By Mike Matejka
February is traditionally Black History Month, which is an opportunity to reflect not only on the historic contributions of African-Americans, and also a chance to not only see how far we’ve come, but how far we need to go.
Two books that touched me deeply this past year, one contemporary, one historic, are both subjects for reflection. Ta-neshi Coates has gathered great attention in the past two years, a young African-American voice and insightful writer. His latest book, “Between the World and Me,” is an extended letter to his teen-aged son. Coates reflects on his Baltimore childhood, trying to navigate the tough streets and also educate himself. He learned to be wary, always on his guard, not only on the streets, but also from the larger culture. In this book he celebrates that his son has had opportunities that he could never dream of as a child. Yet he also reminds his son that one wrong move, no matter your education or social class, can still have dire consequences for a young African-American male.
Coates still harbors deep anger at the rough road he trod; if one wants to understand the Black Lives Matter movement, this book would be an excellent starting point.
The other book is an epic tale of American history, “The Half Has never been Told: Slavery and the Making of American Capitalism,” by Edward Baptist. I thought I knew quite a bit about slavery, but the utter brutality of that evil system is laid out in wrenching detail in Baptist’s book. He begins each chapter with the story of a real slave, and then aided by period journals and recollections, weaves together how slavery used brutal tactics to maintain itself. Those of us north of the Mason-Dixon line might look at the peculiar institution as a Southern legacy, but Baptist deftly shows how Northern banks capitalized on and mortgaged slaves as property, while New England textile mills founded American industry using a slave labor product.
150 years after the Civil War, many of us with pale skin often wonder why slavery is still talked about. Read Baptist’s book and you can begin to understand the multi-generational destruction of families and people that was slavery’s legacy. Read Coates and you will see how one young man’s street-eyed view of this nation can engender deep feelings yet today. Coates is not looking for pity or trying to excuse anti-social behaviors; but reading him helps one understand why racial divisions still run so deep in our culture. Black History Month is a great time to remember the contributions of African-Americans, but it is also an opportunity to probe deeper and understand how establishing slavery on America’s shores in 1621 still lingers with us today.
Mike Matejka is the Governmental Affairs director for the Great Plains Laborers District Council, covering 11,000 union Laborers in northern Illinois, Iowa, Nebraska and South Dakota. He lives in Bloomington with his wife and daughter and their two dogs. He served on the Bloomington City Council for 18 years, is a past president of the McLean County Historical Society and Vice-President of the Illinois Labor History Society.
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