Pledge 2: Challenge What I was Taught
Quick Discussion of the Logic:
If you’re over 40 and you’re white, you certainly heard all the nasty comments and jokes about black people being unintelligent and lazy while growing up. This may have come from movies and shows made before the 1990s, or even from your family and friends.
The false narrative about intelligence began 406 years ago at the start of the Transatlantic Trade era. The slave traders convinced the public that it was okay to use black people as slaves because they had the intelligence of a dog or a mule. Then the slave owners forbid them from learning to read and write to reinforce this lie. Sadly, this stigma stuck with them and was further propagated by the minstrel shows, which are discussed in the next pledge.
Throughout slavery, slaves were often rebellious and intentionally didn’t work hard because they were forced to work without pay. The slave owners started calling them lazy. After slavery ended, Jim Crow laws kept black people in poor economic conditions, which deepened these negative stereotypes.
Obviously, it was never true that black people are less intelligent or less motivated than whites. As stated in Pledge #1, if slavery and the segregation laws that followed it had never existed, there would be zero difference in quality of life between blacks and whites right now.
In terms of morality, black people have historically been unfairly labeled as untrustworthy or immoral. They have been falsely accused of crimes and scapegoated for years. The barriers in education and quality of life imposed on them have pushed some into difficult economic conditions, which are associated with higher crime rates, regardless of skin color. Had they been able to live freely and without obstruction all along, they would not have faced the pitfalls that come with poverty.
If you have never been influenced by these false or society-created narratives, then you have fewer beliefs to question than most white people. In any case, we hope you can pledge to examine any assumptions you hold about black people being inherently lacking.
Still not Convinced or Want to Learn More?
The Transatlantic trade triangle began in the 1500s in Portugal. The Portuguese and the English began kidnapping Africans and selling them to plantations in South America and later to the United States colonies. (Click here to listen a song that explains the Trans-Atlantic Trade Triangle).
When this terrible practice started, the European people questioned the humanity of slavery and its religious implications. Three major lies were told about black people to justify the brutality of slavery, and those lies stuck around, with belief in them continuing even today. This website labels these three lies the Toubob Snow Job. The Toubob refers to white European descendants involved in the slave trade, and a Snow Job is a trick or hustle. (Click here to listen to a song that explains the three lies of the Toubob Snow Job).