If I see one more pseudo-intellectual on those mean internet streets making the ridiculous argument that Kanye was right, I'm gone have to smack somebody.

Stop. Just stop.

Newsflash! Nat Turner and Harriett Tubman weren’t the only two to resist slavery. There were rebellion and resistance by countless men and women throughout that brutal institution. From actual revolts on slave ships to Africans fighting for their freedom in both the Revolutionary War (on both sides mind you) and the Civil War, and countless acts of resistance and escape in between. The fact that most can only point to Nat & Harriett shows the degree to which many of us have been negligent in learning our own history and the degree to which his “You was there for 400 years and it's all of y'all?! ” reference was awash in complete ignorance.

I for one, have NEVER seen a Jew say anything close to, "Well you know, Jews chose to be in the Holocaust," or a Japanese American say, "Those Japanese Americans should have just resisted the internment," or even a Native American say, "We chose to be nearly annihilated and restricted on a mere fraction of the land that was once all ours." Not a one. You see, they all seem to understand the ridiculousness of those statements. It’s only some of us that seem to be so easily swayed (by someone who was just in a mental institution a few months ago mind you) to question our own courage, our own strength, and our own cunning.

That. Is. Disgusting.

And what’s even more interesting is that those people that have so much to say about our ancestors who were trying to survive the most atrocious and murderous human rights abuse this planet has ever seen wouldn’t even have the balls to look a cop in the eye today in a tense situation. So miss me with all the deep intellectualization which is actually an insinuation that our ancestors were somehow wrong for choosing to live.

Instead of revering and respecting those who endured what they had to endure so that we might be here to denigrate their memory now, what I see are some of us, in essence, saying they “chose” to be kidnapped, they “chose” to be raped, they “chose” to have their families ripped apart, they “chose” to be repeatedly brutalized, maimed and murdered.

Just stop it.

This to me is the ultimate victory of the plantation owner. Centuries later, they still have you hating, doubting, disrespecting, and dishonoring your own ancestors instead of putting the blame squarely where it belongs. Right smack dab in the middle of the hands of those who CHOSE to brutally and intergenerationally enslave other human beings.

Wake. Dafuq. Up.

Dr. Avis Jones-DeWeever is a political commentator, international speaker and author of the award-winning book, How Exceptional Black Women Lead. Find out more at avisjonesdeweever.com

Avis Jones-DeWeever, Ph.D.

Writing since February 2022 · 1 story contributed