What could the death of one wretched Negro mean to me? That was Napoleon Bonaparte after being asked about his dishonorable treatment and eventual death of Toussaint after Toussaint pulled off the first successful slave revolt in history in Haiti. This statement hit me hard this morning as I read up on some of the first battles in our history in resisting human trafficking. What hurt deeply was the reality of how this attitude still exists as ferociously today as it did then in 1803. The only difference now is that the business of human trafficking has expanded. But Napoleons statement reminded me of how important it is that we constantly keep ourselves open to understanding new things and people who are different than ourselves in order to diminish the kind of ignorance that Napoleons statement captures. Its attitudes like that of Napoleon that keep the likes of slavery, genocide, femicide and racism... alive. J
Posted on: Tue, 26 Nov 2013 20:26:21 +0000