The 1619 Project

 

Photo: © Stan Banos

The very fact that Newt Gingrich went ABSOLUTELY BALLISTIC over this would be more than ample reason alone for celebration of its existence. And it would no doubt be interesting to see a complete and thorough listing of all the purported "lies" that Ol' Newt is complaining about! The truth is, there's just so much here that needs to be read, absorbed and disseminated, so much that dispels the lies and myths, the outright and often deliberate ignorance.

I'm, of course, talking about the 1619 Project courtesy of The New York Times. Wish I had had this in my middle and high school years when the long and short of our Catholic recounting of slavery consisted of an approximately ten minute rendition of- "it wasn't as bad as some make it out to be!" Which is certainly a relief, at least for some- I kinda get the idea that Newt pretty much got the same down home, comfort version. 

Now, no one enjoys getting a festering wound poked with a stick, and unfortunately, that's how many a White US citizen not unlike Newt will no doubt greet this. Here we go again: heads a shakin', and eyes a rollin'... When will it ever stop!?

Well, glad you asked. That ol' wound has long been a festering, cause no one's ever dealt with it all that proper! Of course, there wouldn't have been a wound to begin with had we started this here country all free and righteous without its original sin. But those pretty words about freedom, dignity and human rights only applied to one portion of one people. And when we could've helped right the situation during Reconstruction with a "forty acres and a mule" kick start- we still weren't having it. So we kept kicking the can down the road, complaining all down the line, hoping it would somehow disappear...

South Africa had its Truth and Reconciliation Commission, it at least, finally, publicly, put out and acknowledged the evil reality of racism where the light could shine, healing begin, and life continue anew without the prolonged cancer of denial. We in the US however fear to tread that road of honesty, acceptance and accountability. "I never owned no slaves- why should I be held responsible?" No one is saying you did. What we do need to acknowledge and accept in this country however, is our own factual history. A history first based on systematic genocide, followed by the institutionalization of slavery as the financial juggernaut, the economic backbone of our entire nation- North and South...

No... this was not your Bible's slavery, or Rome's slavery, or most any other slavery system throughout history where one's defeated foes would be periodically enslaved- this was a system of beliefs that held one particular race inhuman, a system of laws that established an entire economic system based on the permanent enslavement of one specific group of people, an economy so dependent and intertwined that even Northern Ivy League Institutions of higher learning were profiting from investments provided directly from slavery!

Curiously, people in this country who even desire a rational, adult conversation concerning race or racism are now called "Racist" for just considering it- a laughable situation, if only it wasn't so sadly, deplorably... insane! No, you are not responsible for the sins of your fathers- and no one is suggesting that. But if you choose to ignore and deny factual history, choosing instead to substitute whatever convenient myth(s) to your liking- don't expect reality based humans not to roll their eyes and shake their heads as you continue to kick that ever lovin' can...