A Coversation

6-22-2010

I had an interesting conversation today. With a Black man. I wouldn't emphasize the man's race if the conversation itself did not revolve around race. We were talking and the subject of racism came up. He started talking about people who have openly told him they are racism, and how stupid, basically, those people are. The conversation progressed to discussing even stupider people who always preface their racist views and comments with, "I'm not racist," or "I'm not trying to be racist but..." Obviously you are indeed racist if you feel that when Black people moved into your neighborhood it ceased to be a "nice neighborhood," or if you think that all Black men are thugs who speak in ebonics, are inarticulate, and are bad scary people. I have heard all of these statements and many more professed by people who claim to not be racist. My friend and I were both laughing at, and frustrated by such people and their ignorant views.

The conversation again shifted when my friend asked me about the class I had to go to today...the same class that I am currently sitting in, sort of listening but mostly writing this. The class is African American History (up to 1877). We started, for some reason, talking about my paper topic for the day, Thomas Jefferson. The question I was asked to answer in my paper was, given evidence that Jefferson had a relationship with his slave and in fact, owned slaves at all, was Jefferson the great American hero we always hear about, or was ha villain and a hypocrite given his rhetoric and ideals about the inalienable rights of all men? Without even being told about Jefferson's affair with Sally Hemings, my friend automatically assumed as much...that Jefferson quote, "loved some Black pussy," and he went on jokingly to say that that must be where the "once you go Black, you never go back" saying and "Jungle Fever" came from.

While he was clearly joking around, his immediate understanding that Jefferson had a love affair with his slave was impressively astute. Of course, the subject of slavery being opened up, this is the direction we headed in...my friend claimed he knew about Jefferson from the "slave book" that's been passed down (again jokingly), and then reiterated an idea he's discussed on many previous occassions.

His idea is simply this. One day he's going to be rich and powerful, and one day he's going to be the biggest cotton producer in the world and that he would "hire white slaves" to work the fields, in his own form of racial justice for the injustices done to Black people throughout history. Now, while his idea may be far-fetched (as far as actual execution goes), he raised an interesting point. How could the injustices throughout history and presently be rectified? Is there even a way? We talked a bit further, contemplating what may have happened if Africans had had guns prior to European invasion. If they had maybe been able to ward off the invaders and had never been enslaved as they were, what would the world look like?

This country, as we discussed, is the world superpower. Especially when we look at the corporations. Many of these corporations, some of the wealthiest in the world, as well as this nation as a whole, were built on the backs of slaves. Without slavery, this country might never have come to be at all, or if it had, very likely would not be the world superpower that it is today. How different the world would be indeed. So radically different that I personally feel incapable of fathoming it. My friend and I likely would never have met or had the conversation we just did if this were the case. Would he (or I, for that matter) even have been born? Big ideas and questions for a brief, casual conversation. This friend of mine is an amazing man who always shows me another way of seeing things, he pushed me to be better, intellectually and in life. I love this friend, more than he could ever know. My life will never be the same now that I've known him. And no matter what happens with him and me in the future, I will always be indebted to him for changing my life.