Original Sins

Black Lives Matter protest march, 5-31-2020, Yakima, WA.

I hear it said often and from different sources: “Slavery is the original sin of this nation.” I 

wholeheartedly agree that slavery is a truly evil sin, absolutely, but I don’t believe that it was the original sin of this nation. If you want to talk about which evil action taken by European colonizers was the original sin, you would want to look at genocide before slavery to begin with. It is what paved the way for the enslavement of Africans. But I would argue that even genocide wasn’t the original sin of those who first stepped foot on these lands. Their sins were originally greed and racism and those sins, most insidious and far-reaching, are what led to genocide of millions of Indigenous people of these lands and then to the enslavement of those remaining Indigenous people and the Africans stolen from their homelands. Stolen people brought to stolen lands.

Names of slaves on a memorial at the Whitney Plantation.

 Since the first moments white Europeans set foot on these already fully inhabited lands, in what is now known as North, Central, and South America, those sins of greed and racism have permeated and guided not only those early actions/sins/crimes/beliefs hundreds of years ago but were embedded in the very foundation of the nation we know as the United States of America, and these evils continue to thrive throughout this nation today. They may have changed shape and be called by different names now, but make no mistake, slavery and genocide are fully operational today. The evidence is there right before our eyes for all to see, though most choose not to.

It is there in our “criminal justice” system.

It is there in the epidemic of missing and murdered Indigenous women and girls.

It is there in the child welfare systems.

It is there in our supply chains that feed the insatiable capitalistic system.

It is there in the attacks on our necessary natural resources.

It is there in the foundation of this nation and the systems built on that foundation.

It is there. It is here.

Until this country, firstly, recognizes these sins of greed and racism and how they have and continue to negatively affect every aspect of our systems and communities, primarily Indigenous, Black, and migrant/immigrant communities; secondly, acknowledges and confronts these sins openly and honestly; and, thirdly, repents and laments of these sins, we will never heal, we will never change, we will never progress, we will never see true justice and sacred lives, mainly of people of color, will continue to be ended prematurely and unjustly. We must confront these ugly painful destructive truths. We must repent of our actions, our silence and complicity, our ignorance, our greed and racism. We must lament the pain we have caused. We must change within ourselves and change these systems. Greed and racism have been integral parts of the foundation of this nation but healing and change, love and true equality, can be our lasting legacy. 

After all . .. 

Street art, Bangkok, Thailand.