Mark Robinson Slave Talk. Really?

What in the world is going on? Why in the last decade we have heard several people saying, "Black people were better off in slavery?" I'm Black and I am SHOCKED, (clutching my pearls shocked.) but White America, those who are on the side of human rights, are OUTRAGED. How does the Black community feel?

If you believe this blog post is going to attack those who have said such racist things, you will be WRONG. This post will be asking the question, "What is the Black community doing or not doing that make people believe such things?" 

The first instinct is to go into a tirade. I did. But upon reflection, I began to wonder how far has the Black community advanced since slavery. Being a FREE people is what happened when slavery ended. But after a war was fought and a presidential declaration proclaimed, did the Black community FREE themselves in their MIND from the TRAUMA of slavery? I will do a later post about the aftermath of trauma in the Black America after slavery. Yes, there is such a thing. Many professionals say the Black community still carry PTSD from slavery.

Let's begin with some of the statements regarding slavery and Black people in the 21st century. Mark Keith Robinson, a Black man, is an American politician serving as the 35th lieutenant governor of North Carolina since 2021. A member of the Republican Party, he is the nominee for governor in the 2024 North Carolina gubernatorial election. “Slavery is not bad,” Robinson reportedly wrote. “Some people need to be slaves. I wish they would bring it [slavery] back. I would certainly buy a few.” If the criteria for being able to be bought is being Black, then he needs to look in a mirror. Even with this offensive comment, Robinson says he will remain in the race and has the full support of the Republican party.

Ron DeSantis, governor of Florida, in an attempt to remove what he refers to as "Woke" history in schools, he pushed “anti-woke” public school curriculum on Black history. Specifically, Florida’s teachers are now required to instruct middle-school students that enslaved people “developed skills which, in some instances, could be applied for their personal benefit.” This was just in July 2023. This implies today's Black people do not have skills.

Ron DeSantis may have been trying to get schools to teach what many White people believe or want to believe. He is not alone in erasing American history. Republican presidential candidate Nikki Haley declined December 2023, to say slavery was a cause of the Civil War, arguing instead that it came down to “the role of government.” This is a former South Carolina governor and former U.S. ambassador to the United Nations. One would think she would know American history. 

When Michele Bachmann, a Republican, signed a pledge while running for president in 2011. "Say what you will about slavery, at least the 'peculiar institution' kept Black families intact." That's according to a "marriage pledge" signed recently by GOP presidential aspirant, Michele Bachmann. The pledge Bachmann signed this week is sponsored by The Family Leader, an Iowa-based group of Christian social conservatives. The "Marriage Vow - A Declaration of Dependence upon Marriage and Family," attempts to buttress its argument that "the Institution of Marriage in America is in great crisis" with statistics and scholarly citations. Here's one such attempt:

"Slavery had a disastrous impact on African American families, yet sadly a child born into slavery in 1860 was more likely to be raised by his mother and father in a two-parent household than was an African American baby born after the election of the USA's first African American President."

The above statement is clearly saying Black families are no longer a nuclear family even though Black people were not part of a nuclear family during slavery.

Why do these people believe Black people were better off in slavery? Let's LOOK at some stats.

As of September 6, 2024, the unemployment rate for Black or African Americans in the United States was 6.1%, which is lower than the long-term average of 11.43%. This is higher than the overall unemployment rate of 3.7% and the jobless rate for white Americans of 3.5%. Black people and native Americans have the highest unemployment rates among all racial and ethnic groups identified by the census. Asian Americans and white people have the lowest unemployment rates.

As of 2022, the educational attainment of Black Americans is increasing, with more Black adults having earned a bachelor's degree or higher. Bachelor's degree or higher 26% of Black adults aged 25 and older have a bachelor's degree or higher, up from 14.5% in 2000. Black women have made faster gains than Black men, with 28.9% of Black women having a bachelor's degree in 2022 compared to 22.8% of Black men. Some college 32% of Black adults aged 25 and older have completed some college but don't have a bachelor's degree. High school or equivalent. 42% of Black adults aged 25 and older have graduated from high school or earned an equivalent certificate, such as a GED. 

• Black students are more likely to attend public institutions than private ones, with 67% of Black students attending public institutions in Fall 2020. Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) are also important for Black students' success, with nearly 76% of enrollment at HBCUs in Fall 2020 being Black students. 

In 2022, 52.9% of non-Hispanic white adults in the United States aged 25 and older had an associate degree or higher. This is compared to 39% of Black or African American adults, 32.2% of American Indian or Alaska Native adults, and 29.5% of Hispanic or Latino adults.

In 2023, the median annual income for Black households in the United States was $56,490, which was the same as in 2022 and the lowest among all racial and ethnic groups. This is based on income intervals of $2,500, with medians that fall in the upper open-ended interval of $250,000 or more being plugged with "$250,000". According to recent data, the median annual household income for white people in America is around $89,050. This is based on figures for "White alone, not Hispanic" demographics.

According to recent data, approximately 37% of Black children in America live in a household headed by both of their biological parents. This means that around 37% of Black households in the US are considered two-parent families. In 2022, 4.15 million Black families in the United States had a single mother, which is 48% of Black children. This is an increase from 1990, when there were 3.4 million Black families with a single mother. In 2023, 47.5% of Black children lived without a resident father, which is the lowest proportion since 1973 and the number since 1984.

According to a March 2020 Current Population Survey, 21% of white children in the United States live in single-parent households. This is compared to 67% of white children who live with both biological parents, and 6% who live with a biological parent and stepparent. In 2023, there were about 6.65 million white, non-Hispanic families with a single mother in the U.S., which is a slight increase from 1990.

According to FBI data, Black people account for approximately 26.6% of total arrests in the United States, with a significantly higher percentage in violent crimes like murder, where they represent around 51.2% of arrests; however, it's important to consider factors like socioeconomic disparities when interpreting these statistics. In 2019, Black people made up 12.2% of the U.S. population (U.S. Census Bureau, American Community Survey). Blacks, however, represent 26.6% of total arrests, including 51.2% of murder arrests, 52.7% of robbery arrests, 28.8% of burglary arrests, 28.6% of motor vehicle theft arrests, 42.2% of prostitution arrests, and 26.1% of drug arrests. Black residents also have the highest level of incarceration rates of any racial group. As of 2019, Blacks were incarcerated in local jails at a rate of 600 per 100,000 U.S. residents, which is more than three times the rate for Whites (184 per 100,000 U.S. residents).

This is not a pretty picture of the Black community. Don't get me wrong, the statements people have made saying Black people were better off during slavery is offensive and degrading. That said, the Black community is NOT doing well. We are not engaged in our lives, communities, or country as a whole.

The number of Black eligible voters in the United States is projected to reach 34.4 million in November 2024 after several years of modest growth. But while Black women make up a higher percentage of women who vote, Black men make up a smaller percentage of overall men who vote. That data shows Black women’s participation in election is about 10 percentage points higher than Black men. Doesn't the Black man say it's hard out here for them? Voting DOES bring change. Slowly at times but surely.

As of January 20, 2021, there have been 1,994 members of the United States Senate, of which 11 have been African American. There currently are 57 African American representatives and two African American delegates in the United States House of Representatives. About 2,400 people have served as governors in U.S. history, but only six have been Black. Truth be told, WE DON'T RUN ANYTHING. But we can do better than this.

At one time in history, Black people fought tooth and nail to have the right to vote and to be educated. Those who fought for those rights took advantage of them with pride. Our children were able to dream of a better life. The Black community quit dreaming. We have said and show our children it is too hard. We have slipped down a rung on the ladder.

A group of people who also had a hard path in America, the Hispanic population. How are they doing?

As of July 1, 2022, Hispanics made up 19.1% of the U.S. population, or 63.7 million people. This makes Hispanics the largest racial or ethnic minority in the country. As of the third quarter of 2023, the employment-population ratio for Hispanics in the United States was 64.2%, which is higher than the 60.5% ratio for the entire country. This is also higher than the pre-pandemic level of 64.0% in the third quarter of 2019, while the U.S. ratio was 0.5% lower. In 2023, the median income for Hispanic households in the United States was $65,540, which is the same as in 2022. 

Hispanics are taking advantage of education. High school graduation in 2021, 88.5% of Hispanics ages 25–29 had graduated from high school, up from 58.2% in 1996. College enrollment in 2021, 2.4 million Hispanics ages 18–24 were enrolled in college, up from 1.2 million in 2005. In 2022, 21% of undergraduate students in the country were Latino. Bachelor's degree attainment in 2021, 46% of South American Hispanics and 35.9% of Cuban Hispanics had earned a bachelor's degree, compared to other Hispanic groups. However, 11% of Hispanics over age 25 have a bachelor's degree or higher, compared to 17% of Black people, 30% of White people, and 49% of Asian Americans.

Their family unit is more secure. In 2019, the American Community Survey found that 56% of Latino children in the United States lived with two married parents, and 11% lived with unmarried cohabiting parents. This means that about two-thirds of Latino children lived with two parents who were either married or cohabiting. Hispanics have a dream, and their children are called DREAMERS. What are Black children called?

These statistics are SHOCKING! What IS happening to the Black community? It is as if we have FORGOTTEN about OURSELVES. If we are not shaping our future by VOTING, seeking higher EDUCATION, supporting our FAMILY unit, then others will do it FOR us. 

We scoff at the idea of SLAVERY ever happening again, but here are people longing for a return to those days. The days when others did the labor for them for FREE while they prospered. A time when they could FREELY call another HUMAN less than. Our ancestors suffered, persevered, and rose above being LESS THAN. They KNEW they were more. Capable of what any other FREE person could do. It WAS NOT EASY for them.

Donald Trump having a second presidency will take minorities closer to SLAVERY make no mistake about it. On the internet, I read many Black men saying they are not going to vote because they are angry over one thing or another or their vote doesn't change anything. They have STOPPED reaching for CONTROL of their lives, the POWER of HAVING a say. They have stopped DREAMING. 

Yes, Black people have come a long way but who has said where we are is the END? As a community we all need to reclaim our DIGNITY to the point no one would DARE say we were better off as slaves or during slavery. 

It is easy to point at those longing to MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN but as a community, we have to make Black people great again. In is in our power to do so. But we must do it.

Murder is American History

 

  What is LIFE like for Black people post slavery in America?

    It is a life in America, a country in which they are native born members, still having to check a box proclaiming they are AFRICAN AMERICAN. 

    It is a life in America, a country their ancestors made into a rich super power in the world by their FREE labor, where history erases their PROFOUND contributions of toil, torture, and death.

    It is a life in America, a country in which they have had to continually fight for the right to have rights, where no one gets the continual injustices perpetrated against a SKIN COLOR.

    It is a life in America, a country comprised of immigrants, where lynching remained an unpunishable crime until 2022. MURDER IS A PART OF AMERICA'S PAST HISTORY AND IT'S PRESENT HISTORY.

    If you Google Emmet Till, Wikipedia will be the first thing to pop up and the first paragraph will say:

"Emmett Louis Till (July 25, 1941 – August 28, 1955) was an African American boy who was abducted, tortured, and LYNCHED in Mississippi in 1955 at the age of 14, after being accused of offending a white woman, Carolyn Bryant, in her family's grocery store. The brutality of his murder and the acquittal of his killers drew attention to the long history of violent persecution of African Americans in the United States. Till posthumously became an icon of the Civil Rights Movement."

    

    The story of Till has been told for years and recently captured in the film (2022) directed by Chinonye, Chukwu and written by Michael Reilly, Keith Beauchamp, and Chukwu, and produced by Beauchamp, Reilly, and Whoopi Goldberg. It has grossed $11 million against a production budget of $20 million. It was not a blockbuster movie, but that was not the intent. 

    If you went to the movie and sat until the end, you would have seen the death of Emmet Till inspired the Antilynching Bill. The Emmett Till Antilynching Act is a landmark United States federal law which makes lynching a federal hate crime. The Act was not law until 2022! 

    Lynchings were violent public acts that white people used to terrorize and control Black people in the 19th and 20th centuries, particularly in the South. Lynchings typically evoke images of Black men and women hanging from trees, but they involved other extreme brutality, such as torture, mutilation, decapitation, and desecration. Some victims were burned alive.

    A typical lynching involved a criminal accusation, an arrest, and the assembly of a mob, followed by seizure, physical torment, and murder of the victim. Lynchings were often public spectacles attended by the white community in celebration of white supremacy.

    The highest number of lynchings during that time period occurred in Mississippi, with 581 recorded. Georgia was second with 531, and Texas was third with 493.Black people were the primary victims of lynching: 3,446, or about 72 percent of the people lynched, were Black. But they weren't the only victims of lynching. Some white people were lynched for helping Black people or for being anti-lynching. 

    1619 is the year used as the date slavery began in America. 1619 is the date it was approved and sanctioned to torture, terrorize, and MURDER Black people in America. The history of MURDER is what govenors like Ron DeSantis are trying to erase from American History. He fails to realize these horrors have been woven in the DNA of the victims and will not go gently into the night. 

    The lynching of Michael Donald in Mobile, Alabama, on March 21, 1981, was one of the last reported lynchings in the United States. Several Ku Klux Klan (KKK) members beat and killed Michael Donald, a 19-year-old African-American, and hung his body from a tree. It has only been 42 years since the LAST LYNCHING in America!!

     In 2021, there were 18 Ku Klux Klan groups in the United States. The term 'hate groups' includes groups which have beliefs or practices that attack or malign an entire class of people. Their activities can include criminal acts, rallies, speeches, meetings, leafleting, or publishing (Published by Statista Research Department, Jun 2, 2023). In 2021, there were 733 active hate groups in the United States, down from 1,020 in 2018. The term 'hate groups' includes groups which have beliefs or practices that attack or malign an entire class of people. Their activities can include criminal acts, rallies, speeches, meetings, leafleting, or publishing. 

    The Emmett Till Antilynching Act amends the Matthew Shepard and James Byrd Jr. Hate Crimes Prevention Act and prior hate crime laws to define lynching as any conspired bias-motivated offense which results in death or serious bodily injury. It was passed by the U.S. House of Representatives on February 28, 2022, and U.S. Senate on March 7, 2022, and signed into law on March 29, 2022, by President Joe Biden.

    Today, the subject and memory of Emmet Till will be recounted by the news media on a continual loop. The younger generation will largely ignore this pivotal piece of history. Many of the older generation will grumble people should leave old stuff alone and quit talking about it. There will be the group of people happily proclaiming how much America (people) have changed and we no longer live in a time where racism and it's cruelty were almost entertainment and a group activity. And there will be people enraged for too many reasons for me to account or understand. Many Americans will have even  MORE hatred for the Democratic president, Joe Biden, for his attention to the Black Community.

Today President Biden will designate a national monument at three sites in honor of Emmett Till and his mother, Mamie Till-Mobley — both of whom served as catalysts for the civil rights movement. Biden is expected to sign a proclamation on Tuesday, July 25, which will be the 82nd anniversary of Till's birth.

The new monument will be established across three locations in Illinois and Mississippi in an effort to protect places that tell Till's story, as well as reflect the activism of his mother, who was instrumental in keeping the story of Till's murder alive.

    For people on both sides of this history of MURDER, there are strong feelings. Some want to FORGET and some who want to REMEMBER. Today is another day where the heart, mind, and spirit of the people who make up America will bee seen. Today will show what life in America is like for a Black person post slavery in America.