Slavery and the Holocaust Question

So I was watching the Tavis Smiley show the other night. He was interviewing Berry Gordy. Berry was talking about what all the artists from Motown had to go through in the 60's and 70's. He also mentioned the help his first wife provided in helping him build Motown. That’s right, first wife as in divorced at least once. And the idea of what Black folks had to go through back then and the effects of it on the psyche of Black folks even today got me thinking. My mind began to spin into this abyss of all the effects of slavery on the African psyche. I mean when you really think about it . . . even as a person who isn't an expert in African or African diaspora, it's unbelievable to think about the fallout that slavery has created on the minds and bodies not just of Africans but on how people see people of color in general.

This train of thought reminded me of a question I’ve often stumbled upon in conversation with people about Black folks and slavery. Nowadays I most often find it a topic of contention when discussing the abysmal horrors of the German holocaust. The conversation usually goes something like this:

Me: Black folks often find it insulting and frustrating to see the Jewish holocaust vindicated as such a horrific event in history by cultures who have not addressed slavery with the same (horror, retribution, reparations, . . . . you fill in the blank).

Other person: But the Jews suffered greatly at the hands of the Germans. It's not good for you to down-play the tragedy of the holocaust by bringing up slavery.

Me: Why does bringing up slavery negate the horrors of the holocaust? Why do people not recollect that German Blacks were certainly considered inferior and were killed as well? Why is it that bringing up another horrific event in human history that was responsible for the death of more people, lasted longer, and was more pervasively practiced on most every continent on the globe considered a negation of what happened during the holocaust? Why is it wrong for Black folks to mention, when talking about a horrific dehumanizing event such as the holocaust, the event that happened to Black folks. Why is mentioning slavery, that tragedy that was never vindicated as (at the very least) equally horrific, an event deserving retribution, acknowledgment of wrong-doing and apologies, and reparations so inappropriate?

Other person: Yes but in slavery people were just slaves. They weren't killed en mass.

And then I arrive at my predicament. Aside from the fact that people were certainly killed en mass during slavery. Not even considering the fact that so many Africans died and were thrown overboard during the Middle Passage that sharks changed their migratory path through the Atlantic to reap the benefits of a newly found reliable food source. Even if we do not consider that more people died during the slave trade than died during the holocaust or that slavery lasted for far longer, I ask you to consider this question:

Is it really worse to die than to survive and be subject to generations of slavery?

And from this question comes a whole slew of other questions like: Was it worse to have died in the Middle Passage or to have survived and endure the affects of slavery? Is it better to die as an African or to live as a slave? Should Africans have committed suicide rather than live as slaves?

I often wonder this when in conversations or when I see the affects of slavery still affecting Black people. Depending on your thoughts on the afterlife and the earthly life, I think this question is an interesting one. You see, for those who are religious and believe in an afterlife, do we really think that living as slaves and having to survive the affects of slavery generation after generation is better than dying? Living rather than dying for those who don’t believe in an afterlife might be even more difficult to swallow. Afterall, if there's nothing that exists after death, is dying really the ultimate suffering? Or if there is nothing after death, is a life of slavery and then seeing your future generations be subjected to the same fate worse than death ?

I mean really . . . think about the things that have plagued African-Americans since the 1400’s. Should all slaves have refused to live as slaves and killed themselves thereby making slavery a non-option for Africans or is it really better that we survived? Is it better to have survived the torture, the beatings, the hangings, having your children ripped from your arms, the rapes, the castrations, the loss of your name . . . your heritage . . . your culture, the unlawful imprisonment, the inability to marry the person you love, the inability to defend your family, the inability to learn to read, the inability to dance or play the drums, the inability to use the same facilities as Whites, the inability to get a job you are qualified to hold, the inability to provide for your family, the inability to make decisions about your life for yourself, the humiliation, (and my personal favorite -- sarcastically speaking of course) the patronizing help from those that mean well but are really just plain insulting?

Can you imagine the course that history might have taken if Africans refused to live as slaves? Would it have kept the myth of African inhumanity alive until the present-day making most every African’s humanity inconsequential like it still is in some parts of Africa today? Or could our refusal as Africans to live as slaves have made the prospect of stealing slaves from Africa unprofitable and untenable allowing things in Africa to return to a normative Africa without the influence of Whites? Or maybe it would have been something somewhere in-between.

And for the sci-fi/philosophical junkies out there a whole other line of questions comes up about alternative time-lines. What would it mean to change the course of history by having those abducted from Africa die in opposition to the prospect of slavery? I mean does that mean that I would never have been born or does it mean that there would be a chance for me to live a totally different life as an African who never knew the affects of slavery on my psyche? How could we even consider this question with no real idea of how alternate realities would play out?

I just wonder. The fact that, as an African-American living in the year 2009 with a newly-elected Black president, I can still seriously consider this question makes the power of slavery even more real and visceral to me. Can anyone consider with me the world if Africans systematically refused to live as slaves and committed suicide instead of succumbing to enslavement? Which would really be better? Is an attempt to wipe a group of people off the face of the earth worse than convincing the earth that a group of people are eternally inferior and yet worth keeping around as slaves?