Being Ready to Go

Yesterday and today

This essay was intended to be published during the controversy in Florida last year regarding its public school curriculum. The outrage - manufactured, in my opinion like most racial controversies - was that, in the Black American History curriculum, students were being taught that, often, black slaves had been trained with useful and profitable skills which, sometimes served them well as Freedmen and Freedwomen in the wake of the Emancipation Proclamation and following the Civil War.

What was the controversy about? That any slave might have walked away from slavery with any kind of benefit whatsoever. The inference was that if any black slave made the best of a bad situation and walked away with any benefit, this would imply that slavery was “good.” (The alleged “goodness” of slavery is something I address in two other posts.)

Two-dimensional, splintered thinking? You bet. I’ll talk about that in my next post.

Even though that made-up controversy in Florida has been displaced by a gazillion others since then, I felt that, at some point in time, there would be value in addressing this one, which is why I didn’t delete it.

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I’ve long been of the opinion that many black Americans are ashamed of our ancestors’ forced servitude; ashamed that our ancestors were conquered by stronger African tribes and sold to the Europeans or the Americans. But, at the same time, it’s almost as if any mention of this captivity that’s not couched in degradation and victimhood must be silenced.

Is there something wrong with making the best of a bad situation?

Why not teach that some slaves were able to improve their lives using the very tools of their captivity? To make an evil situation - one not of their making or choosing - better than it might have been? To not know if their freedom would ever come, but to be ready for it anyway? To survive, sometimes, thrive and, most importantly, produce the next generation and implant hope instead of despair into their spirits?

Does that make them better than the vast majority of slaves? Of course not. And I think that’s what the hullabaloo is about: the false notion that those few with talents and skills were better than the rest.

We see that mindset today.

I’m reminded of the Old Testament stories about captivity and exodus endured by the children of Israel (from Egypt) and later, the tribe of Judah (from Babylon and Persia). These involved a physical exodus from their captors and they didn’t walk out without knowing how to do things taught to them by their former masters. These skills were necessary to build the first Tabernacle and, centuries later, to restore the first Temple in Jerusalem.

And before those two events, there was Joseph, son of Jacob - who was sold into captivity by his own brothers. Joseph had talents - given by God - and, his brothers hated him for them and because he was his father’s favorite. Eventually Joseph used those talents to save the lives of his father, his brothers and their entire family.

Depictions of Joseph and his brothers.

There’s nothing new under the sun.

In these cases, human skills were used to glorify God.

It seems to me, however, that the exodus needed by black Americans is a mental, emotional and spiritual one. We cannot go back and rectify what happened to our ancestors, no matter how much we try to make the progeny of the American slave masters pay - and that includes financial payment. Even if each of us received $1,000,000 today, our ancestors will still have been chattel. 

Some of those ancestors had tools, skills, and drive. We have infinitely more tools than they did. One of those is in your hand right now.

So what’s our problem? Most would present concrete, physical obstacles or - better - mental ones.

But I think that there is a wider perspective to consider and I hope that I can coherently communicate it to you. The next post is already splashed against my monitor - proverbially speaking. I just have to make it make sense to you.

Short version: there has been a long-term attack on thinking of Americans.

Will link the follow-on when I publish it.

FOLLOW-ON: Strategic Assault.