SURVIVAL

Written By:  Barry P. Foley

Copyright © 03 Nov 2022

Survival… that's what I call it.  This is the African American legacy in America.  Captured, chained, and caged like a wild animal.  Sold on the block like cattle.  Beaten like a stubborn mule.   Nothing but property in the eyes of masters who built their empires off the backs of enslaved labor.  Nonetheless, those slaves survived.

They gained their freedom, and before they could catch their breaths, they were economic slaves.  The Government lied about giving each 40 acres and a mule—a fair chance to get ahead on their own.  The south could not endure if all the former slaves started farming for their subsistence, so they President Andrew Jackson reversed course and started share-cropping contracts to keep the former slaves in the cotton fields as cheap labor in slightly better conditions than just a few years before.  Nonetheless, they survived.

The joy of reconstruction was short-lived, as the political will of the north didn't match up with their pre-war commitment.  And for the next 60 years, the south maintained the status quo.  For those who did leave, it wasn't all peaches and cream.  Many faced the same racist policies as before.  The creation of Sundown Towns across the north through the mid-west and all the way to California forbid the Negro man from settling down wherever he choose.  But they survived.

It was one step forward and two steps back for progress for African Americans in the '40s, 50's, and 60s. The Civil Rights Era was a giant leap, but evil forces have chiseled away for the past 50-plus years at every tad of progress.  Realtors discriminated, Banks discriminated, Police discriminated, and the Government turned a blind eye.

Today in 2022, the African American community makes up less than 14% of the US population, yet makes up 38% of the 2.5 million people behind bars.  African Americans are seven times more likely to be falsely incarcerated, as we see men released every week after 20-plus years because they were wrongly convicted.  And yet we still have 12 states in the dark ages and do not have compensation laws.  And yet the African Community Survives.

We've had a two-term African-American President.  We currently have an African-American vice president and 59 African-Americans in Congress, with only one representing the Republican Party.  That says a lot about the Republican Party as if you didn't already know.  All people of color represent all the social woes of the radical right wing.  Our democracy is under attack, meanwhile, Dr. King's "I Have A Dream" speech echoes.

And the African-American Community is Survives.
 

Please contact our Webmaster with questions or comments.         © Copyright 2002-2023 Barry P. Foley.   All rights reserved.