Major Takeaways
- Historical stereotypes about Black Americans did not emerge naturally; they were created and reinforced through social, political, and economic systems after slavery.
- Perceptions influence behavior, policy, and opportunity, making it important to examine the origins of long-standing racial narratives.
- True freedom requires not only legal rights but also dignity, equal treatment, and the presumption of humanity.
How Black Americans Went From Valuable Labor to Disposable Lives
An Urban City Podcast Featured Opinion Editorial
By Felicia Kelly-Brookins• 7 min read
PART II-Continuing the Conversation
In Part I of this series, I asked a question America has never fully answered; How did a people
once considered valuable enough to be bought, sold, insured, worked, and exploited become a
people so often portrayed as dangerous, lazy, criminal, and disposable once they were free?
It is a question that remains as uncomfortable today as it was then. Yet it is a question we cannot
afford to ignore. Before emancipation, enslaved Africans were viewed primarily through the lens
of economics. They were denied citizenship, denied basic human rights, and denied the dignity
afforded to others, yet their labor was considered indispensable to the nation's prosperity. Their
hands built industries. Their labor generated wealth. Their work transformed cotton into a
global commodity and helped establish America as an economic power. No one questioned
whether Black people could work when plantations, railroads, farms, and businesses depended
upon their labor.
No one argued they lacked value when financial institutions accepted them as collateral and
slaveholders calculated their worth down to the dollar. No one questioned their productivity
when entire industries profited from their forced labor. Then slavery ended. And suddenly,
freedom itself became a problem. Not because African Americans lacked the ability or desire to
work, but because those who had built wealth from free labor were now confronted with the
possibility of paying for it. The abolition of slavery did not eliminate the desire for control. It
simply demanded a different method.
The greatest irony in American history is not what happened to Black people after slavery.
It is how they were described. The same people whose labor was considered essential suddenly
became portrayed as lazy. The same people who built wealth for others suddenly became
portrayed as unwilling to work. The same people who had survived centuries of oppression
suddenly became portrayed as the source of America’s problems. These stereotypes did not
emerge by accident. They emerged because systems of inequality often require stories to justify
themselves.
If African Americans demanded fair wages, they could be labeled difficult.
If they demanded equal rights, they could be labeled dangerous. If they challenged injustice, they
could be labeled disruptive. If they organized politically, they could be labeled threatening and if
they were viewed as threats, unequal treatment became easier to defend. Over time those
narratives weren’t just reflected in laws, They were painted into newspapers, Movies, Television,
Politics, Public policy and eventually, public consciousness.
What began as propaganda became perception, What became perception eventually became
belief, and belief has consequences. And what happens when a stereotype comes before the
facts? In my opinion, one of the most troubling legacies of America's racial history is not simply
the laws it created, but the assumptions it normalized.
For generations, Black Americans have
lived beneath the weight of narratives that portray them as suspicious before they are known,
threatening before they are understood, and guilty before facts are established. This type of
history matters because perceptions influence decisions. And decisions have consequences.
For example, the tragic death of 14-year-old Cyrus Carmack-Belton and the recent verdict
involving store owner, 61 year-old-Ricky Chow, has reignited conversations about race,
perception, and whose lives receive the benefit of the doubt. The legal questions were for a jury
to decide.
The social questions belong to all of us. At the center of this tragedy was a Black child
who was viewed through a lens of suspicion before the facts were fully known. For generations,
Black boys have often been perceived as older than they are, More dangerous than they are,
More threatening than they are, and more criminal.
The issue is not whether Black youth are incapable of making mistakes,The issue is whether they
are granted the same presumption of innocence, humanity, and childhood as others. Would the
same assumptions have been made if the child’s skin tone had been different? Would the same
pursuit have occurred if different stereotypes had been attached to him? Would fear have
escalated as quickly?
Those are uncomfortable questions. But they are questions worth asking.
Because when stereotypes become so deeply rooted that they shape how people interpret
behavior, ordinary encounters can become dangerous ones.The larger concern is not one case,It
is a culture that has spent centuries associating Blackness with criminality while rarely
examining how those associations were created in the first place.
A people once considered valuable enough to build a nation became a people too often viewed
through a lens of suspicion within the nation they helped build.
Today, discussions about race often become trapped in political arguments. One side insists
racism is over and the other points to evidence that it isn’t.
This is not about me assigning guilt to people living today for actions committed generations
ago. Nor is it about creating hostility between racial or ethnic groups. It is about understanding
how systems, laws, and narratives shape perception. Because perceptions shape behavior,
Behavior shapes policy, and policy shapes lives.
The stereotypes surrounding African Americans
did not happen naturally, They were created, reinforced, and repeated. And they continue to
influence how Black Americans are viewed and treated even today.
America often celebrates the end of slavery but there is rarely acknowledgement of what
happened afterwards, The Black Codes, Convict leasing, Peonage, Sharecropping, Segregation,
Discriminatory policing, Economic exclusion, Housing discrimination, Educational inequities
and so much more.
The question has never simply been whether Black Americans were free.The
question has always been whether Black Americans would be treated as fully human. Because
freedom without dignity is incomplete. Freedom without opportunity is fragile. And freedom
without equal humanity in my opinion isn’t truly freedom at all.
The challenge before America is not simply to remember history, The challenge is to recognize
where its residue still remains. Because freedom is not merely the absence of chains, Freedom is
the presence of dignity. It is the ability to move through society without carrying the burden of
assumptions created centuries before your birth. It is being seen as a citizen before being seen as
a suspect., It is being seen as a child before being seen as a threat and until America fully
embraces that truth, the distance between freedom and equality will remain what it has always
been: Unfinished.
Felicia Kelly-Brookins is a four-time award-winning author, educator, screenwriter, cultural
advocate, and founder of S.A.F.E. S.P.A.C.E. TheaterTherapyFoundation. Her work examines the
intersections of history, race, faith, trauma, and social justice while creating spaces for difficult
conversations that lead to understanding and healing.
3 Things We Must Learn From This Conversation
1. Question the Narratives You Inherit
Not every belief we hold was formed through personal experience. Many stereotypes are passed
down through history, media, culture, and institutions. Take time to examine where your
assumptions come from and whether they are rooted in fact, fear, or tradition.
2. Learn the History Behind the Headlines
Current tensions cannot be fully understood without understanding the systems that came before
them. Slavery, Black Codes, convict leasing, sharecropping, peonage, segregation, anddiscriminatory policies did not simply disappear they helped shape perceptions that continue to
influence society today.
3. See People Before Stereotypes
Every person deserves the opportunity to be known before they are judged. When assumptions
replace understanding, humanity is diminished. Progress begins when we choose to see
individuals as people first, not as labels, fears, or stereotypes attached to their race, background, or community.
