How to Respect Ancestors...

Refusing to sum up the strategies and successes and failures of any group of people in struggle for freedom is a disservice. I believe most people who struggle, and in this case suffer unfathomably, want their future generations to stand on their shoulders and have a better life than they were offered.

Most African-Americans are comfortable looking at the range of tactics (and the beliefs behind them) used to both survive enslavement/genocide and to fight it. We look critically at choices made by 'House Slaves' and 'Overseers' and Runaways and Underground Railroad Porters etc.

As for the notion that it wasn't their problem to solve, I think that's crazy. Currently many in this country say Bush isn't their President because they voted against him, and thus they shouldn't "have to" fight the war etc. The issue is never about whose fault oppression is. The question is what, and who, CAN stop oppression? And how badly do people WANT it stopped? Absolutely the German populace was more responsible for the rise of Nazis to power and the horrors thus unleashed than were the Jews of the time. But that has no bearing on whether or not the oppressed SHOULD fight back -- or in which ways to do so.

Yes, survival is one form of fighting back, and it should be applauded. Frankly, I'd like to see more Americans applauding our African ancestors for simply surviving, as if it were "simple." But the fact is that without actual battles to DEFEAT the oppressors, survival becomes fairly bitter pretty fast. Black women sometimes chose to kill their children rather than allow them to be sold into slavery. That is a very different take on the relationship between "surviving" horror and wanting freedom.

And yes, everyone can't be Harriet Tubman, that's true. But without the railroad and the white allies and everything else that worked to stop a crime that was NOT OF THEIR OWN MAKING, this country would look like nothing ever seen on this earth. I dare say, it could have been worse than the Nazis.

I honor my ancestors by upholding both the small things they did to survive, and the big things they did so that I would not be born a slave. I hope my children's children will honor ME by critiquing the effectiveness of my own struggle against oppression. I hope they'll have the courage to find even better methods than I did, and use them for the benefit of freedom-loving people everywhere.
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[NOTE: The above post is my response to a discussion on whether the German Jews of WW2 Germany would have survived had they been armed, and was fighting it their job in the first place. Some comments suggested it is disrespectful to question the actions of the dead, especially if drawing lessons relevant to current issues. If it weren’t relevant to current struggles, what WOULD be the point of it?? Here are two sections I was responding to:

“No amount of armed Jews would have made the holocaust too costly to continue. In the case of the Warsaw Ghetto, the Germans simply ratcheted up the amount of force thrown at the armed rebellion. While the efforts of the Warsaw Ghetto defenders are valiant, how many Jewish non-combatants would have had another day, week, month of life but perished under the German onslaught? ”



“Can you all, people leave the dead alone, please? Not only you have hijacked the tragic event by using a movie(!) name for the actual event, you continue to use the dead for your own purposes. If the Jews did that or Jews did not.. THEY DID NOT HAVE TO DO ANYTHING! They were normal people, lived normal lives and did the best to survive. They certainly did not know that their tragic story would be used by some pro-gun and counter-gun hooters more than 60 years after. Leave them alone!”]