My 1st Critique of The WAMU Program, ‘The Invention of Race’
This book, Witnessing Whiteness is used to teach whites how to be ‘allies’ in ‘anti-racism’ work..because…
NOTE: whites can’t teach Blacks about racism according to the book above.
Whites will always leave something out… And, what they leave out is what is usually of ultimate importance to us, the victims of racism/white supremacy, i.e, Black cultural genocide…like…
1. The WAMU program didn’t define the different kinds or forms “slavery”, i.e., , bondage, indentured servants, servitude, and chattel slavery. “Slavery” in America was ‘chattel’ slavery or the ownership of people and was the invention of America…historically.
It was unknown in Africa where “enslavement” of a person was never ownership, life long, nor did it deny them of their human rights. Plus, they could not only marry into the group but become the leader or chief.
Consulting one of ‘our’ experts on the topic…
Dr Molefi Kete Asante, spoke on The Ideological Origins of Chattel Slavery in the British World, on Slavery Remembrance Day 2007 in Liverpool, and he said:
“…prior to the 16th century, but there was no culture of slavery in Africa, and no chattel slavery.”
He also spoke of the ‘different types of enslavement’:
The English word slave comes from the Middle English …is related to the Greek sklabos, from sklabenoi…is closely linked to the Old Russian Slovene. It is thought that the contemporary word slave is directly related to the Slavic people, many of whom were sold into slavery.
Europe also practiced indentureship and serfdom. Neither of these forms of service, one with a time period attached to it, and the other with land attached to it, could be compared to America’s chattel slavement of Africans.
…chattel slavery is not synonymous with serfdom. They have a fundamental difference… European serfs had rights…enslaved Africans …had neither rights nor freedom of movement, and were not paid for their labour because they were seen as ‘things’… was expressly the property of another person to be held, used, or abused as the owner saw fit.
Dr Molefi Kete Asante, is a distinguished author, most recently of ‘The History of Africa’, and professor in the department of African-American Studies at Temple University, USA.
