Rappin About Slavery

Tonight I was hoping to be at the Lupe Fiasco concert, getting crunk and all that...ya'll know what I'm talking about...Anyway, instead of going I was forced to stay on campus and do some work because I had so much I needed to get done. As you can probably guess, I was not too happy about this, but believe it or not I ended up getting a lot out of the night. I read the autobiography of Olaudah Equiana. He was an African who was kidnapped and sold into the African slave trade, eventually making it all the way to the U.S. I was really affected by his story and all that he had to go through at such a young age. It really put things in perspective for me. While Lupe Fiasco is known for his real, meaningful lyrics, Equiana lived a life with more hardships than Lupe and definitely more than me. Being separated from his family as a child and then being forced to a completely different country on a filthy, crowded boat with cruel, evil men was incredibly overwhelming for me to take in. It once again reminded me of all the hardships of my ancestors and the responsibility I have to get an education because so many of them were unable to do so.
I noticed several things while reading the autobiography that interested me. First of all, I noticed the definite inferiority Equiana felt to the whites that was a part of the time period. He starts of by apologizing and then apologizes later for talking about his homeland. The second thing I noticed was the contrast in styles the African and White owners believed in. Equiana was never beaten badly in Africa, and was often treated pretty well. Once he was under control of the whites though, he was beaten for simply not eating. The white men even beat some of their own on the journey from Africa. I believe this is because while Africans enslaved other Africans, they didn't feel as if the other African's were inferior, they were more just like prisoners. On the other hand, the whites felt like the blacks were inferior because their skin color was different than theirs. Don't think I am in any way condoning the enslavement of Africans by other Africans, because slavery, no matter who enslaves who, is wrong. I just felt it was interesting to see the differences in styles, most likely caused by difference (or lack of difference) of skin color.
So basically, instead of being at the concert of my favorite rapper, I am in the library noddin' my head to some old school Will Smith (Men In Black, don't act like you don't love that song), and I am almost happy I didn't go to the concert...Almost.