“The Raise of Reparation for the Victims of Forgotten Crime”

A Dark Revisit of the Cold and twisted History of Slavery

The rebirth of sanctity is past due after a mental and physical chain of nasty events. Beloved, by Toni Morrison, explains a series of national, historic, slavery enriched, real-life moments. The notion of slavery was not too long ago. This saga reveals multiple lives abuse while being enslaved and how moments in time can either live to haunt you or die without an apology then forgotten by future generations. If a person never knew about their past they will never know where they came from. Details of slavery and oppression should be analyzed and revisited for safety precautions “It was not a story to pass on” (324). This novel helped raised important questions about maintaining efficacy of African-Americans past future justice. The reason why it is not a story to pass on is because if you were to try and tell this tale specifically, it will be told incorrectly due to the fact of its mystic complexity. The world has fixed the minds of today’s society to forget our evil past. “Everyone knew what she was called, but nobody anywhere knew her name.” (323)

Although Morrison may have been writing about the murdered third child of the character by the name Sethe, she was subliminally calling upon the readers to remember and research the past of African American slaves in general. The call of community duty applies. My collective if unconscious started to raise valid demands about how much justice is owed to my race. Flashbacks of films and powerful black leaders being assassinated streamed my mind while soft whispers of my conscience said to me “Jim Crow’s ideas and oppression is still alive and working to annihilate true black activism.” Black love is constantly fading away in today’s time our younger generation knows nothing about slavery, yet they are products of the after affects. “So they forgot her like an unpleasant dream during troubling sleep.” (324)

 If you don’t know anything about the harsh and heartless type of slave owners without skin of the past, then you would not know how to be prepared or deal with those of today or the future. The knowledge of greedy without mercy or integrity will be lost; therefore you would not be cautious of any of its organized attacks. “By and by all trace is gone, and what is forgotten is not only the footprints but the water to and what is down there.”(324) Obviously, what is down there is the names of actual victims unknown without justice given to them or the care and notion to “be loved” enough for someone to take the risk to fight for their faces like Beloved tried to do for herself. To be love is to be remembered, but when the heat is on sometimes like “the spring ice thawing to quickly” unexpectedly, things can get out of control, bloody. The notion of blacks asking for justice to be served, people to be arrested, and the worldwide apology to be given with reparation that will count is vital.

3 acres and a mule is not enough payment for the pain and suffering of our forgotten abused ancestors. Restitution is long past due for the blood sweat and tears shed in order to build the United States of America. That is the loneliness that roams. “No rocking can hold it down. It is alive, on its own. A dry and spreading thing that makes the sound of one’s own feet going seems to come from a far off place.” (323) Understanding now how this book was written to inspire us to never let time change without knowing true history and what had happened in detail; will allow you to bring justice for the ones who died a victim of a crime. If you don’t have knowledge of what happened in times before, you may find yourself assisting evil as it repeats itself. The clueless never knows what is to come. Sometimes a victim can forgive, but they should never forget any wrongdoings. Karma is as real as the universe and is connected to the spirit of mistreated people that never dies.

Sometimes we the people have to revisit the sour and unpleasant past and lose the appetite for the present even if it is sweet and tastier. Don’t be uninquisitive especially when you have a sample of the abnormal and cruel. Demand the world to explain things you question, or you may find yourself being an accomplice to our oppressors. It is sad that people can be so evil that “a pretty little slave girl recognized a hat, and split to the woodshed to kill her children.” (186) revelations of hell on earth haunted my thoughts multiple times reading the living chapters of this book.

Beloved was murdered and died violently without justice and that is why she returned for restitution and revenge. If African-Americans of today was to try to retrieve compensation for the free labor and the abundance of offenses; it would be a long tough fight. Evil that existed in the beginning of time is still alive and strong enough to prove good to be old and irrelevant. But we have to claim our self-worth, “freeing yourself was one thing; claiming ownership of that freed self was another.” (111-112) moreover, that is after justice for all victims, of the past and present, did or alive yet forgotten and unloved become valid in due season.