The New York Times’s 1619 Project, in 2019, generated the need for the Black Americans to tell their own stories. Black stories are not only focused on the brutality and oppression they have endured but is also about their resilience and will for survival.
So, Vox published an article that I recently read, title, ‘6 myths about the history of Black people in America,’ in which six Black scholars and historians speak about misconceptions that perpetuate about Black stories, concepts that:
Enslaved people did not have money,
The Black revolutionary soldiers were patriots,
Black men were injected with syphilis in the Tuskegee experiment,
Black people in the early Jim Crow America didn’t fight back,
Crack in the ‘ghetto’ was the largest drug crisis of the 1980’s,
All Black people were enslaved until emancipation.
You can read the full article here, but I also want to invite conversations about these concepts. As I said earlier, I don’t know much so I am trying to read more this year, and I want to hear from you -- your thoughts on these concepts and/or on this article. If you wish to write a paragraph or two -- I would certainly welcome that too and would love to include in the next enews. I think the best way we can learn about the people is to hear from them -- not from someone else’s version of their story.
Together, let us make an effort to learn more and support the work of anti-racism and of lifting up the folk who represent minority identities in our communities. We can start by
Shopping at Black owned businesses,
Speaking against any race injustice that we may witness anywhere,
Joining us for worship to celebrate black music, the stories of black people, and the resilience of those who work tirelessly to bring justice to communities of culture.
Let us also continue to do our part in making this world and just and safer place for all God’s people! Please stay safe and take good care of yourself. I will see you in worship.
