Black Americans live in a country where their history is suppressed. Consider, for instance, how the Trump administration ordered the removal of exhibits highlighting the experiences of enslaved people, or how states passed laws that limit the inclusion of black historical narratives in the classroom. Even before this latest wave of restrictive policies, the story of Black people in America was treated as supplemental, rather than something essential to understanding the nation’s development. As historian and author Edward E. Baptist noted, “enslaved African Americans built the modern United States, and indeed the entire modern world, in ways both obvious and hidden.” With this in mind, why do some overlook their contributions? Comments from the Black artist, Shaboozey, at the Grammys highlight this point. “Immigrants built this country,” he said, dedicating his award to the “children of immigrants who came to this country in search of better opportunities.” They wanted to be “part of a nation that promised freedom and equal opportunity to everyone willing to work for it.” While this message honored his Nigerian parents and other immigrants, it exposed how black history represents a blind spot in the American consciousness.
Long before most immigrants arrived, America was built on land stolen from Indigenous tribes, with forced labor extracted from African people. Millions of Black people were kidnapped and packed tight like dominoes as cargo on ships. Those who survived the brutal voyage were forced to work, harvesting cotton, sugar, rice, tobacco, and indigo, and performing other jobs that enriched the nation. The first one hundred enslaved Africans arrived in the Spanish colony of Florida in 1526, though they escaped shortly after. Historian and anthropologist Guy E. Cameron noted, “It appears that the Africans ran into the forests, never to be seen again.” Enslaved people first arrived in British colonies in 1619, a benchmark that inspired a well-known historical text about the origins of Black Americans. The first slave ships arrived in Louisiana, a French colony, in 1719, following conflicts with the Chitimacha tribe. By the 1800s, the slave trade was a highly profitable enterprise. Given the history of how our ancestors came to this country, it is misleading to lump Black Americans in with other groups who voluntarily migrated here. While the sons and daughters of immigrants have every right to highlight their contributions, they must be careful not to rewrite this nation’s history in a way that ignores the legacy of slavery, segregation, and racial discrimination.
While the second part of his comment drew less attention, it’s noteworthy that Shaboozey suggested America was “a nation that promised freedom and equal opportunity to everyone willing to work for it.” This statement seems to align with the principle of meritocracy, which posits that our society rewards hard work. Yet racial discrimination has systematically robbed hardworking Black people of equal opportunities in this country. Someone with a black-sounding name is less likely to receive a callback for an interview (Bisset & Rosenweig-Ziff, 2024). Black women often endure hair discrimination in the workplace that makes them less likely to be hired, maintain employment, and be promoted to leadership positions (Nkimbeng et al., 2023). The racial wealth gap has persisted since the fall of chattel slavery. In a 2022 Brookings report, researchers found that “for every $100 wealth held by white households, Black households held only $15.” In a fair society, Black descendants of slavery wouldn’t be the group with the least amount of wealth in this country. But some buy into legitimizing myths that suggest Black Americans are either lazy, less intelligent, or disciplined enough to catch up on their own merits, a presumption that overlooks the intergenerational impact of racism in this country. When people praise this country, Black Americans are faced with the irony that this nation hasn’t lived up to those ideals.
Enslaved laborers built the White House in Washington, D.C., the U.S. Capitol, the Smithsonian Institution, Wall Street in New York, and Harvard Law School in Massachusetts, to name a few. They built some of the nation’s most iconic landmarks, yet the history of Black people and their direct and indirect role in shaping this nation are too often overlooked. Research suggests that “Black families whose ancestors were enslaved until the Civil War have considerably lower education, income, and wealth than Black families whose ancestors were free before the Civil War. The disparities between the two groups have persisted substantially because most families enslaved until the Civil War lived in states with strict Jim Crow regimes after slavery ended (Althoff & Reichardt, 2024).” Nearly half of all Black workers in the United States earn less than $15 an hour. Characterizing this country as one where anyone willing to work hard can become successful overlooks the barriers Black Americans continue to face and how stubborn the racial hierarchy is.
The transatlantic slave trade is considered the largest long-distance forced migration in human history. “As of 1807, four out of every five people who came from the Old World to the New World had come from Africa, not Europe,” Baptist wrote. Unlike the huddled masses who would arrive in the latter part of the century, they did not have a choice. The lack of consent in this migration makes it inappropriate to label Black Americans, or Black Caribbeans for that matter, as “immigrants.” Many overlook slavery’s role as an economic foundation, assuming the plantation-based industry couldn’t keep up with northern industrialization and, as a result, was destined to fail. But that perspective overlooks the immense wealth generated by chattel slavery. Contrary to popular belief, America’s first big business was slavery, not the railroads. Yet some are hesitant to reckon with that uncomfortable truth, that Black people were foundational to the economic development of this country. But the historical record sets the record straight. By 1854, Louisiana produced “nearly 25% of the world’s sugar and was the largest slave market in the United States.” And, according to Sven Beckert, a history professor at Harvard University, “more than half of the nation’s exports in the first six decades of the 19th century consisted of raw cotton,” harvested by enslaved Black people.
“With cash crops of tobacco, cotton, and sugar cane, America’s southern states became the economic engine of the burgeoning nation,” the author, Greg Timmons, wrote. “By the start of the war, the South was producing 75 percent of the world’s cotton and creating more millionaires per capita in the Mississippi River valley than anywhere in the nation. Enslaved workers represented Southern planters’ most significant investment — and the bulk of their wealth.” As a result, we cannot ignore the role forced labor played in fueling America’s economic engine, nor the fact that Black Americans’ advocacy laid the foundation for immigrant groups to come here. The abolition of chattel slavery, the establishment of equal rights, due process, birthright citizenship, and other civil rights can all be traced to their efforts. Saying this country was built by immigrants may come from a good place, perhaps out of frustration that many people refuse to acknowledge the positive contributions of those who migrated here by choice. Given the anti-immigration policies adopted by the Trump administration, misinformation about foreigners is rampant. Still, this phrasing is historically inaccurate and misleading, especially when uttered by a Black son of immigrants on the first day of Black History Month.
Suggesting that “immigrants built this country” or that anyone willing to work hard can become successful overlooks the racial discrimination that hardworking Black Americans continue to endure. The National Women’s Law Center found that “Black women working full time, year-round are paid only 63 cents for every dollar paid to their white, non-Hispanic male counterparts — leading to a lifetime loss of $867,920.” Even Black women willing to spend most waking hours on-the-clock can’t catch up to White men. It’s racism, not willingness to labor, that divides these groups. Lastly, before Christopher Columbus and other European colonizers traveled here, there were over sixty million Indigenous people living in North America. Those who immigrated to British, Spanish, or French colonies before the American Revolution or after 1776 moved onto land that had been forcibly taken from its original inhabitants and enriched by profits generated from the African slave trade. No matter what hopes and dreams various groups of immigrants carried with them, the cruelty and exploitation of Black labor associated with America’s founding should not be overlooked. A pleasant narrative shouldn’t trump an honest one.