Emanuele Berry

I took the escalator down to the bottom floor, to the history galleries.

And there, in big white letters against a black wall, it says slavery and freedom, 1400 to 1877.

And then this short caption.

500 years ago, a new form of slavery transformed Africa, Europe, and the Americas.

For the first time, people saw other human beings as commodities, things to be bought, sold, and exploited to make enormous profits.

This system changed the world.

The United States was created in this context, forged by slavery.

I stopped reading there.

Forged by slavery.

And my first thought was, how are they allowed to say this?

Like, why hasn't this been flagged?

And then my next thought was, what a fucked up thought.

I know the U.S.

does not exist without slavery.

But it wasn't about what I knew to be true.

But what's allowed to be true in this country right now.

And it freaked me out because what the hell, Emmanuel?

But there was also something comforting about recognizing what my brain was doing.

The way history is being reshaped in this moment, it's about power.

It's about how the United States is changing.