Do black women avoid breastfeeding because of slavery?

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Permalink Reply by Linda Spears on May 19, 2009 at 9:21am

As a Colleage professor that taught multicultural studies I am an expert. I am appaled at this explanation.

I#1) Slavery wasn't about color. It was a way of life for one percent of whites who owned farms with slaves in America. Yes one percent. We spent all this talk after all this time about one percent of whites and blame 99%...how inappropriate?

#2) Farm owners came in many colors. Farm owners were not exclusively "white". Black Farm owners who had slaves were often mean...and black slave owners were predominant in New Orleans. Read it. Study it. Learn it. There were Indian slave owners, as well. Many in Florida.

#3) Not all Blacks in the US were decedants of US slave owners.

#4) It has been nearly ten generations.

#5) At the time slavery ended, only 2 percent of Blacks could read (as opposed to ~33% of non-blacks). Even though many blacks are still clinging to the vestiges of association being educated and successful with non-black culture, most have overcome this.

If you want to overcome breast feeding you can. So focus on the black hairdressers and hospital parish nurses and promote breast feeding instead of clinging to (unhelpful) notions.

The twelve step for alchohols teaches us to not concentrate on the past..."that's yesterdays garbage" and the serenity prayer is to identify the things I can change and do it.

American is the land of opportunity. You can focus on yesterdays' garbage or you can focus on tomorrow's opportunities. The choice is yours.

There were WHITES mistreated back a hundred or more years ago. MY white relative, Peter Crouse, was stolen by Seneca Indians and forced to run a gauntlet. YES Indians stole (predominantly) white children. I don't blame all Indians
for the actions of the Seneca tribe. I don't blame the opportuntists that placed Germans in savage lands...where Indians were known to raid farms and steal children. If Black children were there Indians would have stolen them too. It was about race, they valued children. If Indian children were there they woudl have stolen them too.

I could spend my lifetime in hatred and using excuses that my great great great great great great great great great great uncles brother's cousin's nephew was stolen by Indians so I don't have to act right..some ten gernations later.

Maybe we could forget why we don't breast feed and think about reasons we should. Maybe we should respect ourselves even if other's don't.

Stuff done to black folks was wrong. Stuff done to white folks was wrong. Stuff done to Chinese, Mexicans, Indians, Germans, Japanese, Irish, etc. was wrong. Using it as an excuse nowadays is unhelpful. That's my two cents.

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