Jaslin Castillo

Dear Henry Louis Gates Jr,
After recently watching a documentary written and produced by yourself, Many Rivers To Cross, I know realize how bad slavery and the struggle for equality really was. America really wouldn’t be the same without African Americans. Our President Barack Obama, is African American and it only took two hundred and fifty years for us to figure out that everyone is the same no matter what shade someone’s skin is.
When America was discovered it was promised to be the land of the free, even though it wasn’t like that at all for the slaves. People pretty much just treated them like dogs or wild animals. I cannot believe they put them in chains, rope, and even spike collars. They even went as far as raping the females so they could produce more and more slaves. If only the white and black people could switch perspectives for at least a month, I doubt they would ever try to touch a hair on their slave’s heads. How could anyone even have the heart to purchase an actual person at a fair and sometimes even children? They all just got excited of the idea of someone else tending to their own farms instead of them, the actual owners. This is probably where America’s first laziness problems first began.
European people should’ve been the ones to suffer too because they were the first people to Africa and start kidnapping all the people they could find. I wonder what all the tribes were thinking when the found out that their people were getting put on slave ships and being examined like cattle? I was appalled when I heard that sharks actually followed slave ships because those ridiculously psychopathic people constantly killed and threw off the dead bodies into the bloody ocean. Those sharks probably were fed very well.
Because my class was so incredibly moved by Many Rivers To Cross, I feel like all fifth grade classes should watch it and learn the truth behind what really happened during the times of slavery. Racism will always be around and maybe by sharing this film with the whole world, than maybe we can simmer down the hatred a bit.
It would be very interesting and maybe even a bit shocking to find out what the African people were thinking,doing, and even feeling when they saw their people getting tied up and put on ships. Maybe they were trying to make a plan on how to get those people back. Or maybe they just didn’t care that much since they already did enslave people in their homes.
Like I said before people will never stop being racist and racism is what led ” The Candyland Of Drugs” existence. That is what one our neighborhoods here in Park Slope was once known as. Since people were so racist it was hard for a black person to get a job that paid a decent amount of money. When drugs became popular those people who didn’t have a job would sell it at a large price. Because it was so addicting people couldn’t stop buying and smoking it. So, every time someone tells someone else “Oh don’t get near that person, they have been smoking drugs lately” and then they quickly walk away. That persons ancestors could’ve been the ones who had rejected the other person’s ancestor’s job application or interview because of the color of their skin. Then that ancestor could’ve started selling and taking drugs just to make a living and maybe even made it run through the family.
When watching your documentary I liked to see all the different ways African American leaders tried to solve the problems that were going on at that time. Ruby Bridges was only a little girl when she was put into an all white school. She must’ve felt like if she was about to get killed because of all the angry parents trying to shred her to pieces. I can’t believe the parents went as as far as taking their own kids out of school just because a little girl with different skin colors came to their school. What surprised me the most was that she stayed serene throughout the whole experience. If I were Ruby I would have cried my eyes out to try and not face the crazy mob that had to be held back by security. If you were Ruby at her age what would you have done? Another amazing African American leader was Martin Luther King Jr. He was totally right when he said that nothing could be solved with violence and it’s true. Unlike Malcolm X, he tried to solve everything by boycotting, going on strikes, giving speeches, and even giant marches. My class would know when something good or bad was about to happen because of the music and it’s mood. So, when we started hearing about MLK, the music was a bit cheerful but, when we heard about his assassination I knew it was coming because the music started getting dull and fear full. We all lost hope when Martin got killed because some progress was being made. It seemed like all the good leaders got killed in a way, which wasn’t fair at all. I got very sad and worried that things wouldn’t work out. I finally got happy again when you mentioned that black people finally stopped asking for freedom and started to demanding it.
Around the middle of Many Rivers To Cross I thought that all white people were for slavery, but that wasn’t true at all. There was a anti-slavery church named Plymouth Church. Their first preacher was Henry Ward Beecher Stowe. He was white and put his heart and soul into preaching about equality and even free’d a little girl named Pinky Who was born into slavery and all of her family had died. That really made me think that not all people were the the same, and that a person didn’t have to be colored on order for them to preach about their rights. Plymouth Church really did change my whole perspective on that. Have you ever gone to Plymouth?
Overall I was amazed at all your brilliant work. Many Rivers To Cross really did teach me a lot more than I had already known. You are definitely one of my mentors. Thank you so much!

Yours Truly,
Jaslin Castillo,