Saturday, January 22, 2005
FORGIVE OSAMA
One day, one event shook America to the core. On September 11, 2001, soldiers in Osama bin Laden’s Al Qaeda terrorist network launched an attack on the United States that took the lives of nearly 3,000 people with families and friends who will dearly miss them. Many Americans say that we should never forget this tragic day. I agree, just as we should never forget the centuries of discrimination, genocide, and white supremacy that killed millions of Native Americans, African Americans, and other people of color.
Over a period of several centuries, untold millions of America’s original inhabitants were systematically targeted for extermination because the newly arrived European colonists coveted their lands and the resources contained on and in it. Many of these tribes cannot even get the treaties they signed with the untrustworthy, dishonorable America honored. White America tells them to get over it. Forget the past. Do not dwell on the past. Move forward.
The white majority in America enslaved millions of Africans over several centuries because of their alleged superiority and the need for a ready labor force. So strong was this belief in the supremacy of the white race that even once the enslaved black Africans were freed white society passed Black Code (1865-68) and Jim Crow laws (1876-late 1960s) that prohibited them from voting; accessing the same hotels, theaters, and restaurants as whites; testifying in court against whites; serving on juries; working in certain occupations; owning property in certain areas; and holding public office. When General William T. Sherman issued Field Order No. 15 to have, plantations divided into 40 acres plots for each slave family along with an Army mule, President Andrew Johnson quickly rescinded the action even though the long suffering freedmen and their predecessors had earned the land through their labor. White America tells them to get over it. Forget the past. Do not dwell on the past. Move forward.
Many Mexican citizens in then northern Mexico (now California, Arizona, New Mexico, and Texas) found themselves absorbed into a country full of people who displaced them from their lands and systematically discriminated against them. White America tells them to get over it. Forget the past. Do not dwell on the past. Move forward.
Either recognize and rectify the discrimination faced by people of color then and now or get over it. Forget the past. Do not dwell on the past. Move forward. Forgive Osama.
Over a period of several centuries, untold millions of America’s original inhabitants were systematically targeted for extermination because the newly arrived European colonists coveted their lands and the resources contained on and in it. Many of these tribes cannot even get the treaties they signed with the untrustworthy, dishonorable America honored. White America tells them to get over it. Forget the past. Do not dwell on the past. Move forward.
The white majority in America enslaved millions of Africans over several centuries because of their alleged superiority and the need for a ready labor force. So strong was this belief in the supremacy of the white race that even once the enslaved black Africans were freed white society passed Black Code (1865-68) and Jim Crow laws (1876-late 1960s) that prohibited them from voting; accessing the same hotels, theaters, and restaurants as whites; testifying in court against whites; serving on juries; working in certain occupations; owning property in certain areas; and holding public office. When General William T. Sherman issued Field Order No. 15 to have, plantations divided into 40 acres plots for each slave family along with an Army mule, President Andrew Johnson quickly rescinded the action even though the long suffering freedmen and their predecessors had earned the land through their labor. White America tells them to get over it. Forget the past. Do not dwell on the past. Move forward.
Many Mexican citizens in then northern Mexico (now California, Arizona, New Mexico, and Texas) found themselves absorbed into a country full of people who displaced them from their lands and systematically discriminated against them. White America tells them to get over it. Forget the past. Do not dwell on the past. Move forward.
Either recognize and rectify the discrimination faced by people of color then and now or get over it. Forget the past. Do not dwell on the past. Move forward. Forgive Osama.
# posted by The Alabama Hammer @ Saturday, January 22, 2005 
