• Latest
  • Trending
US American flag

Please Stop Saying the Past Is In the Past. It Isn’t.

August 9, 2019
Marla Frederick

Religion Scholar Marla Frederick Is First Black Woman to Lead Harvard Divinity School in 200 Years

September 30, 2023
faith leaders

‘God Will Work a Miracle’ — Thousands of Foreign-Born Faith Leaders Could Be Forced to Leave US

September 30, 2023
teacher classroom students

What Black Teachers Face Today Isn’t Much Different From What They Faced During Segregation

September 29, 2023
woman on mic

Professor Charrise Barron Talks Teaching Protest Music’s Evolution From Gospel to Hip-Hop

September 28, 2023
Julie Chen Moonves

‘Big Brother’ Host Julie Chen Moonves Tells How She ‘Found Jesus’

September 27, 2023
Asian Americans

Fear of Ridicule, Desire to Fit In Prompt Some Asian Americans to Partly Hide Heritage

September 27, 2023
laptop

Evangelical Organization Launches ‘Racial Justice Assessment’ Tool

September 27, 2023
megachurches

Are New Jersey’s Megachurches the Answer to the Crisis of Christianity?

September 27, 2023
Christian rapper Dee-1

Rapper Dee-1 Starts Artist/Scholar Residency at Tufts University After Nabbing Nasir Jones Fellowship at Harvard

September 26, 2023
abortion protest

Midwives Will Be Able to Perform Early Abortions If NJ Plan Moves Forward

September 26, 2023
Turbotax Intuit

TurboTax Parent Company Now Claims Free Filing Will Harm Black Taxpayers

September 26, 2023
new and upcoming Christian books

New and Upcoming Books: ‘Sacred Self-Care,’ ‘Unwind,’ ‘Damaged But Not Destroyed,’ and More

September 25, 2023
Faithfully Magazine
  • Members
    • Log In
    • Member Home
    • See All Members
    • What’s New
    • Start or Join a Group
    • Your Freebies
Subscribe
No Result
View All Result
  • About
    • Advertise
    • Submit Content
    • Contact Us
    • Give Via PayPal
  • Exclusives
  • Q&As
  • Specials
  • NJ News
  • Listen & Watch
  • Shop
    • Faith Heroes Bookmarks
    • Clothing
    • eBooks
  • Events
    • Community Events
    • FM Live Q&As
  • Resources
    • Black Christian Content
  • Newsletter
Cart / $0.00

No products in the cart.

  • About
    • Advertise
    • Submit Content
    • Contact Us
    • Give Via PayPal
  • Exclusives
  • Q&As
  • Specials
  • NJ News
  • Listen & Watch
  • Shop
    • Faith Heroes Bookmarks
    • Clothing
    • eBooks
  • Events
    • Community Events
    • FM Live Q&As
  • Resources
    • Black Christian Content
  • Newsletter
No Result
View All Result
Faithfully Magazine
Home Uncategorized

Please Stop Saying the Past Is In the Past. It Isn’t.

FM Editors by FM Editors
August 9, 2019
in Uncategorized
Reading Time: 3 mins read
0
US American flag
ShareTweetPin It

By Perry Greene, History News Network

When controversy flared last month over a Revolutionary War-era American flag and Nike sneakers, a reporter asked me what might sound like simple questions:

Should the past stay in the past? Should we be making a fuss over historical realities?

“It’s the history of the United States,” another person told the reporter for the story. “Can’t change it. … What happened happened.”

Here’s the problem with that common sentiment: What happened in the past often has a profound impact — on real people in real life. Right now.

If you missed it: Nike dropped its Air Max USA 1 shoe after former NFL quarterback Colin Kaepernick worried that the “Betsy Ross” flag design — with 13 stars in a circle, on the shoe’s heel — harkens back to an era of black slavery and has been used by white nationalist groups, according to published reports.

That version of the flag dates to the late 1700s. A century before, in 1676, both black and white workers rose up against the ruling body of the Jamestown colony led by Nathaniel Bacon, a white Virginian colonist. The uprising led the Governor’s Council to find ways to separate African workers from their white peers.

The event is often credited as the rationale for dividing, demeaning and diminishing the worth of black people in America — division that we’re still grappling with. It happened.

Next let’s consider the Three-Fifths Compromise, a legislative agreement in 1787 that determined slaves would be considered three fifths of a free person. It happened.

Although the three-fifths designation was ostensibly for purposes of taxation and legislative representation, it helped set the stage for how black Americans are viewed and treated in this country. If you are three fifths of a person, you are much easier to abuse, ignore and oppress.

The three-fifths notion represents the genesis of the present debate on whether a citizenship question should appear on the national census. It explains why the census counts people, not citizens.

More recently, Plessy v. Ferguson, the landmark U.S. Supreme Court case of 1896, cemented the American concept of “separate but equal.” In practice, that has always meant separate and unequal. Homer Plessy, a person of color (one-eighth black), refused to move to a rail car designated for black people only. He was arrested and took his case to the Supreme Court, where he lost in a 7-to-1 decision. It happened.

The aftermath of the ruling led to the rise of Jim Crow laws across the South, affecting such everyday services and accommodations as schools, theaters and travel as well as voting rights. Even today, people are often segregated based on race all over America, and the voting rights of people of color are being challenged in several states.

After enslavement, lynching was a common means of racial intimidation and terrorism of men and women of color. There have been nearly 5,000 recorded lynchings since the late 19th century. But due to poor record-keeping and reporting, it’s likely there have been many, many more. It happened.

As late as 1998, a black man in Texas was lynched, dragged by the neck three miles behind a car driven by three white supremacists. That happened, too.

Even in 2019, pictures of nooses were posted in a classroom in Roosevelt, Long Island.

When it comes to race in America, the past is not the past. Shakespeare got it right: The past is prologue. According to a Pew Research Center survey in June, eight in 10 black adults say ”the legacy of slavery still affects black people in the U.S. today.”

Last year, the center reported that “black households have only 10 cents in wealth for every dollar held by white households.” Likewise, the Economic Policy Institute reminds us that in this period of economic boom, black workers had the highest unemployment rate in the country, 6.3 percent — nearly twice that of whites. And the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention tells us that black Americans “are more likely to die at early ages from all causes.”

I suggest that these indicators, and many more, are not the result of happenstance or coincidence today, but directly caused by things that happened in the past.

The flag credited to Betsy Ross, as an artifact of American history, is innocent. Unfortunately, Kaepernick was correct: This flag has been adopted as a proxy for the Confederate flag and is flown by white supremacist groups such as the Ku Klux Klan, the Patriot Movement, neo-Nazi groups and the militia gang Three Percenters, a group formed after the election of Barack Obama. The throwback flag represents an era when slavery was legal and commonplace.

So is the past really in the past? Or is it a profound part of our everyday lives? To me, the answer is indisputable.

Editor’s note: This article was originally published by History News Network.


Perry Greene, Ph.D., is vice president for diversity and inclusion at Adelphi University, in Garden City, N.Y.

Leave your vote

0 Points
Upvote

Browse and manage your votes from your Member Profile Page


Share This Post

Share via

Share This Post

  • Digg
  • Tumblr
  • Flipboard
  • SMS
More
  • Report

RelatedArticles

Hyepin Im, founder and president of Faith and Community Empowerment

Hyepin Im, Gabriel Salguero, and Al Sharpton Tapped to Advise on Faith-Based Threats

October 5, 2022
anti war protest

Dying in Combat ‘Washes Away Sins,’ Russian Orthodox Leader Says

October 1, 2022
Advertisement
Ancestry US
ShareTweetPin It
FM Editors

FM Editors

Faithfully Magazine is a fresh, bold and exciting news and culture publication that covers issues, conversations and events impacting Christian communities of color.

More Articles

proud boys dc church attack
Spotlight

White Christians Called Out by Dr. Yolanda Pierce in Wake of Proud Boys Attack on Black Churches

December 13, 2020
Features

What Is Unconscious Bias Training, and Does It Work?

May 4, 2018
ethiopia
Opinion & Analysis

Genocide in Ethiopia? Why Answering the Question Will Be a Challenge

May 20, 2021

Discussion about this post

Upcoming Events

Oct 5
1:00 pm - 6:00 pm EDT

Event: Black Religion and Critical Theory Colloquium

Oct 10
7:00 am - 11:30 pm EDT

Event: Free Virtual Church Mental Health Summit

View Calendar

Trending

  • Trending
  • Comments
  • Latest
Tony Evans and Carla Crummie engaged to be married

Dr. Tony Evans Engaged to Former Pastor’s Wife and Widow Four Years After Lois Evans’ Death

September 12, 2023
Jemar Tisby Color of Compromise

‘Color of Compromise’ Author Jemar Tisby Comments on Quitting Kendi’s Antiracism Center Amid Probe

September 23, 2023
jackie hill perry tbn fruits of the spirit heterosexuality

Sexuality Has Nothing to Do With Salvation, Jackie Hill Perry Says in TBN Talk About ‘Gay Girl, Good God’

October 8, 2021
new and upcoming Christian books

New and Upcoming Books: ‘Sacred Self-Care,’ ‘Unwind,’ ‘Damaged But Not Destroyed,’ and More

September 25, 2023
woman on mic

Professor Charrise Barron Talks Teaching Protest Music’s Evolution From Gospel to Hip-Hop

September 28, 2023
Christian rapper Dee-1

Rapper Dee-1 Starts Artist/Scholar Residency at Tufts University After Nabbing Nasir Jones Fellowship at Harvard

September 26, 2023
Marla Frederick

Religion Scholar Marla Frederick Is First Black Woman to Lead Harvard Divinity School in 200 Years

September 30, 2023
faith leaders

‘God Will Work a Miracle’ — Thousands of Foreign-Born Faith Leaders Could Be Forced to Leave US

September 30, 2023
teacher classroom students

What Black Teachers Face Today Isn’t Much Different From What They Faced During Segregation

September 29, 2023
woman on mic

Professor Charrise Barron Talks Teaching Protest Music’s Evolution From Gospel to Hip-Hop

September 28, 2023
Julie Chen Moonves

‘Big Brother’ Host Julie Chen Moonves Tells How She ‘Found Jesus’

September 27, 2023
Asian Americans

Fear of Ridicule, Desire to Fit In Prompt Some Asian Americans to Partly Hide Heritage

September 27, 2023

Most Shared Articles

  • Can Money-Making Microgrids Empower Black Churches to Close the Clean Energy Gap?...
  • Kirk Franklin Finally Finds His Birth Father After 53 Years...
  • Dr. Tony Evans Engaged to Former Pastor’s Wife and Widow Four Years After Lois Evans’ Death...
  • Christians Plea for Prayer, Help Amid Haiti’s Surging Gang Violence...
  • ‘Color of Compromise’ Author Jemar Tisby Comments on Quitting Kendi’s Antiracism C...
  • Coco Gauff Talks Faith After US Open Win: I Don’t Pray for Results; I Pray for Strength....

From The Archive

medical debt
Clippings

Ohio Church Helps Wipe Out $46.5 Million in Medical Debt Nationwide

by FM Editors
February 25, 2020
bible on an iphone
Bible

Most Popular Bibles Verses Based on Social Media Engagement

by FM Editors
February 21, 2021
prolife sign
Health

What Pro-Life Feminists Are Arguing in the Mississippi Abortion Case

by FM Editors
December 3, 2021
street sign
Inspiration

David Brooks, Reparations, and White Christian America

by Timothy I. Cho
March 9, 2019
children in classroom
Education

‘Do Not, for the Love of God, Tell Kids That Slavery Was Beneficial’

by FM Editors
July 27, 2023

Who’s Online

Profile picture of FM Editors
Facebook Twitter Youtube Instagram
Faithfully Magazine

Faithfully Magazine is a news and culture publication centered on Christian communities of color.

Recent News

  • Religion Scholar Marla Frederick Is First Black Woman to Lead Harvard Divinity School in 200 Years

Category

© 2023 Faithfully Media, LLC (Owner and Operator)

  • From The Magazine
  • Inspiration
  • News
  • Opinion & Analysis
  • Profiled
  • Q&As
  • Remember
  • Specials
  • Web Exclusives
  • Shop
  • Events
    • FM Live Events
    • Community Events
  • Black Christian Content
  • About Us
    • Advertise With Us
    • Submit Content
    • Give Via PayPal
  • Members
    • Log In
    • Your Freebies
  • Subscribe to Faithfully Magazine
No Result
View All Result

© 2023 Faithfully Media, LLC (Owner and Operator)

Welcome Back!

Login to your account below

Forgotten Password? Sign Up

Create New Account!

Fill the forms bellow to register

*By registering on our website, you agree to the Terms & Conditions and Privacy Policy.
All fields are required. Log In

Retrieve your password

Please enter your username or email address to reset your password.

Log In
Share via

Share This Post

  • Twitter
  • Facebook
  • Reddit
  • Email
  • WhatsApp
  • Copy Link
  • Tumblr
  • Digg
  • Flipboard
  • SMS

Add New Playlist

Log In

Sign In

Login with Facebook
Login with Twitter
Forgot password?

Don't have an account? Register

Forgot password?

Enter your account data and we will send you a link to reset your password.

Back to Login

Your password reset link appears to be invalid or expired.

Log in

Privacy Policy

Accept

Add to Collection

  • Public collection title

  • Private collection title

No Collections

Here you'll find all collections you've created before.

This website uses cookies. By continuing to use this website you are giving consent to cookies being used. Visit our Privacy and Cookie Policy.
Are you sure want to unlock this post?
Unlock left : 0
Are you sure want to cancel subscription?
Send this to a friend