Two Histories
By Albert B. Kelly
Time is to history what
water is to rock; it smooths the jagged edges and hopefully it leaves behind
something far less severe. When it comes to time and history, that “smoothing”
part all depends on which history you lay claim to. Black history in this
country is a lot different than white history, yet we’re all in this together.
As we approach Black
History month that was my take-away after
reading a June 2014 magazine piece by Ta-Nehisi Coates from The Atlantic entitled the “The Case for
Reparations”. It’s a stunning piece because it doesn’t let the reader assign our
history- black and white- to some ancient past as if it had no connection to our
country today.
Coates’ main point in the
piece, aside from what was done and how to make repair, was how uncomfortable
we are in acknowledging this hard and bitter past and how we don’t talk about
it. Given what emerges, that’s understandable.
In his article, he cites a
2001 Associated Press investigation that revealed the theft of some 24,000
acres of land from blacks over many decades worth many millions. Some of the
land taken from blacks became a country clubs; others oil fields, and even a
spring training facility in Florida.
Coates presented several
other stunning facts and figures. In 1840, cotton produced by slave labor made
up 59% of the entire country’s exports. In 1860, slaves as property (an asset)
were worth more than all the railroad and manufacturing capacity combined.
Slaves stood a 30% chance
of being sold in his or her lifetime. No less than 25% of interstate trades
destroyed first marriages and 50% of interstate trades destroyed a nuclear
family- so much for family values. This doesn’t even touch on the rape and the
brutalization that marked the black experience then.
The programs passed in
1935 as part of the Social Security Act (insurance for seniors and unemployment
insurance) excluded farm workers and domestics; work done almost exclusively by
blacks at the time making most of them ineligible.
And this was no small
thing as many of us of a certain age remember working the farms of South Jersey
as I did years ago and while today’s farm labor is not quite as transient here
as it once was, we still remember the migrant buses traveling from Florida
north as the seasons changed.
In the late 1940’s and
50’s in the period after WWII, most black veterans were disqualified in one way
or another from accessing Title III benefits under the G.I Bill according to
historian Kathleen Frydll. In more recent times Coates points out, it’s Wells
Fargo and Bank of America settling discrimination suits from the subprime mess.
Coates ultimately makes
the point that closing the “achievement gap” is not the same as closing the
“injury gap”. I agree. Black college graduates suffer higher unemployment than
white graduates and blacks without a criminal record have roughly the same
chance at getting a job as a white with a criminal record.
But I’m not at all sure
there’s a way to close the “injury gap”, though I believe it’s absolutely
critical to focus on and close the achievement gap; whether through targeted scholarships,
tax credits, or similar growth vehicles- the focus has to be facing forward,
building strong and productive generations, and we have to do it together.
Coates calls for a
national conversation when he writes, “…The wealth gap merely puts a number on
something we feel but cannot say- that American prosperity was ill-gotten and
selective in its distribution. What is needed is an airing of family secrets, a
settling with old ghosts”
In many ways, the issues
of our times- policing, criminal justice, education, banking and credit,
housing, income inequality- is an outgrowth of the past and of the conversation
we’ve never been willing to have together about our history.
But that’s why forgiveness
is critical here. Forgiveness is not acceptance; sometimes in life the injury
is so great that the only way forward is through forgiveness precisely because
it’s stronger than the anger; more powerful than the fear, hatred, and
resentment that seem to lurk just below our national nerve endings.
We may not have a common
past, but we can have a common future. Going forward together won’t be easy and
a conversation about the past won’t be quick, but black history month is as
good a place as any to start.