I truly am thankful for this interview. The journalist, Marjua Estevez, truly took time to get my story across and I feel so much gratitude for that. I would like to say as I’ve continued and will continue my journey on knowledge of self that I have learned that while some are, not ALL blacks are “African American”. Let me explain, some blacks are native to the American land such as “Native Americans”. We all know that all humans came from Africa at first and moved all everywhere else developing different appearances and cultures. Through research I’m learning that the idea that ALL BLACKS in America were slaves is simply not true. Just as Angela Basset says in “Jumping the Broom”, “My ancestors weren’t slaves, they owned slaves.” I remember during TJVP my white teacher tried to tell me also that some blacks owned slaves. The idea had hurt me so that I immediately decided she was a racist and putting the blame on other blacks. As I’ve grown and gained more knowledge I realized how great of a “gag” it would be if someone could use a phrase and a skin tone to control a people’s psyche by creating emphasis on only one part of history. If you assume simply because of the color of your skin that you should carry only ONE side of your cultural AMERICAN history that falls under the ideology of what it means to be an “African American”, I wonder how you would perceive your life and your possibilities ?. That would be like a Korean person taking on the history of a Japanese person simply because they have similar features. I’m reading .. I’m learning .. I’m questioning .. I’m processing. Thoughts?
