Prof. Henry Louis Gates Jr., citing the Trans-Atlantic Slave Database, writes that an estimated 10.7 million people survived the voyage — called the Middle Passage — from their homelands to North America, the Caribbean and South America, between 1525 and 1866. Almost 35 percent of those executed were black, although the proportion of black people in the country hovers around 13 percent. Throughout most of this pain and bloodshed, some version of the flag has waved. People upset with those who kneel seem to be more angry about black “disrespect” than black death. As the civil rights legend Fannie Lou Hamer once said, “The flag is drenched with our blood.”

Source: New York Times September 28, 2017 07:18 UTC