“What we now know as Memorial Day began as “Decoration Day” in the immediate aftermath of the U.S. Civil War. It was a tradition initiated by former slaves to celebrate emancipation and commemorate those who died for that cause. These days, Memorial Day is arranged as a day “without politics”—a general patriotic celebration of all soldiers and veterans, regardless of the nature of the wars in which they participated. This is the opposite of how the day emerged, with explicitly partisan motivations, to celebrate those who fought for justice and liberation. The concept that the population must “remember the sacrifice” of U.S. service members, without a critical reflection on the wars themselves, did not emerge by accident. It came about in the Jim Crow period as the Northern and Southern ruling classes sought to reunite the country around apolitical mourning, which required erasing the “divisive” issues of slavery and Black citizenship. These issues had been at the heart of the struggles of the Civil War and Reconstruction. To truly honor Memorial Day means putting the politics back in. It means reviving the visions of emancipation and liberation that animated the first Decoration Days. It means celebrating those who have fought for justice, while exposing the cruel manipulation of hundreds of thousands of U.S. service members who have been sent to fight and die in wars for conquest and empire.”
—Ben Becker, “How Memorial Day Was Stripped Of Its African American Roots,” Dominion Of New York 5/27/13
How to Be A Dark Skinned Girl: A Checklist by Written by Black Men in Close Association with White Supremacy
- You’re ugly
- You’ve always been ugly
- You’re always gonna be ugly
- You don’t deserve to to feel good about yourself
- You shouldn’t stand up to yourself especially against other black folks
- Most African Americans are fair or at least caramel skinned so it’s completely reasonable for you t be mistaken for an African or Jamaican In fact it’s hilarious because lol Africans
- 100% of dark skinned girls are just of the lighter skinned girls and who the fuck do these dark hoes think they are
- Nigga did I just catch you looking in the mirror. Didn’t we establish you’re ugly
- The only people that will take up for you are the people that feel sorry for you
- The only people that will compliment you feel sorry for you
- The only people that will date you feel sorry for you
- The only people that will marry you, build a life with you, and grow old with you are the ones that feel sorry for
- Oh you got people that actually like you yeah well you’re dark skinned so it doesn’t matter
- You’re not worthily of love because you’re skin is too black
- It’s not even medically possible to be that dark despite the fact everybody black got dark skinned people in their families
- Haha darkie!
- Yes racism is bad. And sexism on top of racism is worse but colorism isn’t bad because you were born dark and that’s wrong
- But at the end of the day we need you to help stop racism
- What part of n self-esteem do you no quite understand?
- And no red lipstick
Once you’ve accepted yur lot in life you too can be a dark skinned girl by the books. Because we’re black people at the end of the day/it was just a joke/black is beautiful but not too black /etc.
Or you can tell colorist motherfuckers to kiss your beautiful black ass
“We were trained to despise ourselves and all of Africa. We felt that Africans were either primitive or semi-primitive, that they had no science and made no significant contribution to civilization. We did not realize that we were looking at a looted Africa, a shattered Africa. We did not realize that there were two Africas, Africa before and after the holocausts.”
—Ivan Van Sertima, in an interview, when asked why there is a reluctance in social acceptance of his theory of Africans being in the Americas prior to Columbus.
I feel like his explanation rings true even in the present, in regards to many achievements made by African Americans/Africans/Afro Latin@s/Latin@s.
