Can someone help an Ole Seagull understand exactly how the movement for reparation, payment of some sort, to today’s black Americans by the rest of today’s Americans because of slavery in America’s past, does anything but help divide our nation? Is the term “African American” a term of unification or division? Does it not remind all Americans “of the vestige of slavery?”
These and other questions came to mind as the Ole Seagull read a recent Associated Press story by David A. Lieb entitled, “Mo. to Fly Confederate Flag.” The story quoted Mary Ratliff, president of the Missouri State Conference of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People as saying, “It is just appalling to me that the governor would again raise a flag that is so humiliating and reminds us of the vestige of slavery that has divided our nation for all these years.”
According to the story the governor had “ordered that the Confederate flag be flown Sunday [June 5] at a state cemetery where former rebel soldiers were buried, a move denounced by black leaders.” The story was very clear that the flag would be flown “for one day at the Confederate Memorial State Historic Site in Higginsville, where a service is planned to mark Confederate Memorial Day.”
Will someone give an Ole Seagull a break here, what “reminds us of the vestiges of slavery that has divided our nation for all these years” more? Is it a Confederate battle flag waving from a flag pole at a Confederate Memorial State Historic Site or the constant reminder of slavery in America’s past that Ratliff, the NAACP, and some black leaders use to imply that today’s black Americans are owed something because their ancestors were slaves?
No right thinking person can condone slavery or the concept that one person can be another person’s property. That’s why, were the Ole Seagull a betting Seagull, he would bet that about as many non black Americans living in America today own slaves as there are black Americans living in America today who are or were slaves.
Is it totally inappropriate to suggest that it is the constant reminder of slavery in America’s past, in the attempt to obtain preferential treatment and economic advantage for today’s black Americans, at the expense of, among others, today’s white Americans, that divides this nation far more than the display of the Confederate battle flag. Comparatively speaking, exactly how divisive to our nation is the display of the Confederate battle flag for one day, over the graves of Confederate soldiers “at the Confederate Memorial State Historic Site,” in connection with a service “to mark Confederate Memorial Day?”
Is it as divisive to our nation as was the practice of bussing? Might some Americans view the practice of affirmative action where, among others, black Americans are given preferential treatment over white Americans, merely because of the color of their skin, as divisive?
It’s an amazing thing to an Ole Seagull how those who call themselves “African Americans,” instead of just “Americans,” can talk about being either reminded about the vestige of slavery or something being divisive. Was not slavery a well established institution in Africa before European traders arrived? Was it Americans who enslaved black Africans or was it their fellow black Africans?
History testifies to the fact that it was black Africans who enslaved their fellow black Africans. Then, after enslaving them, they sold their slaves to, among others, European slave traders and transported the purchased slaves out to the slave ships.
In terms of black Americans not being reminded about “the vestige of slavery that has divided our nation for all these years” may an Ole Seagull make a suggestion? Why not put the same effort that is currently being expended against the display of the Confederate battle flag, in not just in this situation but nation wide, into encouraging black Americans to use the term “American” rather than “African American?”
“Ah Seagull, is that politically correct?”
“That depends on who is determining what is politically correct.”
An Ole Seagull would echo the words of Abraham Lincoln. He said, “I do the very best I know how – the very best I can; and I mean to keep doing so until the end. If the end brings me out all right, what’s said against me won’t amount to anything. If the end brings me out wrong, ten angels swearing I was right would make no difference.”