Stop Systematic Oppression of the Black Community

Slavery is a major factor in the development of America. It was an inhumane institution that shaped America. It also shaped the way that people of color, particularly Black people are treated in America. Enslaved Africans endured back-breaking labor, demeaning language, and acts of violence for centuries. Although slavery has ended the impacts of it are still prevalent.
During the de jure period of slavery, it was legal to own slaves as personal property. Since they were deemed as property, slaves legally had no rights. After slavery was abolished there was a shift from de jure to de facto slavery. At this time slavery was prohibited and slaves were legally free. However, they were still working on the plantations for the same masters as sharecroppers, because they lacked skills outside of the plantation and a means for traveling. Although they were legally free Black people were still dealing with the bondage of slavery. When slavery ended, Black people weren't given any reparations for their suffering. In fact, they were granted more years of hardship. Other systems were set in place to continue the oppression of Black people. This includes but is not limited to sharecropping, Jim Crow laws, convict leasing, redlining, and segregation. Similar to slavery, all of these systems were traumatizing. These traumatizing systems were forced upon Black Americans for centuries without giving them any means of coping, which led to the developing of cultural mistrust (Gonzalez, Alegría, Prihoda, Copeland, & Zeber, 2011). As a result of not coping with the trauma, it was passed down generationally. Intergenerational trauma is instances of trauma that are being placed on to a particular group without giving the population the opportunity to acknowledge and deal with the trauma (Bryant-Davis, Chung & Tillman, 2009). It is very likely that these traumas are still being passed down because Black individuals are less likely to use formal services regarding their mental health (Burkett, 2017).
Representative John Conyers introduced a bill to establish the Commission to Study and Develop Reparation Proposals for African-Americans Act (Conyers, 2017). This bill will form a commission to address the cruelty, brutality, and inhumanity against enslaved Africans and their descendants. The information discussed during the meetings will be used to develop and implement reparations for the descendants of slavery. The commission will then make recommendations to Congress on remedies for equality and justice for African-Americans. This is directly related to the NASW Code of Ethics standard 6b, which states that social workers should advocate for all people, with special regard for vulnerable, disadvantaged, oppressed, and exploited people and groups to expand their choices and opportunities (NASW, 2017).
It is impossible to move into the future when the past has not been accepted. Although the topic of slavery is discussed it usually is not done in great detail. For example, people can agree that slavery happened but not on the physical, emotional and mental impact that it left on Black Americans. This is why we still see history repeating itself with the instances of police killing unarmed Black individuals. Black lives were never respected nor appreciated in the history of the United States. America as a nation has never come to understand the effects of slavery, how it impacted black people or left behind a legacy of institutionalized racism, oppression, and discrimination that is prevalent today. By supporting this petition will help alleviate the severity of systematic oppression that Black people face in America.