By Rev. Gilbert Caldwell
“Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it” – George Santayana
The above oft-repeated statement is attributed to George Santayana. I have read and heard different versions of it. But, this week as we respond to the fact that 12 Years a Slave received an Oscar as the best picture, I suggest that the story of Solomon Northup, who wrote of his journey from freedom to slavery to freedom can be best appreciated and acknowledged, as it causes us to REMEMBER.
REMEMBER: The contradiction that slavery in America represents is most evident when we acknowledge the founding fathers and founding documents of the United States of America. Leaders, words and creeds that spoke of human equality were ignored by legislation and deeds that made slavery possible.
REMEMBER: The suppression and destruction of family, language, culture, religion and freedom that slavery imposed on those persons “imported” from Africa to provide the free slave labor that helped to build the USA. Where and when in history has a people experienced comparable suppression and destruction?
REMEMBER: When we read and speak about the current and past financial challenges of the nation, the words “It’s the economy, stupid” are surfaced. And as we do that, do we dare acknowledge that the financial benefits derived from the free labor of slaves, in the economic beginnings of the USA, compromised the integrity of capitalism and the free market system? A compromise that has yet to be resolved. The moral, ethical, religious and human damage caused by slavery in the USA is yet to be fully understood. The current economic inequalities in income, jobs, home ownership, business and corporate power, Wall Street presence, etc., between blacks and non-blacks represent a residual from slavery, that not only needs to be remembered, it needs to be corrected.
REMEMBER: The Civil War that slavery made necessary, a war that some still want to deny was caused by slavery. Amnesia, Denial, and Revisionism are diseases that can be cured by giving close attention to 12 Years a Slave. However, we must ask, do we want to be healed of these diseases?
REMEMBER: The Slave Songs/Spirituals that were birthed in the souls, spirits, hearts and minds of the slaves and those who remembered slavery. “I’ve been buked and I’ve been scorned”…”Steal away, steal away, steal away to Jesus”…”All God’s Chillun got a song”…”Go down Moses, way down in Egypt land, tell old Pharaoh to let my people go”…”We are climbing Jacob’s Ladder” and song after, song, after song. The spirituals are in our hymnals, and on the lips of people of all colors all over the world, but if we sing them without remembering the slavery that provoked and evoked them, should we sing them?
The “exceptionalism” of the USA that some speak about is without meaning if our children and their children do not embrace the historical significance of 12 Years a Slave. It is the year by year journey from partial equality and justice to complete equality and justice for all, that makes the USA “exceptional.” That journey must never end. And during those times when we become complacent, may we remember again the best picture of 2013, acknowledged by an Oscar in 2014, 12 Years a Slave. Remembering it and the slavery that it depicts, can serve to re-energize us or energize us for the first time, to engage in the justice struggles that need to be waged today.
Gilbert H. Caldwell is a retired United Methodist minister, a veteran of the Black Civil Rights Movement, a founding member of Black Methodists for Church Renewal, an outspoken advocate for the civil rights of LGBT people and a founding partner of Truth in Progress.