The Transatlantic Slave Trade: Overcoming the 500-Year Legacy ~ A book review
- samflynn0514
- Feb 18
- 8 min read
Updated: Feb 25
By Dr. Benjamin F. Chavis, Jr. & Stacy M. Brown
DEBUNKING the Foward written by Chuck D.
This book is an example of Afrocentrism revisionist history intent on reducing the actual impact of Eurocentric historical achievements and even their hiccups. Afrocentrism focuses its emphasis on African culture (undefined) and the contributions of Africans to the development of Western civilization (which is minimal) while highlighting what they perceive, or can misconstrue, as gross failures of all Europeans.
The forward alone begins on a logical fallacy, an appeal to ignorance, regarding the history of slavery not in just North America, but the world over.
"The Transatlantic slave trade is a brutal scar on the face of humanity, a monstrous crime that tore millions of Africans from their homeland, dehumanized them, and built the so-called American dream on their blood, sweat and tears."
An inconvenient historical fact regarding the Transatlantic slave trade always left out is, of the 12.5 million Africans sold into the bondages of slavery to the Spanish, Portuguese, and Dutch that sailed them across the Atlantic, roughly 11 million survived the journey. Of that 11 million only 335,000 Africans were brought to North America. The remaining 10.7 million were taken to South America and the Carribean islands.
And yet people like the author of the Foreword, Chuck D, goes out of their way to deny those facts in order to make it sound like every single one of the 11 million Africans transported and survived the Atlantic crossing went to North America, which is just factually inaccurate.
The next appeal to ignorance is the assertion that the slaves in North America built the American economy and the proverbial American Dream. Alas, as factual history would demonstrate it, the enslaved in North America did not build the "so-called" American dream. They were a small section of the labor force on plantations, that in reality, cost more to maintain than in making a profit for Southern plantation owners, both white AND black.
Yes, there were several black freemen who owned slaves alongside white slave/plantation owners. The very first legally recognized slave owner in North America was black, a former slave himself, named Anthony Johnson. Yet another inconvenient truth many black Americans either don't want to know or purposely deny the reality thereof.
Chuck D then goes on with the following:
"The chains of slavery may have been broken, but the shackles of systemic racism are still very much intact. From police brutality and mass incarceration to economic disparity and educational inequality, the echoes of the slave trade reverberate through every facet of American life."
The systemic racism argument is antiquated and about as useful as bringing up police brutality, there just is no systemic racism and/or police brutality in present day (last 30+ decades) policing.
Author and scholar Larry Elder discusses fatherlessness is the root cause of problems faced by the black community, not systemic racism.
Larry Elder changed the mind of a liberal regarding so-called systemic racism.
Police brutality? Uh, yeah, no!
Police go where the crime is, not where it is not. And when dealing with certain suspects, one group stands out above the rest as being very violent, so the police have to be hypervigilant around them for personal safety. That group is African or black Americans. This is just a fact, and an inconvenient truth. A truth that is replicated by the increased crime rates the UK has been experiencing with the influx of illegal migrants and so-called "asylum" seekers. But I digress...
A black Harvard professor angered about what happened with George Floyd wanted to study bias in policing use of force, and he did not one but two studies on the same subject in order to control for any variables and ensure the accuracy of the initial study, which was affirmed by the second.
Another institute of higher learning also did a study that demonstrated that police are less likely to pull the trigger on a black suspect than they are white or Hispanic suspects.
Next, mass incarceration. Again, police go where the crime is, not where it is not. Blacks in the United States (despite being a mere 12-13% (depends on the year and numbers of deaths vs births) of the entire population), commit a disproportionate amount of crime compared to any other race,
Black males represent approximately 6-6.5% of their 12-13% of the population, and less than 1% of that 6-6.5% of the population commit over 51% of the ENTIRE nation's violent person crimes (e.g., murder, non-negligent manslaughter, robberies, rapes, etc.).
So, it stands to reason, logically, that there would be more black males (and some black females) incarcerated than other races given their rate of criminality within the population across the nation. As such, their involvement with the criminal justice system has nothing to do with system racism and everything to do with a lack of impulse control, high rates of criminality, and a severe lack of personal responsibility and accountability.
Educational inequality? The primary source of funding for local schools come from local and state governments, with only about 8% coming from the federal government. When a school is in a district where homes are dilapidated, where there is a high crime rate, and where there are homes losing value, that translates to less property taxes being collected. Why?
The value of the homes tank and the assessor cannot justify high taxes on an undervalued home. As a result, that's less funding and bonds for local schools. Less funding means less resources. Less resources and liberal protections of the students' individuality cause friction with administrators and staff (teachers), whereby children show little to no respect for their educators let alone their elders. This is a cultural problem that begins in the home and has absolutely nothing to do with so-called systemic or institutionalized racism.
The alleged echoing of the slave trade to present day is nothing more than excuse for failure, and it perpetuates the infamous victimhood mentality among those within the black community who continue to struggle day after day at the enrichment of race baiters like Al Sharpton, Elie Mystal, Joy Reid, Jesse Jackson, Jeffrey "Shaun" King, Patrisse Colurrs, and many others with money and status that continue their enrichment at the expense of black Americans in need.
"Dr. Chavis shows us that the fight against the legacy of the transatlantic slave trade is not just about seeking justice for past wrongs but about dismantling the present systems of oppression that have evolved from it."
Simply put, there are presently no "systems of oppression" in the United States of America. If you cannot achieve something great, that's all on you. Everything available to everyone, including blacks, is open to anyone can achieve whatever they put their minds to. Anything else is pure victimhood mentality, which is the actual "system of oppression" for black and brown people in America.
Furthermore, Affirmative Action (AA) and Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) programs are the actual true "systems of oppression," constantly telling black and brown people they cannot and will not succeed in America unless they get this free handout and/or advancement despite lacking the actual requisite merit and/or experience to achieve it without it.
Ironically, Chuck D. goes on to make this interesting claim:
"This book doesn't pull punches. It dives deep into the atrocities of the transatlantic save trade and lays bare the enduring impact on Black America. It's a raw, unfiltered look at the roots of racism and the ongoing fight for justice. It's about time we face this history head-on, without sugar-coating or sanitized narratives."
The transatlantic slave trade was not the root of racism, as racism has always existed. It is a naturally inherent (innate) belief system among all races of homo sapiens. It is the belief that one race is just superior to another, nothing more, nothing less.
There is no black American alive today that was ever enslaved, nor were there any white (or black) person alive today that enslaved blacks. So, the idea that what happened in the early 1600s and ended in 1865 in North America still has any impact or relevance present day, 2025, or any decade prior, is patently absurd. To claim so is nothing more than the infamous victimhood mentality that is the true oppressive system among black Americans, caused by black Americans, at their expense.
So, Chuck D. doesn't want history sugar-coated, fine. Then he better be prepared to accept and acknowledge the facts I will present herein, and subsequent blog posts created one chapter at a time.
"We need this book because too many still don't get it. Too many still turn a blind eye to the realities of our past and present."
Chuck D. is not wrong here. Unfortunately, what he is asserting is that everyone not black are the one's turning a blind eye to the realities of the past and present where black Americans are concerned. That couldn't be any further from the truth.
Reality is it is black Americans are the ones who "still don't get it," and "turn a blind eye to the realities of" their past and present. So many black Americans believe in the argument how whites have been so bad with slavery, lynchings, and burning black towns (e.g., Tulsa race riots); they neglect to acknowledge that since those historical times, black Americans have been horrendously worse against their own, more than 3x-10x worse, that whatever they may believe whites were towards their ancestors and them.
When black people on X, for example, bring up how bad white people were with lynchings, I kindly remind them that between 1860 - 1960, there were less than 3,500 blacks murdered, and less than 1,500 whites murdered. That's a span of 100 years, but yet in just one single year, 2023, for example, blacks murdered more than 4,500 other blacks. That is about the average murder rate between blacks for all prior years, some worse in the 1990s, going back to the 1960s (e.g., civil rights movement).
And when one goes back in history and looks at all the riots either instigated by or made worse by black Americans, they have done far more property and financial damage than whites did with the historic arguments they bring up (e.g., black wall street, Tulsa, race riots, etc.).
Fact is, black Americans are their own worst enemy.
The utter irony in the first sentence of the last paragraph in the Forward by Chuck D. is unremarkable.
"In the words of Public Enemy, "Fight the Power." Educate yourself, challenge the status quo, and never stop pushing for the equality and justice that our ancestors fought and died for."
Problem is, people like Chuck D. refuse to educate himself, and would clearly misinform his followers/readers to be equally in denial as he was to actual factual history.
His (and other black American ancestors) fought in the Civil War on BOTH sides. Yet more white soldiers died for the right of slaves to be free. A fact that many black Americans simply deny, because it does not go along with their fictitious narrative.
Since the Civil War, a lot of programs and assistance were provided for the freemen and women of African descent who chose to remain in the United States rather than return to Africa, their homeland.
The Republicans made sure blacks were not only freed under the 13th Amendment but also made American citizens by the 14th Amendment. The first 23 black senators in Congress were all Republican, because they recognized and acknowledged that the Democrat party was not a party for black Americans. And yet to this day, black Americans vote for the party that constantly and consistently oppresses them, the Democratic Party. For those black Americans that do so, they just cannot get off the historical and metaphorical slave driven Democratic plantation.
In short, while a vast majority of black Americans have prospered and done well since the end of the Civil War, there is still a significant population that is being pandered to and controlled by the Democratic Party. It's this population that sheds a very dark and ominous cloud over the entire black American population due to its lack of impulse control, lack of personal responsibility and accountability, piss poor choices in life, criminality, overt racist attitudes and actions towards whites and Asians, and most of all their murderous tendencies not only towards whites and Asians, but even their own (intraracial violence) as well.
[Draft V1]
More posts, chapter by chapter, coming soon...
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