Vice President Harris recently made headlines when she attacked Florida’s new history curriculum which included a single sentence in its Black history standards that has become controversial. It states that while enslaved, “slaves developed skills” they could use for their “personal benefit.” Harris responded by saying, “How is it that anyone could suggest that amidst these atrocities [of slavery], there was any benefit to being subjected to this level of dehumanization?”
Her position was quickly echoed by allies on the left. Richard Fowler penned an op-ed in which he defends Harris’ position. This new debate reminds me of an article I wrote a while back called The Narcissism of 1619 in which I suggested that those influenced by Intersectionality Theory and CRT are often irrational when discussing the Colonial period of history.
Even Tim Scott, the ever-positive Senator from SC and Republican Presidential hopeful couldn’t bring himself to support Florida’s curriculum in what I fear will be a political mistake on his part. In his defense, he trails DeSantis and needs to differentiate himself, but he is generally so upbeat about America’s future.
A friend of mine lost his job a few years’ ago. He was devastated. He had been with his company for many years and planned on retiring from that firm. Now he found himself mid-career, unemployed, with a mortgage and mouths to feed. He had no recent experience at applying and interviewing for jobs. During the dark period in which he was looking for “next,” he began to exercise and got into better physical shape, he learned a new hobby, read some books that helped him reflect on life in general, etc. If you asked him, he’d say that he would prefer to still have that job and be counting down the days to retirement with that company, but he would admit that some parts of his life are actually better because of that experience and how he responded to it.
MD Anderson Cancer Center has published a list of quotes from cancer survivors. Among them:
“My life is different now, but it’s still good.” — Max Nickless, thyroid cancer survivor
“Some of life’s sourest lemons make the best lemonade.” — Ciara Toth, leukemia survivor
“I have a lot to be happy about, just because I’m a survivor.” — Vanessa Sanders, breast cancer survivor
No cancer survivor would say that they’re glad they got cancer. But many would say that the process of going through cancer treatments and surviving has made them a different person, and in some ways, a better person.
I once had the opportunity to meet Elie Wiesel and to hear him speak to a small gathering at a small liberal arts college. What he and other Holocaust survivors experienced is beyond shocking. Something like that should never happen. But it has, throughout all of human history.
But I know that my life and the lives of the other people who were in that room are better because of having met Elie Wiesel and listening to his story. That in no way justifies the horrors of the Holocaust, but it illustrates that something good can arise from something horrible.
So, what about the enslavement of African peoples in North America from 1619 till 1863? There is no way to justify the decision by the European colonists to utilize slave labor in North America, and no way to justify the decision of African kings to supply their own people simply to enrich themselves. But can we point to any positives that arose as a result of those awful decisions? I can think of at least two:
First, People of African descent are common in North America.
African-Americans have contributed to the evolution of American culture in so many ways. America is better because they are here.
Without the legacy of slavery, we wouldn’t have Louis Armstrong, Ella Fitzgerald, Miles Davis, Lena Horne, Stevie Wonder, Diana Ross, Michael Jackson, Whitney Houston, Beyonce’ and on and on.
Without the legacy of slavery, we wouldn’t have Jackie Robinson, Hank Aaron, Jim Brown, Ali-Frazier, Gale Sayers, Barry Sanders, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Arthur Ashe, Michael Jordan, Kobe Bryant, Patrick Mahomes, Serena Williams, and on and on.
Without the legacy of slavery, we wouldn’t have Hattie McDaniel, Sidney Portier, Harry Belafonte, Richard Pryor, Cicely Tyson, Samuel L. Jackson, Forest Whitaker, Morgan Freeman, Denzel Washington, Viola Davis, and on and on.
Without the blues, we wouldn’t have rock ‘n’ roll. Many of our favorite foods are legacies of the slavery and Jim Crow eras when African Americans used creative methods to make what was then throw-away cuts into what are now modern day favorites. America is better because Africans have been here for 400 years.
Second, People of African descent are common in North America.
There is arguably no better place in the world for people of African descent to pursue life, liberty and happiness than in North America. This is easily provable, as there has been no statistically significant migration out of the U.S. back to west Africa or anywhere else since 1863. Even as millions of poor people were flooding into New York from Ireland, Italy, England, Germany and northern Europe in the late 19th and early 20th century, African-Americans weren’t leaving. Even as millions of refugees from Mexico, Central and South America have been flooding into the U.S. in the late 20th and early 21st century, African-Americans aren’t leaving. Many more people immigrate from Africa to the U.S. each year than go the other way. People vote with their feet and they wouldn’t stay if they didn’t think they had more opportunity here than anywhere else in the world.
Had they not been born in America, descendants of those people who were enslaved would have been born in west Africa. It’s clear that their ancestors who were enslaved would have been better off had they never been forced to leave their homeland. But it’s not so clear that their descendants would have been. Niger recently experienced a military coup. This follows coups in nearby Mali, Chad, Guinea, Sudan and Burkina Faso in recent years. Certainly the legacy of Colonialism is a factor in the political instability of that region, but there is little evidence that west African nations would be industrialized and prosperous in the absence of any past European influences.
I understand that suggesting we are better because of the legacy of slavery can be interpreted as saying that slavery was ultimately a good thing. Nothing could be further from the truth. But much like the divorced couple who wish they’d never been married or the cancer survivor who wishes they’d never had cancer, we can prefer that the dark period never existed. But it is healthier to celebrate the ways that those slaves ultimately contributed to making us the nation we are today than to insist that it’s impossible to make lemonade from sour lemons.