Check this from reader Michelle Hamilton:
I recently had the opportunity to share in a heated dialogue with a number of citizens of this country. A person of Caucasian heritage listed a terrible message on the AOL message board. Here is the message as it was listed (this fool’s pathetic spelling and punctuation have been left unedited to prove a point):
Subject: the black race
Date: 7/12/05 2:33:03 PM EDT
Author: CoR523
certian people in the black race get on my nerves becz they think they are still livin in the slaves days and white people owe them everything. well white people didnt sell them their black leaders did. and the spanish brought them here. the white race saved them gave them food homes etc. whites had never seen blacks who were uncivilized so what were they to do? they were as scared as the blacks were.this is 2005 and the blacks scream rasicts if you say something they dont like. also there are no white boards on here .none why is that? i could say more but would get a tos because blacks are pampered.
Here was my reply:
If enslavement was a form of assistance, you are welcome to come and serve me. I will gladly have you raped (because I wouldn’t bother to sleep with you) and tell you who you can marry. If you have children, I will sell them to other African Americans (black is a color; I am a person of specific descent and geneology), and if you do not please me with your service I will beat you. Of course, should you show me any disloyalty or disrespect, I will unmercifully punish you in ways that are displeasing to even the lowest life form.
I will not allow you to learn to read or write! You won’t need this, and if I discover that someone has taught you, I will kill you. I will force you to worship as I worship. I will teach you that God does not see you as a whole being. You are less than a beast of burden. You are property. You are not entitled to food. Instead, you may eat my scraps and other products that I would not feed to my pigs and cows. I will not concern myself with your getting sick. If you do, you will still be expected to perform all of your duties. If you give birth, you had better do it after you finish your chores because if you stop to deliver, I will beat you and then you had better get back to work.
For all of this, I will reward you. I will name you with my last name! You will not know any of your own history, and if a war breaks out in my country, I will send you to serve in my place. If you run away at any point, I will hunt for you – not because I miss you, but because you are mine and I own you. If I feel you are not worth returning to me, I will have you hunted for sport, and upon capture I will have you beaten and killed. I will only ask that your head be brought back to me. I will pay for someone to do this. I will post your head on a stake for all the other slaves to see what happens when you run from my “assistance.”
You are now welcome to come to me for this kind and loving assistance at any time. Email me whenever you are ready, and I will send for you. Bring nothing of value, as you will have no use for possessions. Oh … and die only after all my chores are done, because if I decide to be gracious and keep your kids they will carry on in duty to my family. Now, if you want freedom (after 100-plus years of service, of course) I am willing to fight against my own kind to keep that from happening.
And should you be granted freedom, I will enact certain laws that will enslave you by restricting education, medical services, housing and any other right I desire. I will further destroy your race by lynching your men and destroying your families. I will not allow you to have anything of value, and you will know no peace. I will have the police beat you. You will be subjected to lower pay and only jobs that I do not want for my own people. More than 250 years after you begin “service,” your ancestors will still be wondering if they will ever know equality – and the answer is that they won’t. They won’t because the country’s history will be so sugar-coated and white-washed that the actions taken against slaves like you will have been greatly altered and my ancestors will one day write of how we did nothing wrong to you. Your ignorance of the past will be the reason you are in the position you face everyday.
Learn your history! You, my darling, are currently a slave – to stupidity and racism!