Tribune: 400 years of resistance and survival of the black American people
Since 1619, the date of the arrival of the first captured Africans in Angola, the history of the black community in the United States has been written, inscribed by a systematic, systemic and brutal oppression of the black women and men who set foot on the land considered “promised” by the first Spanish settlers…
This tragedy was brought to fruition by the establishment of a system of exploitation of “man by man” commonly referred to as slavery. This commercial market of human beings has become a deeply rooted institution, which has dehumanized entire generations, victims of the “Golden Triangle” trade organized by the Europeans.
Slaves were reduced to the state of “ebony wood” (Voltaire), considered as simple merchandise, and subjected to cruel laws legitimizing shameless exploitation, outside of all primary human considerations, subjected to unspeakable, innumerable, ignominious and dishonoring treatments…
While the Declaration of Independence of 1776 proclaimed that “all men are created equal,” the American Constitution (1787) insidiously legitimized the practice of slavery, which de facto strengthened the power of the slave states. This hypocrisy has plunged millions of blacks into unspeakable suffering, at the origin of the creation and the ever more entrenched development of the capitalist system of this nation; a suffering that is signed with the ink of indelible blood…
Yet, despite this enterprise of submission never satiated with insults, greed, rooted in the body by the vice of “negrophobia”, black Americans knew how to resist and fight. Rebellions like that of Nat Turner (1831) and emblematic figures like Harriet Tubman (1850s-1860s), Frederick Douglass (1840s-1895) or Ida B. Wells (from the 1890s) embodied this unwavering resistance.
Black culture is also the symbol and prerogative of movements such as the “Harlem Renaissance”, particularly during its peak, from 1924 to 1929, movements which reaffirmed identity and restored dignity to the black community!
The civil rights struggle, led by leaders such as Martin Luther King Jr. and Malcolm X, or from the ranks of the Black Panthers, was able to result in crucial legal advances through their struggle. However, even after the decree abolishing slavery (1863), black people continued to be marginalized by segregationist laws and repressed by racial violence.
Today, the wounds of this painful history remain fresh… The 2024 presidential election in the United States is shaping up to be a pivotal moment in the history of this country. As the painful past of racial domination continues to influence political debates, candidates find themselves confronted with a divided nation. Issues of social justice, economic inequality, and systemic reform remain at the heart of concerns, prioritized and sorted according to a perfectly “monotonous” agenda, which no longer surprises anyone…
The black community, which has long borne the brunt of the civil rights struggle, is watching the candidates’ promises and commitments with particular attention. These elections could be an opportunity to continue the path toward equality or, on the contrary, to reinforce divisions. The voices of the descendants of those who resisted and survived centuries of injustice will be decisive in shaping the future of the country.
It is, indeed, urgent to recognize historical injustices and inequalities, to work towards reparation. The fight for social justice must not weaken, because equality remains a goal to be achieved. The legacy of slavery still weighs heavily, and only collective action will make it possible to build a truly inclusive society, “positive discrimination” (Eric Keslassy).
The promises of freedom and equality must finally become a reality for all. It is time to act so that justice prevails, and that the history of the black American people is recognized at its true value: that of an incomparable resistance and a tireless quest for dignity and moral respect, access to resources and common goods, a sharing of wealth. And this, always with an inimitable style, to “be useful” (Lionel Jospin) as well as touch, accuracy and finesse, to strengthen a plural democratic left, notably communist and not vassal, not assimilable to a vestige, and which has stopped neglecting the outdated classes, sometimes backward-looking, no longer belonging to the past…
.Mehdi ALLAL, historian and jurist…
& Thomas KOFFI, director of the Parisian contemporary music network (MAP).
