Recent media reports highlight a “discovery” that Rev. Al Sharpton is a descendant of slaves once owned by ancestors of Strom Thurmond. Gaining near headline status, the media reports point out that the outspoken public critic of racist and racially discriminatory policies and practices, Rev. Sharpton, has distant ties to the staunch racial segregationist Senator Strom Thurmond. Thurmond has been the symbol of the “Resistance” to Civil Rights progress in the United States. The media obviously believes that the “news story” setting off the descendant of a slave against the descendant of a slave owner will sell in the current "infotainment" marketplace. It is a sad commentary on the current psyche of the American public that the media is probably right.
To any Black American, this is not newsworthy. It is nothing more than a fact of life. To anyone with a marginal understanding of American History, the fact that most Black Americans are the descendants of former slaves and that many White Americans are connected by blood or marriage to former slave owners is not new information. It is also true that many White American property owners draw their inheritance from land illegally seized as a result of broken treaties with Native Americans. These are simple cultural and historical facts. They are not cause for divisiveness unless we attempt to deny or ignore them as fact. That any supposedly "educated" American could pretend that slavery, "separate but equal," Wounded Knee and the "Trail of Tears" never existed should garner news attention. Those who doubt that these historical and cultural facts still maintain residue in the operation of our society today should be studied as an example of the failures of our educational system to teach history with integrity and accuracy.
The Jews maintain a cultural and historical memory of the Holocaust, not as a cudgel or chip on their soldier, but as a reminder that such an abomination should never be allowed to happen again. Yet mankind obviously has an imperfect memory, as evidenced in Rwanda, Bosnia and now in Darfur. The treatment of slaves and Native Americans in this country are abominations as well. Treating the reminders of such history as "news" only suggests that the public has forgotten, and is susceptible of perpetrating the vestiges of these historical atrocities.
So if you approach an American of color with the “news story” about Sharpton and Thurmond, do not be surprised if that person just looks at you oddly, shakes their head and walks away. It ain’t news to us!
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