Black Heroes and Inventors

Proven here is: Given a fair chance, a Black child can achieve greatness.

Nonetheless, Black people have been brutalized for centuries, and in the U.S. told they were not welcome — even though they, as a people, had been violently forced to the U.S. from their African home as slaves! And, as a people, there has been little or no reparations or real refuge for them here, since.

In Toni Morrison’s novel Beloved, the narrator notes that, like the South, the Civil War era northern states also hated Black people but happened to hate slavery more.

Thank you, Dwana, for these glimpses into the courage and ingenuity of Black people who literally changed the world.

In my reading over the last three years, to study colonialism, racism, the genocide of Indigenous peoples and murderous kidnapping and enslavement of people from Africa, how humans were relegated to the status of animals to free White “Christians” from guilt as they held a Bible in one hand and whipped an enslaved person — man, woman, or child — to the point of death, I have been struck by the number of Black heroes and inventors I’d never heard of.
Learning that so many Black inventors had their inventions stolen by White people; knowing that the wealth of this nation was built on the stolen lands of Indigenous people and the backs of enslaved people, I feel both ashamed of my English and Scottish forefathers, and stunned that Black and Native American people, and many other oppressed BIPOC people, don’t unload rage at every turn. And I know that throughout history anger and shame on all sides has been turned inward and outward and we all have wounds, psychic and spiritual wounds, as the result of generation upon generation of violence, murder, lies, death, despair, depression, soul sickness that destroys hearts and minds.

It is especially galling that so many U.S. citizens seek to deny these truths, to undermine accomplishments, to further divide and evoke hatred. Which brings me to this movement, the PACEs science movement, and why we are so determined to have the truth told and shared.

A colleague of mine, said in a meeting yesterday that the facts we share and the education we are making available about the truths of historical trauma and systemic oppression is some of the most important work we are doing.  I believe that with all my heart and hope that somehow as our communities learn the truths about what happened on lands they now live on and prosper from, there might be a sense of honest regret and a deep desire to make things right for all people now, today, by joining the call for reparations and equity, acknowledging the horrific harms done and grace given, and being steadfast in resolve and action to bring about diversity, equity and inclusion at every turn.

I’ve read that when Germans, after WWII apologized and made reparations to Jewish people, the nation started fresh, and knew greater unity and prosperity than ever before.

My hope is that we bring about a similar public admission of wrongdoings and make a real and significant amends to Native American, Black, Brown, Japanese  and all other peoples that we as a nation have stolen from in myriad ways: lives, land, liberty, dignity, a future with family,  the sense of freedom and comfort to come and go anywhere without the glare of racism searing every person of color 24/7.

The book You Are Your Best Thing by Tarana Burke and Brene’ Brown has been one of the best books I’ve read and shared about of late. The subtitle is “Vulnerability, Shame Resilience, and the Black Experience. An Anthology.”  I highly recommend it.

Thanks again, Dwana.