{"id":39308,"date":"2024-11-05T12:46:36","date_gmt":"2024-11-05T20:46:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/?p=39308"},"modified":"2024-11-05T12:46:36","modified_gmt":"2024-11-05T20:46:36","slug":"reflections-on-slavery-and-colonialism-then-and-now","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/reflections-on-slavery-and-colonialism-then-and-now\/","title":{"rendered":"Reflections on Slavery and Colonialism: Then and Now"},"content":{"rendered":"

This week, I set aside time to reflect deeply on the complex histories of slavery and colonialism, revisiting both my education and early teaching experiences as a fifth-grade teacher. Teaching these topics early in my career required me to navigate difficult historical truths while fostering an environment where young students could begin to understand the injustices and systemic impacts that linger even today. This reflection also led me to journal my current beliefs and trace the origins of these convictions.<\/span><\/p>\n

First and foremost, I must credit my parents for instilling in me the values that frame my perspective. They taught me to love others, act justly, love mercy, and strive to walk humbly with God. Their lessons, paired with how they lived their lives, demonstrated a love that recognized the inherent worth in all people as bearers of God’s image. This foundational belief has shaped how I view human dignity and the moral failures evident in the histories of slavery and colonialism.<\/span><\/p>\n

Some of my current beliefs include:<\/span><\/p>\n

    \n
  1. The foundations of the United States<\/b>: My understanding has long been that the United States was established and developed through one and\/or more of the following:\u00a0 forced labor, the expropriation of land from Native populations, and a push to escape the monarchial authority of England. This perception, rooted in the history lessons from my schooling, highlighted how economic advantage and the quest for independence came at the expense of profound human suffering and dispossession. Recently after visiting the National Archives, I have wondered more about the motivations for colonizing America. . . was it truly a pursuit for religious freedom (and other freedoms to escape British oppression)?\u00a0 Did there exist an aversion to monarchial authority, coupled with a desire for economic and social advancement that motivated the colonization of America?\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n
  2. Modern slavery<\/b>: One of the hardest truths I\u2019ve come to understand is that slavery is not just a relic of the past. It exists worldwide in various forms. For instance, stories of young Asian girls trafficked into labor, such as working in nail salons to pay off their traffickers, are grim reminders that exploitation continues today. <\/span>[1]<\/span><\/a> My involvement with organizations like the International Justice Mission (IJM) and The Set Free Movement has reinforced this reality. <\/span>[2] <\/span><\/a>The Global Slave Index underscores this crisis, mapping modern slavery\u2019s pervasiveness across continents.<\/span>[3]<\/span><\/a><\/li>\n
  3. Understanding colonialism<\/b>: In teaching, I learned that colonialism is not a monolith; it involves different forms and types of control over nations. Colonialism fundamentally revolves around seizing power and resources and reshaping societies for the colonizers’ political and economic gains. This perspective was honed through curriculum materials that I once taught, showing how nations justified domination in the name of “civilization” or progress.<\/span><\/li>\n
  4. Shared motivations<\/b>: It has become clear to me that slavery and colonialism stemmed from the pursuit of power, economic advantage, and capital. These forces fueled exploitation, yet they are not confined to history. The motivations\u2014greed, envy, pride, and contempt\u2014are aspects of human nature that can exist within us all, a sobering truth highlighted in the Bible.<\/span><\/li>\n
  5. The misuse of scripture<\/b>: Another key understanding is that biblical passages about slavery, written in a different cultural and historical context, were often twisted to justify enslavement. This distortion of scripture is something I have encountered in books and films that explore themes of slavery and racism, such as <\/span>12 Years a Slave<\/span><\/i>, <\/span>The Color Purple<\/span><\/i>, and <\/span>Harriet<\/span><\/i>.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    Reflecting on these beliefs has been eye-opening. Slavery and colonialism, at their core, have involved the exploitation of others for personal or national benefit. The films and series that have influenced my views further, from <\/span>Amistad<\/span><\/i> to <\/span>The Woman King<\/span><\/i>, each illustrate the brutality and resilience intertwined in these histories.<\/span><\/p>\n

    In conclusion, revisiting these deep-seated convictions is a reminder of why teaching and confronting these topics with honesty is essential. Our understanding of these past and present injustices shapes how we approach justice, mercy, and humility in our own lives and certainly affects how we lead.<\/span><\/p>\n

    [1] Coffee, Brenda. \u201dYour Nail Salon May be Trafficking in Slave Lab<\/span>or.\u201d <\/span>1010Park Place<\/span><\/i>, <\/span>June 16, 2018,<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n

    https:\/\/1010parkplace.com\/your-nail-salon-may-be-trafficking-in-slave-labor\/#:~:text=I%20was%20shocked%20to%20learn,about%20anything%20except%20the%20manicure<\/span><\/a>.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

    BBC. \u201cModern Slavery:\u00a0 Nail salons using trafficked individuals.\u201d January 18, 2018, <\/span>https:\/\/www.bbc.com\/news\/newsbeat-42729302<\/span><\/a>.<\/span><\/p>\n

    [2] <\/span>https:\/\/setfreemovement.com\/<\/span><\/a>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

    [3] <\/span>https:\/\/www.walkfree.org\/global-slavery-index\/map\/<\/span><\/a>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

    [4] Black, Jeremy. <\/span>A Brief History of Slavery:\u00a0 A New Global History<\/span><\/i>, (London:\u00a0 Constable & Robinson, 2011), 259.<\/span><\/p>\n

    [5] Ibid, 1.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    This week, I set aside time to reflect deeply on the complex histories of slavery and colonialism, revisiting both my education and early teaching experiences as a fifth-grade teacher. Teaching these topics early in my career required me to navigate difficult historical truths while fostering an environment where young students could begin to understand the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":168,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2310],"tags":[2489,3120,2012],"class_list":["post-39308","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-doctor-of-leadership-3","tag-dlgp02","tag-biggar","tag-black","cohort-dlgp02"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39308","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/168"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=39308"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39308\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":39309,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39308\/revisions\/39309"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=39308"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=39308"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=39308"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}

    In my reading for this week, I read <\/span>Colonialism: A Moral Reckoning<\/span><\/i> by Anglican Priest and theologian, Nigel Biggar, and <\/span>A Brief History of Slavery<\/span><\/i> by author and historian Jeremy Black.\u00a0 In regards to slavery, Black explores how slavery has been a pervasive part of society and still exists today.\u00a0 He shared a story in the introduction of a twelve-year-old girl sold into slavery in Niger that happened in the Court of Justice of the Economic Community of West African Salves in 2008. [4]<\/a> The author highlights overlaps within slavery to include debt bondage, forced work, forced prostitution, and forced marriage.\u00a0 In addition, Black reminds readers of the power of learning from the past and moving forward when he states, \u201cIt is valuable to be reminded of the vileness of the control and vulnerability that slavery reflects, but it is also important not to be bounded by past episodes, definitions, and grievances. The curse of the past lies not in what happened, terrible as that is, but rather in an inability to look clearly at the present and to the future\u201d. [5]<\/a>\u00a0 This statement helped me reframe the atrocities of the past, not remaining fixated on them, but to think more critically about the current and future impacts of slavery.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n