We are all descendants of the strongest group of people to ever walk the face of this Earth. Our ancestors were the survivors of the most horrendous crime ever committed in human history.
An estimated 75 to 80 percent of the Africans that were kidnapped during the Trans-Atlantic slave trade died in the journey across the ocean. Therefore, we are the children of the elite survivors who endured all the indignities of captivity and having everything that they held dear stolen from them at the blink of an eye.
I fully respect and admire the strength of my forefathers to survive under the most unbearably harsh conditions. That’s why it makes me so sick to see modern day blacks begging white America for every little hand out that they can get their hands on.
What ever happened to pride?
Like a played out fad, it seems the word pride has become non-existent in the vocabularies of most blacks. And unfortunately, it is showing no signs of coming back in style.
We have allowed their government programs to feed our children for the better part of the last century. We’ve allowed their quota systems to give us “opportunities” that we may or may not have deserved.
Now you want reparations for something that ended 140 years ago? Are you kidding me?
I am not a victim of slavery, and neither are you. Blacks in this country are victims of the same fundamental system of bias and racism that confronts anyone who is not a white, heterosexual, Christian male.
The only difference between other minority groups and blacks is that they accept the fundamental culture of racism that exists in this country. Then they move on with their lives. They build strong businesses in their own community and prosper in spite of racism.
We, on the drastic other hand, choose to waist our time whining and crying to anyone who will listen about every past injustice that has ever happened to our people.
I’m not saying you should forget about the past, but don’t dwell in it either. A check from the government is not going to help black people to prosper in this country. The only way for blacks to overcome the racist society in which they live is by hard work and dedication. Each and every one of us must stand on our own two feet. We must go out into the world and take from it what we want.
My pride as a black man will not allow me to take a reparation check of any kind. By taking their money, do you really believe that you have made a difference, or have won any kind of real victory? Reparations are just another form of dependence – dependence on a society on which we’ve been overly dependent for far too long.
It’s time for each and every one of us to stand up and realize how strong of a people we really are.
The time is now for us to finally take some pride in all that we have accomplished over the course of the last century, and all that we have the potential to accomplish in this century.
Please, black people, take some pride in who you are. Don’t wait for some white man to give it to you.
Anthony M. Moore is a senior newspaper journalism student from Ocala. He is a copy editor for The Famuan. Contact him at A_M_Moore@hotmail.com.