The narratives reveal two key periods in the lives of slave children: a young, care-free beginning, in which "they often played with the white children and had good relationships," and an abrupt ending, as they grew older, when they had to start working and began to learn about "who they were and what their place in society was going to be: free or not free." Back at the roundtable discussion, the issue of reparations and/or an official apology for slavery is raised. Dr. West weighs in: "I think it raises deep questions about who we are as a people. If we're willing to take responsibility for what was done, it's an acknowledgment that we as Americans are in this together. And that when one section or community of Americans suffer, in fact we all suffer as Americans. It ought to be all of us feeling bad because a particular group in our community has suffered."
The episode's fourth and final segment follows the friendship of Erin, a black girl, and Charlotte, a white girl. Once the two girls began middle school, they slowly drifted apart. Erin states that "[Charlotte] had her friends and I had my friends. The people I hang out with, I'm comfortable with, because we have fun together, we like the same things, so I'm more comfortable with them than somebody's that's white. And we don't really click with each other." At the roundtable discussion, the experience of Erin and Charlotte is echoed by the child participants. Linda Ellerbe questions whether such segregation is about fitting in or about something deeper. Dr. West notes that this self-imposed segregation is one of the sadder legacies of slavery. "We have to acknowledge that it is a difficult thing to stay in contact with each other's humanity. And what racism has been, it has been an attempt to get us distant from each other's humanity. All of our beauty, our intelligence, our imagination, but also our bad stuff. ‘Cause if you're human, you've got good and bad, right? You've got virtues and vices, no matter what color, no matter what culture. And I think our challenge is to perennially try to keep contact with this humanity, as difficult as it is."
Ellerbee closes Nick News: The Legacy of Slavery with her signature monologue: "The stain of slavery in America has left us, both black and white, with many legacies and we've talked about those today. And we know the past can't be changed, but the future can. The Reverend Martin Luther King, Jr. said he had a dream that one day the children of former slaves and the children of former slave-owners would sit together at the table of brotherhood and sisterhood. If that day has not entirely come—and it has not—the only person who can make sure that it does come is you. For you are tomorrow's past. What legacy will you leave?"
The Final Word:
Article comments