You're brought over here on a swelteringly hot boat in chains. You don't speak the language of the crew or your captors. You have to throw your shit and piss overboard on the journey, eating worms and whatever disgusting garbage the crew throws at you in their attempt to keep you alive but not too alert.
You arrive in America and are sold to a white man in a confusing ceremony you don't understand. You are taught to work in the cotton fields, backbreaking manual labor that lasts six days a week, ten hours a day. Makework becomes your life: Don't work too hard because there is no chance for a pay raise, bonus, or promotion. You're a slave and always will be. Your kids will always be slaves, and their kids too. There is no hope and no fun and no laughter except for the hours of the night you sit around the fire and sing spirituals. Any extra effort, any attempt to stand out is met with the whip. You work too fast and you may get beaten by the other slaves. Work too slow and the master will beat you, or worse. If you're a female and pretty, you will be raped by the master and bear his children, causing jealousy and resentment among the other field slaves.
We wonder why blacks are "lazy" sometimes?
What would you do?
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