Blog on the readings on The African American Experiences in America

        There were many intense, moving, terrifying, inspiring points in these readings, it is hard to distill the impact into a blog. One of the points made by Angelina Grimke Weld in her speech at Pennsylvania Hall that particularly resonated with me is her questioning of herself and how she became so resolved to become an abolitionist. Wondering how she stepped away from all that she knew – her willingness to be “exiled from her native land.” She knows the human mind “resists as long as it can, all efforts made to reclaim from error.” She knows the challenge of trying to changed the system of slavery because it is a way of life too many are comfortable with and unwilling to examine. Yet, she was able to see the truth of this misery and perhaps that is what motivates her – that because she “could no longer endure to hear the wailing of the slave,” despite being a Southerner from a slave-holding family. She was compelled to have others hear the wail for themselves. It is hard to examine our own truths and she inspires me to do that.

            Ida Well’s writings on Lynch Law were horrifying and there is such power in her words. There were no YouTube clips or media sound bites available. If her message would be heard, it would have to be through the emotion and impact of her message. It is hard to imagine anyone unmoved by this brutality and inhumanity. To think about the power of the mob, that man is capable of inhumanity against one another. That an entire race was considered beneath humanness by color and origin is almost unfathomable. And then you read the articles about present day “Jasper-style lynching” and you realize how much work there is to still be done. Maybe the work is even more challenging now because it is more subtle and yet it is everywhere. Where does one gather courage to act, even in small situations? Gay bias, ethnic bias is seen everyday – maybe not always in such dramatic ways, but in smaller, but no less eroding ways. Comments, slights, non-inclusion. It happens all around us everyday. This is a call to step up – to not be part of any of these actions by our silence. As Angelina Grimke Weld said, “there is no such thing as neutral ground. He that is not for us is against us.” We should never be comfortable on neutral ground – or the ground will never shift towards fairness and justice.