An eye opener from an article about the black holocaust Essay

Reading Journal Week 2 Alt. Black Holocaust When Dr. Lewis mentioned this alternative reading to do, and warned us that it is very depressing, and basically told us to only read if we desire as much, I kind of took that as a challenge. Being competitive in nature, I always try to step above what people think I can handle. This article of the black holocaust, I will admit made me sort of regret that. I found tears coming out. There were many times I shook my head just thinking, â€Å"talk about the cruelness of humanity†! Those slaves skin may be black but the souls of those white men were much darker. One thing I found absolutely atrocious was the belief that black men had no soul. They would rape there men and women, and while that was morally unacceptable to act towards their fellow white men, it was completely acceptable to rape a black person because they had no soul anyway. If you raped a white woman, you could see the despair in there soul yet when you rape a black woman, all you see is a screaming black woman. To add to that, the fellow white crew of the ship blamed the Africans for the lustful behavior due to their nudity which they forced them to do. They claimed that they have rarely if at all, seen a naked white woman so they blamed the Africans because they saw plenty of them. Another thing that was absolutely sad and devastating was how they forced the blacks to rest. They had a choice to either lay down with less space above them than a person in a coffin or sit on the higher ends which had splinters and blood everywhere. It kind of reminded me of Jesus who supposedly died on the cross and while he was hung there was a nail at his feet he could stand on to relieve the pressure from his arms, but in price had to gravely hurt his feet. For these kinds of actions, I couldn’t blame those Africans for trying to jump ship and let the sharks eat them because what they were dealing with seemed like a fate worse than death. I would’ve attempted the same thing. I understand at this time, morals were different and it was acceptable to treat black skins the way they did, but with my way of thinking now, this was just painful to read. I would’ve had a much easier time reading the other stories but at the same time, I am glad I read this because it really hits me now how badly we treated our slaves in our early days. I read something close to this once called â€Å"The Narrative of Frederick Douglass†. I will definitely add this excerpt to my list of readings that have influenced my feelings on the cruelty of racism and slavery.