Redemption Song

As I've been hearing a lot on social media lately about human trafficking, I decided to share a few of my thoughts on the subject.

To me, "human trafficking" is just another modern euphemism for an age-old practice called slavery. And as an African-American, I feel it goes without saying that I'm fairly familiar with that subject. I first learned of its horrors from my great grandmother, who passed away when I was a teenager in 2000. She lived in an age of de facto slavery known as the Jim Crow Era, and herself knew many recently freed slaves from the waning Antebellum years.

I also grew up at the turn of the 21st century, which was a time of draconian incarceration of young black men for non-violent crimes, and which also could not be called anything other than de facto slavery. It cleverly circumvented the legal intent of the 13th Amendment to the Constitution, but the end result was still the same: old black Joe picking cotton for America's ribbons and bows.

In recent years there has been renewed interest, particularly among white Americans, in bringing attention to the plight of modern day slaves, and in trying to bring a halt to the brutal practice. I find it commendable, but also think that great care should be taken, particularly when trying to lecture black people about it, as African-Americans are themselves far more knowledgeable on the subject of slavery than are any other people on the planet, not to mention on this continent.

Also, while I hesitate to call it shameless pontification, I do think that it is whites who should be the ones learning from blacks about the travesties of slavery, rather than vice versa, as whites are the ones who have displayed the most ignorance about its history, particularly in their own country. Many do not know, for instance, that it was practiced for centuries both North and South of the Mason-Dixon Line, and that over a quarter million Southerners gave their lives not just to preserve it, but in an attempt to ensure its proliferation to the rest of the world. Moreover, few understand the true depth of its depravity, which the carefully excavated mass graves of dead black men, women and children tell the harrowing tale of.

Personally, I'm not one to blame an entire people for the crimes of their forefathers, nor to demand reparations for them. Many whites in America had little to do with slavery, as their ancestors emigrated to this country long after the practice had been prohibited. But that sword cuts both ways. The vast majority of black Americans alive today are also innocent of human trafficking. How could they ever be otherwise, with the stories of slavery's horrors so fresh in their memories? So if individualism exonerates white America, should it not doubly exonerate blacks? And if so, then why do so many blacks come away with the impression that their communities are being blamed for the blight of modern day slavery? To paraphrase the Apostle Paul; "You who teach the law, are you in need of teaching?"

That is all I really feel inclined to share on this subject at the moment, which rubs so many people of all races the wrong way.