February is Black History Month and I can only assume the significance black history plays in our country isn't being taught anymore. The gravity of slavery to the bravery of the civil rights movement, ignorance is spread like wildfire. Slavery, Civil Rights Movement, and Illegal Immigration. What do these three things have in common? A massive amount of ethnic people suffering from one thing or another. That's the extent of their similarities. It's the differences that makes the difference and what makes them different is this tiny little thing called "the law."
As horrible as slavery was, it was legal. It was the law of the land. Men, women, and children were kidnapped by slavers from the Colonies and Europe, enemies from other tribes, and friends. Many were lured with false promises and lies. They were transported like cargo across the Atlantic ocean; many died from disease or at the hands of the crew. A common practice was to chain the slaves together in a line with something heavy in front. They would drop that heavy something in the water and one by one the chained slaves would slide into the ocean. Those who survived the trip were brought to the islands and to the states as slaves. Three hundred years later, Abraham Lincoln and the war happened, and they were granted their freedom. That's American Slavery.
An illegal immigrant is someone who chooses to come here whether by boat smugglers, forged papers, crossing the border, or staying once their VISA expires. Children who are also illegal, brought here as kids by no fault of their own, have schooling and college issues, and many of them don't know why until they're older. Many illegal immigrants come here while their pregnant and give birth to American citizens, anchor babies.
The keyword here is choice. Africans were BROUGHT here, stolen from their home, under an evil, legal system. Illegal aliens chopse to commit a crime and their children suffer the consequences of their actions. Congressman Horsford compared immigration reform to the civil rights movement, which doesn't make any sense. Being an American is either a "birth right" or a privilege. It is not a human right or a civil right. The Civil Rights Movement was blacks and whites fighting for equal treatment under the law, not special treatment and a pardon.
You don't have to be a child to be ignorant, you can be a young adult on twitter or a congressman from Nevada. Using slavery and the Civil Rights Movement to evoke sympathy for or to justify a crime is disturbing. It's ignorance at it's best. The congressman is right, many illegal aliens are waiting to start jobs, start businesses, go to college, or use the college degrees they legally shouldn't have gotten. Who's fault is that? It's not the Africans fault for being slaves, but any struggle or fear the illegal alien experiences is because of choices he made, and it's not the American government's job to bail him out.
This guy, DESH, said "OUR ANCESTORS" as if we come from the same people. As far as I know my ancestor on my mother's mother's side, James Butler, was a slave from Barbados who escaped to Georgia. Where he came from before Barbados, we don't know. My mother's father's father is a Native American from Georgia. My father's grandfather immigrated from St. Thomas to New York City, legally. I have sickle cell trait, so someone came from West, Southwest, or Central Africa, Northern Sudan, South America, Saudi Arabia, India, or the Mediterranean. Like many black people, I don't really know where I come from, but I can guarantee you no one on my family tree came to this nation illegally.