Happy Black History Month

So where have I been? My coworker/friend gave me a copy of something folded up in her arms and looked left then right then left again and cautioned me to read it when i had some time and space. the look on her face made me tuck it away until a week later.

I just read the now infamous (where have i been? in the kitchen...) letter, which she printed from here, which has more than just the speech Willie was supposed to have made, but his slave-making instruction "kit" as well.

After i finished i was disturbed to say the least. Just reading the word "nigger" that many times was enough to do it for me.

flexing my newly developing blogger muscles, i did a google search of the letter and after reading a few other versions (most without the instructions, one with "n-word" substituting "nigger") and chat chains about it, i stumbled on posts and articles that questioned it's authenticity and this argument by Bill Cobb convinced me, even though it hasn't yet made it onto snopes.

so now i get to go back to my friend and tell her, yeah it sucks about your people's history, and by the way, that letter's most likely a fake?

no. i tell her i read it and then listen to what she has to say.

even if the letter is a fake, history paints not an unuglier picture of the slave trade and institution in this country. we all know it has had far reaching effects, how could it not?

i too have been alienated from my roots, not brutally at all, and it has had devastatingly negative effects.

but nuf said. i had to write something about this letter. and now, my february Oprah issue has been waiting all day ...