Drawing the Color Line

“There is not a country in the world history in which racism has been more important, for so long a time, as the United States” (pg. 23). Zinn writes this to open up his chapter on Drawing the Color Line. I thought this was very interesting because our country is supposed to be free, thriving, and full of opportunity for everyone. He explains in this chapter the white settlers acted as a pressure for the enslavement of blacks. Because they needed the help to thrive, and they certainly could not enslave the Indians because the Indians knew more about the land then the white settlers. They could just “disappear” into the lands whenever they wanted. “By 1619, a million black slaves were already brought from Africa to South America and the Caribbean, to the Portuguese’s and Spanish colonies, to work as slaves (pg. 24).” To me, it is outstanding in how fast the white settlers brought in slaves from Africa or what not with out hesitation. It was stated through out the text that this unfair racial treatment that we today refer to as racism was the “natural” result of the antipathy of the white against black.
When reading Chapter two a lot of the content that Zinn had written were the facts that I never really thought about. For instance, towards the end he wrote how the fear in the white settlers was not of rebellion of the black slaves, but of the cooperation of the white servants and the black slaves to over through the wealthier white settlers. Also the fact that their system of control was not only physical but also, psychological still stuns me when I hear stories. Bumps and bruises heal over time, but the amount of emotional pain that was brought unto the black slaves was very cruel. The slaves were disciplined in a way to make them think they were inferior and to know their place. It stuns me that the reason that the white settlers put Africans to slavery was merely out of fear and greed. How did human kind become so greedy that they needed to inflict emotional and physical harm due to the color of their skin? They were in so much fear of rebellion and unity that they made a law that all white men were superior to black, in 1705. This shows signs of desperation and fear of being over taken. So why did it take so long for someone to stand up? Or why didn’t anyone unite and rebel in numbers rather then as individuals? Was it natural or is our term racism made by the childish actions of our past? Natural or not it was wrong, and there is no excuse for what the white settlers did not only in their time, but also how it has affected ours. Racism is still around, but where exactly did it start?