Moral Turpitude

The sun rose and the sun set, but the plans for this cursed day were never to be realized. The hopes for this lifetime were eviscerated as a historic land was targeted.

There were primordial screams from the depths of their humanity as they were kidnapped by Europeans or with the assistance of other Africans. The gut-wrenching cries were repeated across the land as families and communities were broken irreparably with each subsequent kidnapping. In the blink of an eye, they were considered as tools exclusively for the economic gain of others. It was inconceivable to imagine the depths of the depravity used to monetize their existence. Death was the only guaranteed escape from this racialized enslavement.

Recognized no longer as humans but solely as chattel, they were forced to cross the threshold of a door of no return and thrown into the bowels of ships. Denied their name, language, faith, and culture, they were shackled and chained. Now, their lives were claimed by someone else as the ship's manifest listed them as cargo to be insured not passengers. They would never again be known by their family or tribe, but by those  claiming ownership. 

The powers that be created a complex system of moral turpitude based on their gravely flawed construct of  race. Each structure was systemically contaminated if by no more than the greed of privilege. By distorting sacred text, mere mortals declared themselves to be favored by God with dignity because of their white bodies and, therefore, entitled to economic gain through theft of labor.  Should the Africans survive the horrific Middle Passage, they would set foot on a distant shore where they would be stigmatized for the color of their skin.

For more than 400 years, the primordial screams of the African continent have been heard and embodied by us, their descendants in the West, as structures have been reinforced to perpetuate the lies of race. The cries compel us as we continue to endure the traumas of racism, while working to deconstruct moral turpitude flourishing as white body supremacy.  

Embracing the truth of our humanity and our God-given dignity, we affirm that neither we nor our skin color are deserving of this racialized stigma. The primordial cries of our ancestors have been transformed into demands of the BlackLivesMatter movement for liberation and justice for they are as sacred as sunrise and sunset.