FACING SLAVERY

Phyllis Carter and Linton Garner shared Frenchie Davis's post.
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  Frenchie Davis - June 3, 2016 - Harmans, MD, United States · 

In the hopes of adding deeper context to our conversations over the past couple days, I thought I would share this photograph. Photographed below on the left is an image of a female house slave wearing an iron muzzle called a slave's iron bit, or a scold's bridle. It was made of iron metal and was said to have pressed so heavily against the wearer's mouth and tongue that it made them incapable of even swallowing their own saliva (hence the the holes drilled in the front.) They were mainly worn by women house slaves in the 17th century as a form of punishment for insubordination or for eating more than her allotment of food. This particular woman, Anastacia- a slave of African descent who was believed to have special healing powers- was forced to wear this muzzle to keep her from speaking and to punish her for allegedly helping other slaves escape. Many people don't know about her. And many people don't even know about the scold's bridle because up until now, the large majority of slave narratives mainly address beatings and lynchings. To date, the only popular slave narrative known to ever make significant mention of this device and its use was Toni Morrison's book, Beloved. So let's fast forward hundreds of years later..... Fashion designer Adriana Degreas thought this would be an appropriate image to put on one of her dresses for a recent runway fashion show. (Photo on the right). Now let me ask you something. Do you think a fashion designer would have sent a supermodel down her runway wearing a dress with a swastika on it??????????? Hell naw! And do you know why? Because our Jewish brethren have made it their life's work to ensure that we know better!!! They make sure that we never forget what happened to their people! And if this dress had a swastika on it, they would have shut that  XXXX down! But this model made her walk down the runway and the show carried on. And no one cared. And do you know why no one cared? Because those of us who know about the history of the scold's bridle are outnumbered by those of us who do not. And the result of an unknown history is the allowance and acceptance of XXXX like this. It takes an incredible amount of presumption and willful close mindedness to just decide that "I already know enough about slavery and I've seen enough." You have been alive for how many years? But you presume to have learned ERR'THANG U need to know about 400 years of our history in this country?? It takes an incredible amount of hubris to even come to such a conclusion. EVERY slave story has NOT been told. And perhaps if we keep telling our stories, we can get to a place where non-black folks KNOW BETTER than to put a white model on the runway wearing a dress with a XXXX  iron slave muzzle on it; and black folks KNOW BETTER than to not be outraged by it.
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NOTE: This Caucasian is outraged and pained by these events, but I do not post filth on my pages. I have deleted expletives in this piece.

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