Quote:
Originally posted by alexanderao
From Wikipedia
 |
What people with that mindset mean is that even though everything may appear fine, black Americans still aren't truly equal because of assimilation. We all know the history. Integration as we know it wasn't two groups of equal standing joining forces, it's one group being completely dominated by the other in a system built to oppress the subservient group.
And it runs deeper than just slavery and segregation.
A lot of inventions and contributions appreciated today could have been invented by black people. But we may never know, as slave masters would take credit for these ( how true it is I don't know). And scientific bias too.
It's also about African history in general. This branch of history has long been approached by scholars with the "There's no way black people could have engineered this" perspective. This is scientific racism, and to this day it may play a role in how we view history. There are some presidents who wouldn't allow books that even hinted at these possibilities to be published. We're still wondering how old the Sphinx truly is, and if its features truly are sub-Saharan African.
You still have some people who ignorantly ask "What have black people contributed to humanity?" You still have people around the world who hate black people (many have never even actually met a black person) because of influences from America: the stereotypical portrayals, the beauty standards, the jokes, etc.
Some black people feel that way to this day. At that point in time, you have to understand that black people (women and children included) were still facing brutality and the threat of death. Schools, among other facilities, were still against allowing black people. All this because of race. Malcolm X was one of many who simply developed the "Eye for an eye, you hit me I'll hit back" mentality. It seem extreme now, but at the time it was necessary.
Saddest thing is to this day we still see oppression. It's not as violent, but the systematic aspect lingers ( the reason some say segregation lasted into the 1980s - MTV had to be forced to play black artists' music, just as schools had to be forced to allow black students). Everyone is equal now more or less, but a lot of people aren't willing to be part of a system that always shows its disdain for them, especially since white Americans really have no reason to be mad at black people (but some of them still keep passing that ignorance down to their children). Even MLK Jr in his peaceful protests to injustice was shot down in cold blood. Of course that militant mentality of someone like Malcolm X is understandable.
A black person worshipping a white Jesus, Celebrating the history of a nation that enslaved his ancestors, branded with a non-African name, only knowing and caring about his roots as far back as slavery, not knowing his African roots, in a country where most school curriculums don't even encourage learning about it, and top of that he gets vilified for his natural appearance. You have plenty of them too who say "Eh, it's all in the past." But some of us care about it.
