Never Forget

“Never Forget.”  This phrase is ironic to me.  Americans, more specifically white people, like to use this phrase whenever bad stuff happens.  “Never forget Pearl Harbor.”  “Never forget 9-11.”  Blink of an eye events.  Tragic, horrific, but momentary events.  We even have people that still say, “The South will rise again.”  Yet, when a black person opens their mouth about over 400 years of slavery, for some reason, they are just supposed to forget about generation after generation of abuse, mistreatment, and oppression. 

That makes no sense.  At this point, almost none of us were here during Pearl Harbor, but I’m sure for the thousands of us who have relatives that were there, it’s still significant.  While 3,000 Americans lost their lives on 9/11, what percentage of the 300 plus million Americans actually knew someone there or are related to someone who passed.   I do not want to diminish the grief and sadness of either of these events—on the contrary, to lift it up as just and reasonable.  But I have to ask, why do we not recognize that virtually every single black American has a reasonable and just right to still be angry at the injustice of the treatment of their ancestors—their very own families.  Let that sink in.  Every. Single. Black. American. 

During the transatlantic slave trade over 12 million Africans were taken from their homeland.  Almost 2 million of them died during the trip.  By 1860 there were roughly 4 million in service in the U.S.  No one knows how many slaves died while in slavery.  Some estimates suggest around 5 million.  Regardless, their families live on among us. 

So when does “Never Forget” mean “Never Forget?”  Or maybe better, WHO can it mean “Never” for?