I don't think I would have believed there was a God back then B.

This weekend I saw "12 Years A Slave" and my friend that I was with had said after, "I don't think I would have believed there was a God back then" and though we (America and blacks) are no long subjected to slavery in terms of human-beings as property but I think that the oppression is still here. Life is a cycle. We all feel the same emotions, plagues, sicknesses, ignorances and wars no matter what the time period was. I think that now since we are no longer enslaved to a certain amount of land and to a family, we aren't necessarily free as we'd like to think.

I work 12 hours minimum every Monday through Friday. I get a minimum lunch and I'm just overworked. Though I may not have the gashes and physical scares to prove my struggles, I do feel enslaved to my company or to my career. The pay is minimum in comparison to the hard physical work that I'm doing and when you compare it to slavery from the 1800s, though I don't live at my job, I can go "home" there's still a lot of freedom that I don't have because it lies in the hands of my establishment. Yes I get to say how I feel when I'm not at work, but there's still tones, restrictions and fears that are instilled in you once you join.

Yet I believe in God. I know that I may be subject to verbal abuse, demanding hours, unrealistic requests that may seem to be completely overwhelming to me but this is the times. We've evolved that now, no you don't need me to pick your cotton to maintain your empire, but there are different levels of keeping a big name/business/family at the top. The freedoms have evolved but the concepts haven't. Who you know keeps you safe. How you looked in some circumstances (back in 1800s slavery) kept you safe. It's all situational. The mass of slavery experienced rough, violent times but not everyone I'm sure. I'm sure there were people who accepted, kept quiet, did their jobs and lived. Found some kind of solace.

I would hope that if that were me, I would have found some kind of solace. There are times when I go through the worst of feelings and I cry, scream and wonder where is my God. Why me? But I know he's there. I went through. I can't compare that to rape, beatings, dogs attacking me but I will say that pain is pain. That was just pain and hate at its most extreme.

It's really sad what's happened in the past. I'm glad that America can only now make some kind of advancements towards ending all of this. The beating, proving, degrading, abuse will never end. That's America for you. It just comes in waves of different platforms.