated just equal.
From 1968 to present day, we are still fighting to be treated equal, police are called on us by white people for just being black! One black man said, "When my skin color is the weapon you fear, I am always armed and dangerous".
This "celebration", if you will, was put into motion on January 8, 2018 by the Orange One himself, in the form of Law H.R. 1242. It's called, "The 400 Years of African - American Commission Act". The purpose is to plan activities throughout this year to commemorate the 400th anniversary of the arrival of enslaved Africans to the United States.
That sounds like Africans arrived in America on the "Mayflower", sipping tea and eating butter cookies instead of chained in the hull of Slave Ships, stacked like cordwood, eating and sleeping in their own waste with many praying for death to release them from their bondage.
Through all of that dehumanizing treatment that our ancestors suffered through, enough of them survived so you and I could be here today.
To call them courageous and brave does not do them justice as to the physical and mental strength it took for so many to survive. Captured by rival tribes and sold to European slavers on Africa's Western coast and then placed in holding pens like cattle, awaiting the arrival of the slave ship.
Stacked, loaded and chained, they made the journey to the colonies if they did not die in transit — with sharks following, waiting for another dead African to be thrown overboard and women and girls being raped by the crews of these slave ships and the men powerless to defend them amid their cries for help.
These atrocities, and many more I can't imagine, were just some of the inhumane savagery our ancestors endured.
• Being made to feel less than your white counterpart to the point that you were considered only 3/5ths of a man! Not fit to share a drinking fountain or a meal with a white person.
• Having your intelligence questioned because you were denied equal educational opportunities as a white person.
Now, America wants to celebrate us and our African ancestors for being here 400 years — isn't that special! The thing is, these days, America acts like it wants to turn the clock back to the days of "Jim Crow" for black people!
This racist, unfit guy in the White House doesn't care about the descendants of slaves. It doesn't matter if he cares or not because we are still here.
Through kidnapping, enslavement, murder, rape, assault, (physical and mental), we are still here. You want to celebrate that America; you go ahead and do that. I'm going to celebrate my people's resolve and resilience through the words of Maya Angelou in the form of the poem of "STILL I RISE":
You may write me down in history
With your bitter lies,
You may trod me in the very dirt
But still, like dust, I'll rise.
Did you want to see me broken?
Bowed head and lowered eyes?
Shoulders falling down like teardrops,
Weaken by my soulful cries?
You may shoot me with your words,
You may cut me with your eyes,
You may kill me with your hatefulness
But still, like air, I'll rise.
Leaving behind nights of terror and fear
I rise
Into a daybreak that's wondrously clear
I rise
Bringing the gifts that my ancestors gave.
I am the dream and the hope of the slave.
I rise
I rise
I rise
Yes, we rise and we will continue to do so because it's in our DNA. Our ancestors were fighters — strong, proud black men and women. We survived 400 years of America treating us like something inferior, and still, we rise. We stand on the shoulders of giants, let's make them proud by the way we treat each other and show that we appreciate the sacrifices they made for us.
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