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My Name is Paul & I am a Young Black Male

My Grandmother's Father was from Great Britain, his Family came to the New World to Stake their claim

He was a White Male

I Never knew Him

My Grandmother was Mulatto,a Half-Breed, a Mixed Child, Ostracized & condemned before ever being born

It is My Inheritance,a Part of My History Often Over-Looked,Ever Present, But Never Forgotten

For the Cumberbatch Family were Plantation Owners, thus they Used, Owned & Benefitted from Slave Labor

They Migrated From The UK to Barbados The Bahamas,& Numerous Other Caribbean Countries

I say all this to State that History is Complicated

In 1973 when the UK Shed its Former Colonies,who were More Expense than Profit, My GrandMother's Family were left in the Wake

Mulatto Children Not Accepted in the Local Community because they looked too much like the Slave Owners

Yet Neither Accepted or Allowed to come to the UK to join Extended Family, For they would not be Accepted Here

So When You See Me, Yes I am Black,But do You See My History, My Heritage, The Lives of My Ancestors who Also Came from the Home of Your Ancestors?

I think if you Scratch beneath the Surface, Many of US Black or Negro Citizens Have Caucasian or White Ancestors or Members in Our Family

SO Why Don't You See ME? 

Is It because WE have Married, Mixed & Had Children of all Creeds,Colors & Languages?

Or Is it More Basic,That By Seeing Me Will Force You to Acknowledge that What Happened to My Forefathers & Mothers was Wrong?

Yes For Some Of Them Were Slave Owners, But Others were Slaves, & to be Neither Accepted in Either World is a Very Hard Road to Trod   

I think that Violence will Continue, Unrest Will Persist & the Present System or Status Quo Will Remain until It is No Longer Profitable To Continue

Slavery Ended Not Because of Any Moral Awakening, Epiphany or a Sense of Conscience, But Merely because it was cheaper to Produce the Same Items Via Another System

Thus The Caste System in India Was used Instead

Till You See Me, Not As One of Them,But One Of US

One of Your Own, One that Someday May Marry Your Son or Daughter,then I will Forever Be an Outsider, thus Not Good Enough and thus Eligible to be Brutally & Inhumanely Treated At Your Discretion, Just Because You Can

To Say that I Have Become Numb to These Senseless Acts of Violence is an Understatement

I Wonder Do You See Me Now?

Or Will You Ever?

Sincerely

Disillusioned Son of The Soil

Author Paul Cumberbatch (August 27th, 2020)
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