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[Herb.]

just to know that we were let out of plantations to roam freely, with next to nothing to our names. (by the way, weren't really our names to begin with)
then ran to build fast as we could....taught one another how to read, sold our acquired land for practically nothing so schools for our children could be built
became politicians, teachers, doctors, presidents, civil rights leaders.......we've DIED for what we believe in

i am fucking proud to be Black. we are really made of teflon. And I really want to do something special this February.
ppl focus so much on how we kill each other but ignore how much we help each other
we do as much as we can with forcibly limited resources under a glass ceiling of systemic oppression. let's give ourselves a couple pats on the back instead of tearing each other down.

we are not as far from the really hard times as we'd like to believe in 2016. doing genealogy, I only had to go back 4 generations or so to enter an era where it was legal to have us in chains and out in a field picking cotton.  thats not far at all

We have so much more work to do. We are still a part of a very harsh history for America. These riots in Chicago, police shootings and mess are definitely going into textbooks. Hopefully we will be able to, one day before we die, tell younger generations after us that this is something that WE witnessed, that they didn't have to. Just as our grandparents can tell us about the day MLK was shot dead.

[Young]

So true

We have come a long way; but it's scary just how close we still are from that time. It's why racism is still alive; a slave owner's Children's children could very well still be alive and kicking

Scary to think about. Especially if these people have positions of power

[Herb.]

Friday, one of my black coworkers was like "ur full name sounds so professional . like a book writer, president or something"
and he kept going on and on about it. i was 10 seconds away from saying it's not my fucking name.
and that it's some white persons mess, passed to my father's family from a fucking plantation. that is why it sounds so "professional". so many of us don't know where so many things that surround us come from.

he thought he was complimenting me but he was irritating the fuck out of me because i really wanted to LAY it on him but the workplace isn't the time or place to really dig in like I wanted to.

I swear sometimes I want to drop my last name and take grandma Chief's family name instead.

once u really know where this mess u want it removed and want nothing to do with it. why do we have to carry this mess around? i want my own fucking identity.
but our slave surnames are part of our legacy as Blacks. it is part of our identity.

[Herb.]

So true

We have come a long way; but it's scary just how close we still are from that time. It's why racism is still alive; a slave owner's Children's children could very well still be alive and kicking

Scary to think about. Especially if these people have positions of power

[RAY7]

[Young]

 Sdddddddff

I never thought about that

Maybe I'll take my Geandma's mess... "Masuda" ..hmmm

[CandyCrush]

My last visit to New Orleans (my favorite city in the world!!!) my family toured the Laura Plantation, which was famously run by Creole women. It was so eye opening to see the original slave shacks and everyday operations of the house. They were very transparent too. (The Oak Alley Plantation, where Gone With The Wind was filmed, didn't even mention the slaves) They also said that the families that had worked that land for generations were still very close by, living along the riverbank, because they couldn't bear to be far away from the plantation. I found it sad, and yet at the same time I was proud, because they were claiming theirs too. This is our home too. Our blood and bones is in this soil, too. And we ain't going nowhere bitches!

[Herb.]

My last visit to New Orleans (my favorite city in the world!!!) my family toured the Laura Plantation, which was famously run by Creole women. It was so eye opening to see the original slave shacks and everyday operations of the house. They were very transparent too. (The Oak Alley Plantation, where Gone With The Wind was filmed, didn't even mention the slaves) They also said that the families that had worked that land for generations were still very close by, living along the riverbank, because they couldn't bear to be far away from the plantation. I found it sad, and yet at the same time I was proud, because they were claiming theirs too. This is our home too. And we ain't going nowhere bitches!

!!!!!

My father's family also stayed in Georgia where they were enslaved. My great grandfather ended up buying this huge land there and turning part of it into a farm. It's massive. Every time I go down there I feel such a sense of pride.

[Herb.]

Coming down to the south is definitely an eye opener
being in NYC , you don't have to ride past plantations and mess every day
but down here, you do. the real deal....massive plantations that just have "massa" written all over them.