Thursday, March 19, 1998
U.S. needs monument to mourn African slaves
AFRICA Nation must pay tribute to individuals who sacrificed
their lives
By Victor Patton
The "slavery issue" still remains as the festering boil left
untreated on the face of what many Americans would consider to be
the glory of this nation’s past. Even the mere invocation of the
word slavery, due to its historical implications, can often make
whites defensive of their role in history. And it serves as a
reminder to blacks of how they were the unwilling participants in a
capitalist endeavor in which they were the actual commodity.
The context in which we as Americans view our history, in light
of this "slavery issue" speaks toward the heart and essence of
everything that we as Americans are today, and the very substance
of who our children will be in the future.
Will we remain a nation of individuals who praise a glorious
history of America which has simply never existed? Or a nation of
brave individuals unafraid to approach our history with candor and
truth, recognizing that the crimson strips of our beloved flag are
also permanently stained with the blood of Africans and other
people of color as well?
The Associated Press reported last week that while President
Clinton will address the issue of slavery during his trip to Africa
next month, he will not issue a formal apology to African Americans
for slavery.
President Clinton should not apologize for slavery for several
reasons, but mainly because even if such an apology was given, it
would not alleviate the racial attitudes which permeate every
aspect of American society.
The vast majority of whites will continue to ignore the fact
that they are the direct benefactors of slavery and oppression.
Meanwhile the vast majority of blacks will remain frustrated with
whites for their continuing complicity through ignorance.
However, this does not mean that progressive individuals from
both races cannot find a viable solution to change black and white
perceptions of one another, which for the most part have remained
in diametric opposition.
Part of the solution, at least in the short run, is for
Americans to collectively establish a National Black Holocaust
Monument.
Several historians have estimated that over 60 million Africans
suffered and died during the Trans-Atlantic slave trade, in
addition to the ones that would experience unimaginable horrors
visited upon them by colonial oppressors after their arrival in New
World.
Mourning for Americans, by Americans, and the establishment of a
National Black Holocaust Monument would serve a dual purpose.
First of all, it would allow African Americans to come together,
and attempt to lay to rest the souls of their ancestors whose
voices can still be heard from the grave, and secondly it would
compel all progressive people of the world to finally acknowledge
that this unimaginable horror took place.
Not once in its over 200 years of existence has the United
States ever established a place where people from all over the
nation can mourn for Africans who most unwillingly spilled their
blood, so that the experiment of America could come to
fruition.
Acknowledging the blood-stained past and wrongs of our country
does nothing to take away from historical greatness of America, but
can only serve to improve America for future generations, and prove
to the entire world that the United States is indeed striving to
become the multi-cultural democracy which has been left
unrealized.
With these things taken into consideration, I hereby challenge
President Clinton to not merely make an apology to African
Americans for the historical event of slavery, but to go a major
step further, and allocate funds to build a National Black
Holocaust Monument which will serve not only to recognize and pay
tribute to the Africans who suffered and died through slavery
yesterday, but also to educate and enlighten the people of the
world today of this travesty which we must never ever allow to
happen again.
President Clinton’s words of an apology would only be worth the
breath it takes to muster them from his lips. But a Black Holocaust
Monument comparable to the other great monuments of this country
and the world, would stand the test of time, and remind generations
of Americans of the sacrifices of our African forefathers and
foremothers, who were brought to this country in bondage.
As Martin Luther King Jr. said so eloquently, "We must learn to
live together as brothers or perish together as fools." The time is
now.