After the Emancipation Proclamation came a-whole-nother system of anti-Black fuckery.

-JeCorey Holder
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by JeCorey Holder

Look. I get it. The enslavement of Africans happened a HELLA LONG time ago from our contemporary perspective. It would be nice if we could all reasonably agree that it was a generally unpleasant time, but some people still wanna argue that U.S. chattel slavery is/was “good history.”

Those who aren’t trying to paint it as a “good”part of history or striving to instead to leave it behind, downplay it, or erase it entirely. I swear, every year another HUNDRED years is added to when chattel slavery ended!

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If you’re curious, the official number — on this day in the year of our Black-ass Lord, 2018 — is 153 years. But don’t let that number fool you, sis. That may sound like a long-ass time ago and you may think that the Emancipation Proclamation marked the official abolition of slavery, but after that came a-whole-nother system of anti-Black fuckery.

Look up Jim Crow Laws and other antebellum horrors when you get a chance. Michelle Alexander’s “The New Jim Crow” is a VERY interesting read if you can set aside your privilege for a few moments.

People who lived through those times where still alive in the last century. Ruth Odom Bonner passed away just last year. She was the daughter of a formerly enslaved man and helped to open the National Museum of African American History and Culture.

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We are still feeling the effects of chattel slavery today. Whether we benefit from it, or, in the case of Black Americans, suffer from it. Did you know that many Black American surnames come from our ancestors’ slave masters, or that many surnames were specifically chosen following emancipation slavery in an attempt to erase that legacy? Why don’t we talk about how most white Americans gained their fortunes off the backs of their family’s slaves? The racial wealth gap between white and Black Americans is directly due to the enslavement of Africans on this land and the subsequent intentional subjugation of their descendants.

We know what the truth is: you only want to want to leave the subject of slavery behind, not because it was an unpleasant piece of our history, but because you are eager to dismiss it and its effects on us today.

Gamer, geek, and social activist. JeCorey Holder has been weaving tapestries of shade and fury since the early 2000’s. Pro-LGBTQ, pro-black, and pro intersectional feminism, he is full of feelings and opinions that try to call out and tear down the oppressive status quo.