Bernice King: ‘African Americans are still not free’ 150 years after slavery’s end
I suppose you would have to be black to understand her comment, and I have to wonder, what more could be done, or happen. What more could anyone do.
As slaves, and I often wonder just how slavery came about, they were "owned" and wished to be free. That I understand, but when they were free, and no longer owned, what more could be done, their future was then, up to the individual. There were obstacles, but they were FREE, they had their FREEDOM.
At some point, individual initiative takes over, the same as it has done for all races creeds and colors of people in this country. In some respects, minorities have more opportunities afforded to them, oh, wait, what is a minority? Who are the minority? Are they just those with a "defeatist" attitude? Are they those with a "I am not free" mentality.
I, a white, male, natural born citizen of the USA, can tell you that there are areas and places in this country that I would not enter, I am not "free" to go there. My own personal solution, "I don't go there."
Bernice's problem could just be, within herself, and unfortunately for others, she has a "voice" and she tells others that .... "you are not free." And, then, they agree, without thinking. Then, they get in to their Lincoln Escalade, drive to their 200 thousand dollar home, in a nice, integrated area of town, grill their twenty dollar a pound "steaks" for dinner, and then sit around and talk about how how they are not free. Perhaps their second car is a Chevy, and their pool cover has a hole in it.
I am not black, I have never had to sit in the back of the bus, because I HAD to. As a kid, we always headed to the back of the bus, but it was our choice.I have never been denied service in a restaurant, I cannot imagine the frustration of being "denied" because of race. In reality, those things no longer exist, but perhaps, they can never be forgotten.
Maybe "the dream" has happened, but waking up, is difficult.
She must be doing well: one year after the death of her mother Coretta Scott King, Bernice King founded the Be A King Scholarship at Spelman College, Georgia, in honor of her mother's legacy. Bernice King donated $100,000 of her personal funds.
