First and Foremost...Step One.

Slave Ship Diagram

It is not my intention to be divisive or antagonistic,but I feel in my heart that this topic should, and will be the first subject to be put out there. I am not going to argue about who was behind it, who profited from it, who suffered from it, who is alive and not alive that are related to it, or who are the descendants of it. I will simply treat this like the first step of a twelve step program that addicts go through, and address the denial portion of it. This is a diagram of a Slave Ship, one of many thousands that sailed from the Coast of Africa to the Americas. This is not a made up event. This is not half truths. This is not speculation, though I wish it was. We have to first understand what exactly took place and to what extent. This is just a representation of one(1) ship full of human beings, that were brutalized and robbed of every shread of dignity and decency. Many of these human beings never made it through this trip called "middle passage". No, many died from the inhumane conditions and were thrown overboard with such regularity, that it was said that sharks infested the routes taken by these vessels. I won't get into numbers, because we are not dealing with that now. I won't get into much of anything by way of actual statistics or facts, because as I stated before, I want everyone to just focus on the mere reality of this ! Step one, overcoming your denial or minimalization of the problem.Hopefully , I will go through the other steps in due time. For now, just think about that.