tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-57113078446695664.post3702139099884027346..comments2024-03-17T20:04:18.872-05:00Comments on Indomitable | The online home of Chauncey DeVega: "Slavery's Enduring Resonance": From Slavery to Ferguson as Told by the Descendant of White Slavers in AmericaLady Zora, Chauncey DeVega, and Gordon Gartrellehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09138154899923808806noreply@blogger.comBlogger10125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-57113078446695664.post-42369860829310455212015-03-17T19:59:33.740-05:002015-03-17T19:59:33.740-05:00The rising tide lifts all boats, and racists are a...The rising tide lifts all boats, and racists are a bit like these two characters in a TinTin comic who drowned themselves by accident in the hopes that they'd take down Tintin with themDan Kasteraynoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-57113078446695664.post-79485223612708625632015-03-17T18:34:23.239-05:002015-03-17T18:34:23.239-05:00Understood. Absolutely.Understood. Absolutely.Dubious Brothernoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-57113078446695664.post-59952537115347228472015-03-17T18:30:49.218-05:002015-03-17T18:30:49.218-05:00Very well put. Yes; that's the problem.Very well put. Yes; that's the problem.balitwilightnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-57113078446695664.post-17970125401065457452015-03-17T18:25:42.480-05:002015-03-17T18:25:42.480-05:00My implication wasn't that blacks and whites w...My implication wasn't that blacks and whites were treated as equal. Nor that the invisible backpack doesn't exist. Only that slavery hurt the entire society in profit of the one percent. That today the great con of whiteness persists among working class people and gets them to vote against their own interest in the name of melanin is an ongoing tragedyDan Kasteraynoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-57113078446695664.post-22263057119673967642015-03-17T18:22:06.192-05:002015-03-17T18:22:06.192-05:00No, it wasn't Dan. But any honest discussion ...No, it wasn't Dan. But any honest discussion of this must also include the admission that having a buffer class of freedmen serve in a lower caste than sharecropping whites is what kept the south governable post-reconstruction. Whatever the white "working class" (read: poor) lacked, they still had whiteness, and the resultant benefits. Better schools. Better public accommodations. Better treatment. Add the help of Jim Crow, then the Southern Strategy, the Drug War, all with race as the main wedge issue (to this day), and you can see why poor southern whites identify with the GOP.Dubious Brothernoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-57113078446695664.post-20291237707158831592015-03-17T18:14:38.936-05:002015-03-17T18:14:38.936-05:00How about "slavers" and "descendant...How about "slavers" and "descendants of slavers"? Trouble is, the discussion is always on the "legacy of slavery" on blacks, never about the "legacy of slavery on slavers' descendants", and their various pathologies, myopia, etc.Dubious Brothernoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-57113078446695664.post-7593450265379621632015-03-16T16:26:21.914-05:002015-03-16T16:26:21.914-05:00I still hate the word "slaves", because ...I still hate the word "slaves", because it references massive crimes as though they were some essential nature of the victims. "Slave" does the same work in American culture that "race" does =vs= "racism": it magically renders the perpetrators invisible. "Slave" is what slavers call their victims. Even the term "slavery" is passive - like "cannibalism" - and doesn't name perpetrators. ("Cannibals", in contrast, does).<br />Imagine if the southern United States had been filled with cannibals who captured and ate people they called "livestock". Would we also call their victimes "livestock"? In history books, would we have neutral paragraphs about "livestock" and virtually nothing about the cannibals?<br />It's a telling fact that American vocabulary doesn't have the accusative-equivalent to "slavery" that "Cannibals" is to "cannibalism". Because of this, it is the "black" children in any classroom who feel shame when the topic turns to "Slaves". Germany has its "Nazis": When that history comes up in German classrooms the Jewish children are not the ones who feel ashamed, and everyone knows who owns the burden of redemption.<br />American culture, still addicted to a delusional racial mythology, hasn't dared even approach the "truth" stage of reconciliation - never mind redemption.balitwilightnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-57113078446695664.post-81737293716109939752015-03-16T10:18:52.222-05:002015-03-16T10:18:52.222-05:00Honesty, its what we need. And technically speakin...Honesty, its what we need. And technically speaking the antebellum south wasn't so great for whites either. Workers earned less and unemployment was higher than in the North. Racism was the main wedge issueDan Kasteraynoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-57113078446695664.post-17842782056748242152015-03-15T15:30:18.448-05:002015-03-15T15:30:18.448-05:00To look in the face of one's own family histor...To look in the face of one's own family history and to engage it without excuse-making or deflections. Wonderful writing and intellectual integrity.<br /><br /><br />We are refueling each other here on WARN!chauncey devegahttp://wearerespectablenegroes.blogspot.com/noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-57113078446695664.post-77140333228371840432015-03-15T15:22:06.809-05:002015-03-15T15:22:06.809-05:00Kudos to Dr. Ball for his eloquence on what has to...Kudos to Dr. Ball for his eloquence on what has to be a very personal connection. I have long felt that it is only when good people cease to hide behind their masks of anonymity can true social change happen. We have to stand-up and be counted for our vociferous objection to injustice wherever we find it.<br /><br /><br />I'm sure I speak for many others, when I say that I visit WARN to refuel my spirit to fight the good fight.<br /><br /><br />As you continue to do through your writing.SeaMikeJnoreply@blogger.com