This is the one thing EVERY Black person in this country needs to see. It's is the one thing every Black man, woman, and child needs to see and then they need to find a way to preserve it and pass it down to the next generation and they should pass it down to the one that follows them.
If that was done then maybe we would stop using the N word, we would stop acting a fool on some white mans talk show, maybe we would stop having to figure out that nonsense of "who the baby daddy is", maybe we would finally recover our fucking dignity.
The Slave Narratives always touches me deeply no matter how many times I see it. I like it for various reasons. One is the fact that it brings back Ossie Davis to me and when he and Ruby Dee appear, I can't help but smile. The other is due to the education the Narratives offers up. To see the treatment my people went through during those insane times chills me to the bone and rocks me to my soul.
This needs to be seen, it needs to be heard. Over and over and over again...
I don't know that anyone can ever be the same again after watching that, M. Many of us know of the general facts of the unspeakable injustices and tragedies that litter this country's history. But The Slave Narratives grip you in a way few other tales can. Those voices have and will continue to shine a light on our past like nothing else. Listening to those words shook me from today and dragged me back to a time and place few in our country - Black or white - wish to revisit. However, to understand today, we must always understand where we all come from.
ReplyDeleteI was appalled. I mourned. I sobbed brokenly into my hands. I tried to imagined what it would have done to me had my Man been staked at the ground and whipped. I tried to imagine what it might have done to me had an overseer climbed in my bed to take from me what I only gave my Man.
I've said more than once to you, M...the strength, perseverance, and tenacity of the Black Men and Women of this country throughout history has never failed to inspire me. The courage they demonstrated and the fortitude to survive is unmatched by any other ethnicity, race, or religion in history.
While I understand your frustrations with today's disposable, careless culture of drama (which crosses all races and class), I see countless Black Men and Women, who like you have NOT chosen to adopt that lifestyle and instead have defied the status quo, embraced their possibilities and continue to reach for their potential. Those are the Men and Woman that honor and respect the trials, tragedies, and sacrifices that came generations before them.
Thank you for posting this heartbreaking tribute. It will never be forgotten.
~K.