Why ADOS Matters

American Descendants of Slaves (coined ADOS by founders Yvette Carnell and Antonio Moore) matter because we’ve contributed significantly to the making of America.  More than a century before the founding of the country we were the labor that built the tobacco and cotton industries that grew to afford America the opportunity to seize its independence from Great Britain.  Fast forward a couple hundred centuries, immediately following Emancipation, and we were the bodies the prison industrial complex was created for to systemically guarantee more/continued free labor.  During that same time we were the group whose earnings and savings were stolen by American businessmen through banking, to finance the railroad and real estate industry.  All of this free labor allowed America to seize its independence from GB, and the stolen capital allowed it to position itself as the captain of self-made industry.  Industry that continues to drive Capitalism to this day.  While some might solely view America as an Imperialist nation, and regard it with disdain, many look to America as a beacon of freedom and hope.  And that is because of ADOS.  Despite (or in spite of) the barbaric ways America was built on the backs of Slaves and DOS, ADOS continue to be the Saving Grace of America. 

American Descendants of Slaves continue to push America to hold itself to the highest vision it puts forth of itself- a morally good and just land of the free.  Beginning with Slave Rebellions pre Emancipation to the Civil Rights Movement not long ago, African Slaves and the Descendants of those slaves have resisted, fought back, and pushed for freedom.  Forcing America to give up its wicked ways (in part) and live up to its highest ideas.

While ADOS have earned significant gains (from Emancipation to the Bill of Rights to Voting Rights) we are still at the bottom of the economic chain.  As a group we lack a lot of access and resources.  Our schools and communities are underfunded, we are often denied home loans, personal loans, and business loans, making it even more of a challenge to improve our stations in life than it already is.  From the legacy of Slavery and Reconstruction, we are typically underemployed.  Many of us either live in poverty or at risk of poverty.  This might seem normal (poverty exists all over the world, all groups can be exposed and at risk of it, and we hear many “rags to riches” stories that inspire the greatest parts of us), but the problem is that ADOS is policed and suffer the crime of being poor.

If you are poor and black in America it is more likely than not that you will lose some part of your freedom (if not all) to the system.  We are profiled and targeted by the police, giving us more runs-in with them that costs us our money, time, freedom, and in extreme cases our life.  What we saw happen to George Floyd was an example of this.  Because George Floyd was ADOS and had the deck stacked against him in life, when a pandemic hit that left him in need of making ends meet, he allegedly found himself trying to pass a counterfeit $20 bill.  A crime that brought him a run-in with police that costs him his life.  The greatest offense wasn’t that of the counterfeit bill.  His greatest offense was that he was ADOS with a counterfeit bill.  In that moment, all of his civil liberties went out the window and he was at the mercy of a man who had knee on his neck.  A man who showed him no mercy.

This is a problem.  The same people that have built the country, given it its moral authority, fight for the ideas of the country around the world, are the same people that cannot afford to freely access their rights.  The same people’s whose efforts challenged Slavery and brought about the Emancipation, fought for Civil Rights and pushed the country to open up its borders and welcome others from across the globe, who spend trillion of dollars supporting American Capitalism, and drive culture, are people that cannot afford their rights in any given situation.

My faith tells me that American Descendants of Slaves matter because God matters.  And in this country they are the least of these the Bible refers to.  Until America does right by ADOS (equally protecting their rights, ceasing the policing of them, and providing them economic redress for their contribution to America and society), there will always be unrest in this country.  Because we will continue to push for freedom, equality, and equity.  We will make America rise to the highest vision of itself.  And that matters!