SLAVERY & SEXUALITY: ECONOMICS & RACISM

(23 June 2008 by Carl A. Patton)

We declare that economics (money) was the driving force behind slavery. However some cry out with the myths of inherent Black inferiority. Meanwhile “The Great Dr. E.” brings to the table the prominence of sex as a motivator and sustainer of slavery.

So let us go back. Can I take you back? I would never want to go back physically but in prose and verse we look back.

Stepping on to the contemporary

scene first we hear the reparations

movement crying out for money

for the free labor spent by many

downtrodden Black souls.

Do they also accept the economics

of racism as the driving force for

the vassalage of the once proud

people from “The Land of the Blacks?”

Meanwhile some still believe all the,

Chains were/are about Black inferiority.

So will the devalued dollar defend the

defenseless non-threatening Black woman

for days of forced concubinage and as slave

mistresses. Are these days long gone by?

Who is exploiting who? Will money defend

my grandmother’s honor? Just what does money

measure regarding a helpless Black female’s honor

and virtue. There were women and young girls.

Young and not so old virgins with no names.

When did it start? Along the west coast of Africa

and in the interior they were male and female

that were sold and captured by friend and foe.

What of the east coast? How long did the rape

last there?

Then came a new bondage as they were herded

into slave pens decent for animals. To await an

unknown fate that was written in the blood,

unwilling tears of my ancestors that lived and

died in a voyage that will last a life time.

Raped, ravaged, savagely taken while my

grandfather in chains could hear the endless cry

in pain of the Black mother on the upper

and lower decks of the slave ships? Some were

with child by the time the ungodly Christian,

Ships of human cargo landed. The stench of Black

bodies that had been packed as sardines were now

greased for sale in the wretched inhumane slave ports

of the southern United States. Some Black and brown

had now turned to yellow, red and all colors in between.

What was White was Black. The evidence was/is

seen as many Black faces were White faces and

some hair was good. The good hair was straight hair without

the use of the hot comb. I saw my brother with eyes of blue

and grey.

Meanwhile did this pleasure pursuit also

become an economic endeavor? As lust

brought many hands to work in the fields

and in the big house. Did this as “The

Great Dr. E.” postulates become the,

Driving force behind keeping humans

chained to the field and to the bed post?

What can be learned by looking at carnal

pleasures, are were those moments just acts

of breeding?

Would all men in this situation as plantation

Kings do the same Black or White? Was

Sigmund Freud right? Who will tell the Truth?

Did the Black Straw Boss exploit Black women?

Looking back and looking forward with responsibility,

God sends the righteous Truth to live today not in the

past but for tomorrow and everlasting. So sad were the

deeds of lust, abortion and ravaging then. But one does

not live on the past we live for today and the brighter

tomorrow, as noted by the Saints.

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carlpatton@tds.net