On Saturday, August 30, 1997, I had a very interesting conversation with two people while I was
at Kings County Hospital. One of the patients was a young woman from Haiti; the other was a Hasidic man.
Our discussion involved the Genesis account of the flood of Noah's day -- a popular biblical account among Jews and
Christians alike.
During
our discussion, the Hasidic man said that black people are cursed by God. I grabbed my bible and looked in
the book of Genesis, Chapter 9 and told the gentleman that my bible says that Canaan was cursed. The man said that this
is what the Bible means.
When
the Hasidic man first told me that story, the Haitian woman and I laughed at him derisively, but inwardly I was shocked.
For one thing, I believed that since the book of Genesis was originally written in Hebrew, there would be no one better to
understand the words of Genesis than a native speaker of Hebrew. To hear a native speaker of Hebrew state definitively
that based on a book that was originally written in his native tongue that blacks are cursed by God hurt my feelings
like few things in my life ever have.
For three years thereafter, I did not try to research the Hasidic man's claims. I deluded myself
into believing that he was as crazy as his claim. I tried to push his disturbing words to the back of my mind in
an attempt to drown out the shame associated with being viewed by members of his group as accursed. There were
many days when I succeeded in forgetting the Hasidic man's words, but eventually the protective filter of my
subconscious mind would collapse and the words would come flooding back to my conscious mind like a mighty ocean held against
its will by a small bottle.
During the year 2000, the Hasidic man's softly words finally became such a roar that I finally worked up the courage
to research them on the internet. My primary search parameters were "curse of Canaan" and "curse
of Ham." The findings were even more shocking that I ever could have imagined.
Mr. Wieder's words, the Hasidic man with whom I spoke,
and the corresponding information regarding his softly spoken words started me on what is now an almost 11-year
quest for the truth regarding the curse of Ham/Canaan, and more importantly, the role this belief played in the oppression
of those individuals who are members of the "accursed" class. This journey of discovery encompassed
nearly every negative emotion imaginable: denial, extreme sadness; fear; shame; resentment; anger, murderous rage
until finally, an unquenchable urge to expose the horrors associated with this slanderous myth.
Although I will always resent what I perceive to be
the audacity of a group of people who are so ethnocentric that they have no qualms ignoring the pain that their own culture
has created for this "accursed" group of people, I am now focused on accomplishing three
things: 1) developing a healthy tolerance for members of this highly ethnocentric group, realizing that
they too have a sad story that continues until today; 2) disseminating to members of the "accursed" ethnic
group the origins of this slanderous teaching; 3) developing in members of this "accursed" ethnic
group the moral backbone to peacefully but in a determined manner tell the world that we will no longer sit by in
dumb, fearful silence while a small, but powerful minority within this ethnocentric group continues to promulgate
the slanderous teaching that lead to the worst Holocaust that this world has ever known; and 4) demanding reparations for
the past and present oppression the "accursed" class continues to suffer as a result of the secret promulgation
of this slanderous myth by descendants of the aforesaid myth's authors.
If you are a member of the "accursed" ethnic group, once you have reviewed this website
in its entirety, you may feel the same emotions that I felt. You have a right to do so. However, remember
that a lack of knowledge based on a refusal to learn closes the mind and fuels suspicion and hatred. A desire for
accurate knowledge will allow one to consider all sides -- not just one's own -- so that one can make an informed decision
that will benefit all involved.
Please do not use this website as an excuse for hatred of any ethnic group. This is not its purpose.
Use it to expand your cultural horizons by learning about different ethnic groups. Use this website to foster
respect for your own culture. Most important, use it to disseminate this website's information to your family, friends,
neighbors and strangers who are members of the "accursed" group so that the slanderous teaching that resulted
in the past oppression of the ancestors and the continued tyranny of their descendants is exposed like the
dysfunction that it is.
Secrecy
breathes life into any dysfunction; silent acquiescence gives it the power to exist and thrive. Exposure -- the harsh
light of honest, objective, public disclosure is the death knell of dysfunction.
Let all lovers of truth and justice work together to expose
and destroy this slanderous, murderous teaching as a warning to those who are determined to benefit by its secret use and
as a comfort to those of us who have been its victims.
