To the editors:
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One hundred million Blacks died–he says–in the passage to slavery. 100,000,000!!!! The World Almanac 1989 page 539 shows total population of Africa (including the very large percentage of Arabs and other racial groups as well as Blacks) at 100 million in 1650, 95 million in 1750, 95 million in 1850 and 118 million in 1900. Your letter writer seems to have wiped out more people than would back up any numbers. But let’s not stop there; “check it out.” The World Book, Volume 17, page 503 tells us that in the horrible Slave trade 12 million Black Africans were shipped across the Atlantic to South America, the Caribbean islands, and 6% to North America. Of this 12 million, a horrific 2 million died in the crossing. Now why would this wild number-cruncher want to gratuitously kill off 98 million Black souls? Simple. To try to stir up hostility through perceived favoritism and neglect. At no time did those who sought inclusion of Holocaust studies in history oppose Black Studies in schools. As a matter of chronology, Black Studies were already in before the Holocaust study was added. But the instigator of hatred gets no pause by contrary facts–or numbers.
The introduction of the entire matter of Black Slavery and slave trade into his attack on Jews and Israel is an irrelevant diversionary matter. (1) Jews were never involved in the Slave Trade; that was the exclusive province of the Arabs assisted by Black tribal chiefs. Nor were the Jews owners and exploiters of Black Slave labor. If you want to be cynical, you might say that they never had the chance since they were too busy fleeing from Inquisitions in Spain, massacres in France, expulsions from England, and pogroms in Russia, Ukraine, Poland, Moldavia and Austria among others.
