The grief of a people

“Not a house in the country ain't packed to its rafters with some dead Negro's grief. ”

The death of a loved one can have unprecedented consequences on those who they leave behind. However, those consequences are elevated and the emotional toll becomes greater, given the circumstances of death. Jim Downs author of Sick From Freedom estimates that a quarter of the 4 million freed slaves either died or suffered from illness between 1862 and 1870. So it is reasonable to believe Baby’s Suggs claim that every house is grieving.

A “Negro’s grief” here is used to describe the ghosts that haunting the homes of the now freed slaves. The ghosts can be actual supernatural beings but more than likely  they represent the guilt that many of the runaway slaves feel. In today’s world a “negro’s grief” represents a greater injustice the person of color still experiences. The effects of the past still cripples our ability to get jobs and makes us more susceptible to police brutality which may and often times leads to incarceration. As news outlets such as the Huffington post, Washington post, Forbes, and Think Progress report white high school dropouts have the same chances of getting a job as black college graduates. However, these same white dropouts have more accumulated wealth than the black college graduates. Emory University tax law professor Dorothy Brown reported, to Forbes.com in 2012, that “the median net worth of white households was 20 times greater than that of black households”. Not to mention the high incarceration rate among African-Americans. According to a 2014 Brookings study, African Americans males without a high school diploma have a 70% chance of  being incarcerated by his mid 30s. The system is rigged against the man of color specifically the African American male. Of course I can’t get into all of the consequences of slavery in 300- 500 words.