Inferior or overcomer?

When a white person uses the terms poverty and oppression to describe a Haitian or a black American, are these terms heard as implying inferiority?  Does the term oppression, a widely used biblical term, need a brief explanation?  The French, Americans, Papa Doc, Baby Doc, and the rich have oppressed Haitians and robbed the poor of the resources to make a decent living.  Biblically, oppression crushes, humiliates, animalizes, impoverishes, enslaves, and kills persons created in the image of God.

In Joy Degruy's book, Post Traumatic Slave Syndrome, she comments about African Americans:
"So, who and what are we?  If we are to believe what the dominant society would seemingly like us to believe, the lies the promulgate, we are stupid, criminal, unmotivated, lazy, underachieving, immoral, and undisciplined . . . in a word, inferior.  History reveals a very, very different story.

African Americans are a strong people, a seemingly infinitely resilient people.  We have a long history of enduring and persevering through the severest trials.  Our ancestors endured slavery and persevered through Jim Crow.  Evidence of these qualities can be seen today through our struggle for civil rights and our continuing pursuit of a level playing field.

We are an industrious people.  We have built communities under seemingly impossible circumstances.  During the Great Depression, when the entire country was under enormous duress, we managed to care for one another with fewer resources than even the poorest whites.  Families gathered together, usually in churches, to help sustain large numbers of blacks and see them through those extremely tough times.

We are a creative people.  Through slave times and the oppressive decades that followed, we established a distinctive culture replete with new language, names, customs, and behaviors.  We have invented our own games, foods, music, art, and fashions.  Many of us have managed to carve out a prosperous existence from what at time amounted to society's scraps.

We are a just and forgiving people.  Think about it.  Despite the relentless oppression under which blacks have lived since slavery, there has been no large-scale, organized, retaliatory terrorism fueled by hatred or vengeance.  We have demonstrated time and again that while we can courageously fight for justice, we are not crippled with hatred and rage, proving ourselves to be among the most magnanimous of people.

We are a spiritual, loving, and hopeful people.  It is amazing to me that after all the work done to dominate, diminish and destroy us, after centuries of the most vile and horrific abuses meant to break our spirit and will, we still have faith in God.  It is a tribute to our fundamental decency that we still have a love for humanity.  It is a testament to our fortitude that we still can hope and dream.

These are some of the components of our true nature.  We, as a people, seem to have forgotten that this is who and what we are.  We seem to ave forgotten our own nobility.  We have forgotten our own greatness.  Perhaps many of us have never known!  This is not surprising, given all the time, money, and energy spent over centuries to convince us to accept the degraded status imposed upon us.  Whatever the case, it is vital that we collectively regain this knowledge so we can take our rightful place in the world community.  It is crucial that we come to understand ourselves and have that understanding permeate us to our very ore, for such a deep understanding will make healing from our wounds that much more complete."