"You won’t believe the questions I got about slavery"

[packman]

[URL=.html][IMG][/IMG][/URL]

An interesting read. The author used to lead tourist on a trip through a Southern plantation and answer some of their questions about the plantation, its owners and the slaves who worked in the fields and the house. The questions asked makes one cringe, but the insight the author has about those inquisitors is interesting also


"... Guests who expressed racism most openly to me often appeared to have had recent ancestors who were poor, who were prevented by convention and economics from rising in social status, and who were exploited by the powerful — but who were protected by their whiteness from the extreme oppression visited on African Americans. These guests felt that the deck had been stacked against them for generations, and their sense of ancestral victimhood was so personal that the suggestion that any group of people had it worse than their ancestors did was a threat to their sense of self.


And maybe some of these guests were just looking for somewhere to place their anger at their problems, their sense of powerlessness, and their discomfort at social change. They found a scapegoat in black America. I imagine that's what motivated Charleston shooter Dylann Roof — that sense of being aggrieved, and wanting someone to hate for it.

http://www.vox.com/2015/6/29/8847385/what-i-learned-from-leading-tours-about-slavery-at-a-plantation

[LWolf]

1. A very interesting,

if dismaying, read. Why would people who are so defensive about racial issues even take a tour that would include slavery, if it made them so uncomfortable?

Were they hoping for a whitewashing of the issue on the tour that would reinforce their racial bias?

[Solly Mack]

2. Damn

and I say again for emphasis - Damn.

[Marr]

3. I think the same reaction explains the higher rates of antisemitism in the black community.

"These guests felt that the deck had been stacked against them for generations, and their sense of ancestral victimhood was so personal that the suggestion that any group of people had it worse than their ancestors did was a threat to their sense of self."

I agree with that observation though-- I've perceived the same thing in some working class whites.

[fishwax]

4. an interesting read, and I guess not surprising

There is a flip side, I suppose, in that not all plantation tours care about historical accuracy or thoroughness as much as Margaret Biser does, and I'm sure that the people she talks about could find a "museum" where their anxieties would be assuaged and their distorted notions of the south's peculiar institution would be given harbor. I once went on a tour where the guide repeatedly referred to slaves as "the workers." When a few of us put some pressure on the notion, others (and the guide in particular) got rather uncomfortable. They didn't offer tours of the slave quarters there.

k/r

[SheilaT]

5. For a humorous take on this topic:

http://www.askaslave.com/watch.html

[phylny]

6. We were fortunate enough to visit St. Kitts and Nevis

earlier this year and took several tours. It was humbling and illuminating to hear and see how slaves were used and of course abused, and several sites not only had people telling us about it, but monuments explaining it as well.

One place, I think it was Romney Mansion, had a plaque near the bell tower that explained the tower is the only one left standing on the whole island because the owner actually did free his slaves when slavery was outlawed, as opposed to other plantation owners that swindled and cheated their way out of freeing their slaves, and the slaves didn't destroy it upon leaving. The bell towers were a hated symbol that directed every aspect of the people's lives.

My ancestors were from Italy, coming to the U.S. in the late 1800s/early 1900s, so even though my own family had nothing to do with slavery in this country, my white cheeks still burned red with embarrassment over what a group of people did to another group of people that was so heinous.