In this Book

  • The Burden: African Americans and the Enduring Impact of Slavery
  • Book
  • Edited by Rochelle Riley Foreword by Nikole Hannah-Jones
  • 2018
  • Published by: Wayne State University Press
summary
The Burden: African Americans and the Enduring Impact of Slavery is a plea to America to understand what life post-slavery remains like for many African Americans, who are descended from people whose unpaid labor built this land, but have had to spend the last century and a half carrying the dual burden of fighting racial injustice and rising above the lowered expectations and hateful bigotry that attempt to keep them shackled to that past. The Burden, edited by award-winning Detroit newspaper columnist Rochelle Riley, is a powerful collection of essays that create a chorus of evidence that the burden is real. As Nikole Hannah-Jones states in the book's foreword, "despite the fact that black Americans remain at the bottom of every indicator of well-being in this country-from wealth, to poverty, to health, to infant mortality, to graduation rates, to incarceration-we want to pretend that this current reality has nothing to do with the racial caste system that was legally enforced for most of the time the United States of America has existed." The Burden expresses the voices of other well-known Americans, such as actor/director Tim Reid who compares slavery to a cancer diagnosis, former Detroit News columnist Betty DeRamus who recounts the discrimination she encountered as a young black Detroiter in the south, and the actress Aisha Hinds who explains how slavery robbed an entire race of value and self-worth. This collection of essays is a response to the false idea that slavery wasn't so bad and something we should all just "get over it." The descendants of slaves have spent over 150 years seeking permission to put this burden down. As Riley writes in her opening essay, "slavery is not a relic to be buried, but a wound that has not been allowed to heal. You cannot heal what you do not treat. You cannot treat what you do not see as a problem. And America continues to look the other way, to ask African Americans to turn the other cheek, to suppress our joy, to accept that we are supposed to go only as far as we are allowed." The Burden aims to address this problem. It is a must-read for every American.

Table of Contents

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  1. Cover
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  1. Title Page, Copyright, Dedication
  2. pp. i-vi
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  1. Contents
  2. pp. vii-x
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  1. Foreword
  2. Nikole Hannah-Jones
  3. pp. xi-xvi
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  1. Introduction
  2. Rochelle Riley
  3. pp. 1-4
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  1. The Burden
  2. Rochelle Riley
  3. pp. 5-22
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  1. The Armor We Still Need
  2. A’Lelia Bundles
  3. pp. 23-32
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  1. A Military Family, Descended from Slaves
  2. Benét J. Wilson
  3. pp. 33-38
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  1. Remnants of Survival: Black Women and Legacies of Defiance
  2. Charlene A. Carruthers
  3. pp. 39-42
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  1. Quiet Defiance
  2. Aku Kadogo
  3. pp. 43-46
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  1. Living without a Beginning
  2. Patrice Gaines
  3. pp. 47-54
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  1. Forged by Fire
  2. Tim Reid
  3. pp. 55-58
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  1. Eternal Bondage
  2. Leonard Pitts Jr.
  3. pp. 59-64
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  1. Sports Industries as Plantations
  2. Kevin B. Blackistone
  3. pp. 65-68
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  1. What Slavery Means to Me
  2. Betty DeRamus
  3. pp. 69-70
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  1. If America Had Believed That Black Girls Were Girls
  2. Tamara Winfrey-Harris
  3. pp. 71-76
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  1. Kalief Browder: A Life Marked for Death
  2. Vann R. Newkirk II
  3. pp. 77-80
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  1. An Abomination, but You Got Fed
  2. Julianne Malveaux
  3. pp. 81-86
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  1. Object Lessons: Re-encountering Slavery through Rose’s Gift
  2. Mark Auslander
  3. pp. 87-96
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  1. Chasing My Past on a Different Map
  2. Paula Williams Madison
  3. pp. 97-106
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  1. Our Internal War: Embracing a Greatness That Should Be Normal
  2. Aisha Hinds
  3. pp. 107-114
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  1. The Footprint of America’s Racial Struggle in Cuba
  2. DeWayne Wickham
  3. pp. 115-120
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  1. Lemonade: The Duality of a Black Woman’s Devotion in the Shadow of Slave Culture
  2. Tonya M. Matthews
  3. pp. 121-128
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  1. It’s Not Just Hair
  2. T’Keyah Crystal Keymáh
  3. pp. 129-132
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  1. The Weapon of Narrative and the African American Story
  2. Michael Simanga
  3. pp. 133-140
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  1. Our New Civil Rights Movement Will Begin in Our Schools
  2. Torrance G. Latham
  3. pp. 141-144
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  1. The Black Press — More Needed Than Ever
  2. Herb Boyd
  3. pp. 145-152
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  1. Big Mama’s Money: A Lasting Lesson from Bondage: Don’t Be a Slave to Debt
  2. Michelle Singletary
  3. pp. 153-156
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  1. Catching Hands: African Americans and Everyday Rebellions
  2. Carolyn Edgar
  3. pp. 157-164
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  1. Notes
  2. pp. 165-172
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  1. Author Biographies
  2. pp. 173-178
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