From History to Crime

On March 25, 2026, the United Nations passed a resolution declaring the Transatlantic Slave Trade the “Gravest Crime Against Humanity.” The full resolution reads: “Declaration of the Trafficking of Enslaved Africans and Racialized Chattel Enslavement of Africans as the Gravest Crime Against Humanity.”

This caught my attention in a deeply personal way, I mostly kept to myself because, as usual, others were already finding ways to dismiss it or criticize it.

When the day came for the vote, even though the United States voted no, I felt a deep sense of peace. The kind of peace that comes after a long-fought battle—one you weren’t sure you would ever see through to the end.

As someone said, the world is finally recognizing that this is not just a “bad part of history”—it is a CRIME. And that distinction matters… whether everyone acknowledges it yet or not.

Words matter.

It has taken me years to truly understand that words do indeed matter. It’s also why language around history matters so much—what we choose to name, what we choose to soften, and what we choose to erase. Recently there has been an increasingly growing effort to reshape how African American history is told (to include the Transatlantic slave trade), to focus only on the “goodness,” to alter the fact to make it look good, and even to remove books that challenge that narrative.

Days Later on Social Media

It has been about a week since the resolution passed, and I’ve noticed with that internal peace growing within myself, my patience for complaining and all the negativity has lessened.

As I sit here, with tears welling up in my eyes, I realize just how powerful this acknowledgment is to me. To know that what happened to my ancestors is being named for what it truly was—a CRIME—carries weight.

And something else has shifted.

My constant urge to check social media has faded.

In the first couple of days after the vote, I was still doom-scrolling. But then I came across a post from a man of African descent—unclear where he was from, and honestly, I didn’t have the energy to investigate—who dismissed the resolution as a “dog-and-pony show” because it didn’t also address the Trans-Saharan slave trade, which still exists in some regions today.

There were other posts too—each one attempting to diminish the significance of the moment.

That energy, that constant cycle of dismissal and negativity—it has soured my desire to engage at all. Yesterday, I barely looked at social media. And this morning, for the first time in a long time, I didn’t instinctively reach for my phone.

That felt like a shift.

Here’s the thing—in my opinion—there was a better way to respond. Something like:

“This is an important step in acknowledging the atrocities of the Transatlantic Slave Trade as a crime. Now let’s continue to grow in this space, while bringing attention to other slave trades as well.”

That kind of response adds to the conversation instead of shutting it down.

Moving Forward

In advocacy and historical discussions, this approach is often called “Both/And” thinking, rather than “Either/Or.”

Acknowledging the unique horrors of the Transatlantic Slave Trade does not take away from the urgency of addressing the Trans-Saharan slave trade or modern-day slavery.

It can be both.

And when we frame it that way, we transform cynicism into a call to action.

I think that’s where some of my exhaustion has been coming from—the endless cycle of commentary without action. It’s draining. So for me, I’m choosing something different.

I will continue to acknowledge this resolution—for what it represents, for what it affirms, and for the sense of peace it has brought me, for my/our ancestors.

What comes next… will be up to all of us.

How we choose to see it. How we choose to talk about it. And most importantly—what we choose to do.