One Fist In the Air

So, there I was, typing away at my computer, in my office mistakingly thinking I'm free when...

An attorney whom I'd had friendly banter with in the past, who shares my affinity for tea and and often brings in new and interesting teas for me to sample and who's been known to ramble on about random topics, sometimes prompting an unspoken "Too Much Information" from me when she begins talk about her body ailments - a social misfit if you will but harmless - walks into my office yesterday, paper in hand and hands it to me with the declaration that she thinks I'd "get a kick out of it" but adds the disclaimer that she means that facetiously.

Busy, I put the paper to the side thinking it's a joke she printed out from her email, but as she stands there, I realize she intends for me to read this now. Sighing, I begin to read this piece of paper and she leaves to tend to some business.

Blah, blah, blah...it's some legalese case law (Fleming v. Slocum) she printed out from Westlaw. Why do I have this?

So, I scan down and see that it's a case involving the sale of a slave.

*blink*

*blink*

So, I sat there for a minute - perplexed, angry and devestated - wondering what would prompt this white woman to give me such a thing. Any why is it just because she comes across case law involving slave sales, she felt it necessary to bring it to me?

So, I called my ex-girlfriend, an attorney, and read the case law to her because I really wanted to understand this case because in doing so I thought maybe I could better understand why it was given to me. The ex explained that in a nutshell it was a case wherein a slave was sold to a man and after the sale the new "owner" found out that the slave had stolen from the original "owner" and the man who bought the slave sued the man who sold "Tom" (as the slave was referenced) to him because he felt that in not telling him the slave was a thief, the seller of the slave had committed fraud.

The court ruled that the seller of the slave was not guilty because unless the seller of the slave expressly stated that the slave was honest, the assumption could not be made that he was.

Ummm, okay.

So, again, why do I have this?

I reported the incident, I was too upset not to. The attorney's boss speculated that she gave me the case study because she was so shocked that cases involving slaves were still even being used as reference material and she wanted to share.

Ummm, okay. It might have been nice if she'd said that instead of "I thought you'd get a kick out of this." Anyway...

My issue is the thoughtlessness of giving me such a thing. I'm working, minding my business, making a living and out of the blue I get: "Hey! Remember y'all used to be property??"

I honestly don't think she meant to be malicious or racist in what she did, I really do think she was simply being thoughtless. White people tend to have this "Y'all still upset over that slavery thing? It happened so long ago" mentality because they have no working knowledge of African American history except cursory rememberances of Harriet Tubman and Martin Luther King. They are not intimately aware of these figures any more than they're aware of the Trail of Tears, Che Guevara or any other notable event or figure in anything other than non-white American history.

Which is why it's important for us to know our history even if they don't. I imagine if I wasn't aware, I'd have looked at what she'd given me and dismissed it, possibly seeing it as she saw it, but because I am aware, I read this case study and thought of the Middle Passage - of men and women suffocating, lying sideways, boat rocking, starving, naked as they traveled against the Atlantic; of people working hot and thirsty with dirty clothing in fields being made to work faster than their bodies possibly could ; of the thought that we are here simply because upon arriving in this country, the Europeans refused to do the manual labor necessary to cultivate the land and because they were starving and outnumbered by the First Americans they risked massacre if they tried to force them into slavery, they traveled to Africa for us only to bring us here and treat us like cattle, referring to us as "Tom" in case law and declaring us less than human.

We're supposed to get over that?

I think if White folks were more aware of our history, they wouldn't be so dismissive about our plight.

Too often we keep our history to ourselves, disseminating information relevant to our community to people who look like us and not realizing that Black History is American history.

I have recently changed my behavior regarding African American news and concerns and stopped calling my black friends to discuss relevant matters. Change begins with discourse and we should, each of us, extend our reach to our melanin-challenged brothers and sisters.

I purposefully shared the death of Sakia Gunn with my coworkers, I shared my grief after watching Hotel Rwanda and openly expressed my discomfort of the fact that Somalia was being left out of the media coverage regarding the tsunami. I bring black and gay issues into the office lest they get swept under the carpet. In doing so, I expect that those around me wil develop some semblance of sensitivity over these issues.

I have some work to do on the attorney who brought me the case review of the slave ruling, perhaps I'll buy her A People's History of the United States but more than likely I'll give her a quick history lesson about why her sharing it with me was distasteful and I think I'll have my work cut out for me this Black History Month.