9/11? Get Over It.

by Staff September 11, 2014 8 Comments News Opinion Politics Weekly Columns

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(ThyBlackMan.com) The irony of 9/11 for black people, and others of color is perfectly embodied in the slogan countless Americans have commandeered to honor victims of the most significant act of terrorism ever perpetrated against the United States: Never Forget.

It’s a fitting catchphrase, short, somber, impactful.

All of us can probably remember where we were the day two planes, United Airlines Flight 11 and 175, were hijacked and flown into the World Trade Center, killing thousands of innocents and destroying a nation’s sense of safety. The individuals who lost their lives that Tuesday morning deserve to be remembered with dignity and pride – their irrecoverable humanity sobering us all with the realization of just how fragile and precious life is. We will never forget.

However, long memory isn’t exactly an American trait. At least not when it pertains to victims of American domestic terrorism, quite the contrary. America condones and perpetuates forgetfulness concerning the acts of violence committed against Africans, and other persons of color, by European settlers. Efforts to erase this record of subjugation from history books and our collective memories continue to this day.

A conservative estimate of the total number of African deaths during transport across the Atlantic ocean, in what is commonly referred to as the Middle Passage, is upwards of 2 MILLION people. This was terrorism in every sense of the word, but how often are Americans implored to “Never Forget” the lives of these innocent Africans? I’ve yet to hear these words assigned to the precious lives of my ancestors. Upon arriving in North

America and the Caribbean, the survivors of the Middle Passage, and subsequent generations of Africans born into American slavery, suffered further brutalizations which resulted in the additional deaths of an estimated 4 MILLION Africans and African-Americans from 1610 to 1900.

But again, when have these lives ever been officially recognized and honored by the United States of America? Instead of reverence, African-Americans are told to get over this bloody catalogue of oppression and move on as if it never took place. America teaches its children to scorn anyone who dares mention this era of evil. Imagine if this same level of indifference was afforded in kind to the families of those victims trapped in the north and south World Trade Center towers; victims who frantically telephoned their loved ones one final time before both towers collapsed on live television. Such callousness would be rightfully excoriated as an attempt to desecrate the memory of 9/11 victims.

Why then is America not held to similar standards for failing to treat the humanity of millions of innocent Africans – killed by oppressive American laws and practices – with decency?

Why are we taught to dismiss the lives of African people who were beaten, raped, murdered, debased and debauched, psychologically brutalized, and exploited through forced labor?

Why are the ancestors of African slaves frigidly commanded to “move on” and spoken to with derisive refrains of “It didn’t happen to you” when their family members (Africans) are mentioned at school or work, in political and private life?

Why are the nearly 3,000 victims of 9/11 honored annually while the 6-MILLION plus African and African-American victims of American chattel slavery and Jim Crow are discredited, and their ancestors ridiculed for demanding recognition as human beings worthy of full civil rights protections under American jurisprudence?

This type of hypocrisy nauseates me. It does not imbue me with pride for my country nor does it cause me to respect the lives of 9/11 victims more. This level of selective recognition based solely on skin color is repugnant to the human spirit and violates any sense of ethics and high morals.

I will never forget.

Staff Writer; Timothy Dwight Smith

This talented brother is a nationally published journalist. He may be reached at contracriticnews@gmail.com.

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CD Smith says:
September 13, 2014 at 4:26 pm
Mr. Smith — Thanks for your response as it rare that authors of these articles defend their commentary.
To compare the Middle Passage with the 911 Memorial is out of context.
The central point you make in the article is that blacks are told to “move on” in regard to their history in totality.
The reason why is because when it comes right down to it, too many of us have abused our history to cast us a victims to explain away our failures. You know people who do that and I am sure you are tiring of hearing that sometimes. We are not descendants of the defeated people but too many of us live defeated lives based mainly on our choices.
Also, why do you expect this nation to pay homage to the nameless, faceless Africans who died in the Middle Passage centuries ago?
It is “our” responsibility to make that happen. We keep looking to others to honor and love us when it is not their responsibility to do so.
How would seeing “white” people contrite with “phony” platitudes/apologies about those things they don’t they cannot relate make you feel more American? The truth is that is not even at the top of the black community’s wish list.
Would reparations really make us whole? Would all be ok after that?
You state that excluding a discussion of the Middle Passage would serve to omit the awareness of the African’s contribution prior to the American slavery experience. However, in that history you will discover that Africans along with the Europeans played a role in perpetuating the American slave trade as well. I am sure you are aware of that. Therefore, many nations would have to apologize and pay reparations. Not going to happen.
Slavery is the oldest practice in the history of mankind and it is still happening today in Africa. African governments are complicit in this activity.
I am agreeing with you in that we should never forget the brutality and evil done those Africans in America and those who never made it here. However, in that history there is also triumph as well as tragedy. Blacks in America are the most educated, wealthiest “blacks” on the planet.
The contributions blacks have made to this country are to numerous to mention.
While I don’t know all the contributions of the Africans that preceded us, I can point to America and say “We built that”.
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Timothy Dwight Smith says:
September 13, 2014 at 1:31 pm
Ford and CD Smith, it’s important to separate what is considered “African-American History” from the African Holocaust. As it stands now the United States has failed to recognize their part in the murdering of millions of African people by erecting a memorial to both reverence African lives lost and recognize their contributions during slavery and to educate the world about the role America played in murdering, marginalizing, and otherwise subjugating African and African-American individuals for economic and political gain.
(http://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2014/08/how-to-apologize-for-slavery/375650/) .
The same cannot be said for Jews who suffered their own Holocaust: http://www.ushmm.org/information/about-the-museum
Or for veterans:
http://www.nps.gov/vive/index.htm
http://www.wwiimemorial.com/
https://theworldwar.org/
Or for American presidents – I doubt a link is needed.
This is nothing but moral hypocrisy.
Conflating “Black History” with the African and African-American Holocaust is deceptive because there is not an array of opportunities to learn about this bloody period of American history – this period, as I stated in my article, is often dismissed and downplayed (CD Smith there are scholars yet arguing the Civil War wasn’t about slavery at all, but states rights. I’m hardly overlooking the Civil War by making my argument) while efforts are made to erase the history from the textbooks our children learn from altogether:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/01/23/tea-party-tennessee-textbooks-slavery_n_1224157.html
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/bryan-monroe/how-texas-school-board-tr_b_586633.html
http://blackstarjournal.org/?p=3704
This distinction is important because to teach “Black History” without recognizing the African Holocaust, which preceded the “recognized” accomplishments people of African descent have contributed to American society, is to strip away thousands of years of African history which preceded the transatlantic slave trade.
African history did not start in America, what blacks have achieved here is but a continuation of a larger history which stretches back thousands of years – little of which is taught in American schools. This further distorts how American citizens perceive blacks today – largely thought to be a people with no heritage and few world contributions before being “civilized” by Western value systems.
Ford, despite what some will say, there existed no slavery as brutal and heinous as the American enslavement of Africans before 1609, anywhere in the world. The systematic separating of families, the forced rapes, the executing of African children born with abnormalities, etc., Anerican slavery has no equal.
Imagine if European history was taught in a similar fashion, whereas those of European descent in America were only taught what their ancestors did in America, concentrated during one month of the year, and everything before that was erased. This would give the impression that Europeans contributed nothing of value to the world before American society – a general belief about African people by most American citizens.
This failure to recognize the millions of African people whose labor is primarily responsible for America’s economic and political power in the world is both appalling and unsurprising. The United States has yet to even offer an official apology to those of African descent for facilitating this heinous system of brutality and exploitation. Reparations have not been meted out either.
Any and all attempts to have Congress approve an African Holocaust Memorial have been unsupported. The most recent legislation proposed to Congress in 2003 to create what would’ve been The National Slave Memorial was not adopted, and instead, Congress decided to create the National Museum of African-American History. But just like the tenor of your email, this misses the point doesn’t it?
American chattel slavery is American history, but it is not African-American history. American slavery was something America did TO African people, not what African people did to or for themselves. To then call it African-American history is disingenuous, and by doing so it continues to reinforce to the world that black people’s history began with slavery. The instances of so-called black history offered on tv, in school textbooks and Hollywood movies are neither exstensive nor accurate treatments of the subject matter. These offerings do not serve as a corrective to any of the distortions and lies which have been deeply ingrained in the minds of Americans – both black and white.
A national memorial museum to honor the lives of those who suffered the African Holocaust would satisfy much of the above purposes well, but America will never do so because to do so would expose the many lies which continue being told about black people to this day, and it would gin up questions about reparations.
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CD Smith says:
September 13, 2014 at 12:44 pm
Clerical error..
Our forefathers and mothers,were “brought” here and lived under brutal circumstances but America would not be America as it is today without us being here.
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CD Smith says:
September 13, 2014 at 12:28 pm
Mr. Smith has sadly missed the point of the memorial..The point of the memorial is not only to remember those who lost their lives on that day but also to say we are “not” defeated and we are not “victims”.
The problem is that too many people have “hijacked” the history of black people in America to keep “us” presented as “perpetual victims” for their own purposes. Yes, our forefathers and mothers, came here and lived under brutal circumstances but America would not be America as it is today without us being here. To focus solely on this aspect of the black experience in America would be dishonoring to all those that have come before us.
What Mr. Smith forgot is the ones who survived paid in precious blood for our birthright to this country. Therefore, this is “our” country. Claim your birthright as descendant of a strong and great people.
If you honor the ones who have died, that is what you also should never forget.
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Ford says:
September 13, 2014 at 10:43 am
…Mr. Smith. You have overlooked the Civil War. Thousands died on both sides. It was fought to free the slaves. Period. “Europeans” may have enslaved blacks but everyone else practiced slavery too including blacks. It was historical and currant practice of the times. “Europeans” put an end to it although Johnson took away the possibility of forty acres and a mule which would have given blacks true freedom through economic independence. The Civil War is most certainly not forgotten nor the reason for it.
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Octavia says:
September 13, 2014 at 5:50 am
This was a great read! I completely agree.
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Timothy Dwight Smith says:
September 12, 2014 at 7:38 pm
I agree with you Donell, 9/11 and the African Holocaust deserve separate recognition and appreciation. As it stands now, only one tragedy is recognized, this is a travesty.
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Donnell Suggs says:
September 12, 2014 at 7:31 am
I too have never forget how and why my people were brought overseas. How still this day the effects of enslavement eat away at the young and old alike. That being said, 9/11 is especially important to me as first a New Yorker and next as an American of African decent. Innocent lives were lost and war was waged for what we still can’t seem to put our minds to. I like to separate those two horrific events from my mental catalog however.
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