I'm sure there are some people reading this thinking to themselves, "STFU and die please" but nothing cuts worse than the truth. Sorry.
Seriously, I can't see, for myself, what knowing about "our owners" is going to do for me when my own family allowed my great grandmother to be married to some man for breeding purposes. Some look at that "exchange" as a dowry; I look at it like my great great grandparents enslaving their own child. ANYONE who thinks that's ok, can I say you have a slave mentality? Because that's what it is....to sell someone so you can make a come up. They had no idea if their daughter was going to get to her "new home" and be treated well or like Celie (see: The Color Purple). I'm thankful for being born in 1979 and NOT 1897, I can tell you that much!
Don't get me wrong, I do believe that there are some people who are mentally enslaved but at what point do they NEED to become responsible for their own thought process? We are living in a day and age where if you have nothing else in life, you've always got the power of knowledge.
There are books that are easily accessible...the worldwide internet can be researched for unlimited amounts of time...and of course personal family history you can get from your existing family members. All I'm saying is, don't create a crutch where one is not needed. The statement "free your mind" couldn't be more applicable. Are you going to sit back and allow centuries of control dictate what you do with your life TODAY? Please don't settle for a slave mentality when you have a properly functioning brain...being a free thinker is probably the most liberating experience ANYONE can have. I suggest everyone, regardless of ancestry or skin color, try it on for size. If it doesn't suit you, you can always revert to the ignorant slave mentality that you might have grown accustomed to. Free thinking isn't for everyone, so I hear.
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Sent from my mobile device
Facts are facts and will not disappear on account of your likes.
-- Jawaharlal Nehru
5 points of view:
i always find it interesting what history people selectively choose to claim for themselves... it says a lot
great post! i believe the more people expose themselves to various streams of thought the more they are equipped to utilize the best action, method, perspective for them
ultimately it is a responsibility
I've always agreed on that point, that what happened yesterday is important but cant/shouldn't DICTATE what's going to happen in the future. If you allowed yourself to be entrapped by history, it will do it. Great redesign btw.
LIONESS: I claim what I can verify...that's the only family history that will make sense to me. I REFUSE to go shouting to the rooftops that I was oppressed when I have not one example to speak of. Even if some of my family really was whipped and made to pick cotton, I can't walk around being salty because of what they went through. However, I can make sure that my current family and my future family never have to experience ANY kind of slavery again. I just hate all the whining and no action. I can deal with people speaking on it if they are actually doing something to prevent it from happening again, you know? I guess it takes too much energy to get off their asses and be productive and just enough energy to complain all the damn time and place blame. I guess...
Craig: I do believe that the past does mold a person but no matter how much I piss people off by saying this, I've always stood by the notion that while it MIGHT be SOME of my family's past, we STILL have to move forward. I can't be mentally stagnant; it breeds stupidity and I refuse to be put in that category of my own free will.
As for the design, I needed something fresh and new so thanks!
Well said. I think you could even stretch this concept on over to 'where you came from' (geographically) as well to an extent at this point. Maybe not before when the Internet was not readily available to lower class citizens. But you can't even use 'that crutch' now 'cause I see cats with Cricket phones surfing the Net. Cats that live in areas that have deplorable conditions with a computer set up. So the access to knowledge is DEFINITELY there. For sure.
Good blog and a different take on a taboo subject!
Every so often, a person of colour will take offence at something I've said and bring colour into the conversation. Even if the status/blog wasn't about colour!
Yes, I know race is still a huge issue (less so in the UK) but things are changing. I know having a mixed-race President is just one small step but hasn't the conversation moved on? Or is it my imagination?
The white equivalent of 'the slave mentality' is a ridiculous, pompous character who lives in the distant past, still believes in what he calls 'traditional values', and still believes that people of colour are basically dishonest and lazy.
We are both frustrated by ignorant people.
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