Slavery by Another Name

[pat_k]

I recently read the book: Slavery by Another Name: The Re-Enslavement of Black Americans from the Civil War to World War II. I highly recommend it. It's difficult, but crucial reading.

I just discovered that PBS also made a documentary. The coverage is not as in-depth, but they did a decent job:

[sheshe2]

1. I read the book several years ago.

Thanks. I will be bookmarking your link.

A well done, yet painful read by Blackmon.

[Warpy]

2. Aceess to the wealth creating mechanism was stolen up north, too

by unfair hiring practices (last hired, first laid off) and redlining entire neighborhoods, so that people couldn't buy or sell property or get loans to repair it if by some chance they did own it.

[pat_k]

5. This goes way beyond that.

See replies below, or better yet, set aside some time to watch the documentary. (It even read the book.)

[Warpy]

6. Of course it does. I remember it when much of it was still going on

and stored it away until I grew up and understood it.

I'm just pointing out that while the worst viciousness was in former slave states, the rest of the country is certainly not blameless when it comes to systematic racism and the doctrine of keeping a formerly enslaved people in their place.

[pat_k]

7. Yes.

There are still lessons to be learned from the refusal of the Roosevelt administration --and beyond-- to act. There were very conscious decisions at all levels to tolerate enslavement and torture of leased prisoners. Treatment utterly intolerable in any society that claims to have even a modicum of decency or humanity.

[watrwefitinfor]

3. For anyone who thinks they understand the prison system in the US-

and the black experience after slavery - You must see this video.

It is an amazing, very professional PBS feature length adaptation of the book. "The words spoken by the actors are based on original documents, including sworn testimony." And the book is just full of that testimony.

The book also documents the efforts against the system that developed, as well, including a number of both individual and governmental efforts. It also documents a society that closed its eyes to this massive evil. It also documents how wage slavery was built on top of this system of black and penal slavery. The book is a difficult slog, but it tells a detailed story we all need to be aware of.

And there is so much testimony and research in the book that the video couldn't begin to cover. Still, it captures and vividly tells the whole story in a way a book couldn't make come alive.

As a small white child in the South Carolina countryside I watched the "chain gangs" come out on the old school bus - wearing the striped outfits and shackled together in pairs - and work on the dirt road and ditches with shovels and bush-axes, all day, in the heat, always with a guard with a long gun.

And how fortunate I was to have a grandfather who explained to the initially scared child that the men were prisoners, but they were not violent men, just men who had gone afoul of the law in minor ways. So even this little child of the south could grasp the evil. A grandfather who then took a pail of fresh well-water and a dipper down for the men to pass around, while he chatted with the guard. About the weather and the crops I imagine.

Later, as a young woman in a small Georgia town, I saw a city truck pull up in front of my house with two apparent city workers. A big, burly youngish white man exited from the driver's side. A much older, wiry little black man with grey hair also exited, removed a shovel from the back of the truck, and began working with the shovel in the ditch. In the hot Georgia sun. As the big, much younger white guy leaned on the truck and watched him for what must have been several hours.

And I was struck by how anyone in the south could grow up watching such shit and not be moved to try to do something to change it. I called my little children in to watch and explained to them how wrong it was. A small incident to be sure (and they were so young I doubt they even remember it). But one that was repeated all over the south in some fashion or another. And I wanted my children to watch and see and be moved by it as I was.

And when I watched this video a few years ago I was reminded of that day, for it was part of the culmination of the events shown in the video. Part of the whole situation in the south (that affected the whole country) and that brought about and culminated in the events leading to George Floyd; to Black Lives Matter. This continuing relationship between master and slave that our country has been built on.

I purchased a copy of the video on the PBS website. Loaned it to a friend on the west coast who didn't grow up in the south and was totally unfamiliar with "how it was" here but wanted to learn. A short time later she returned the video, and enclosed the book which she had gone out and purchased just for me, to repay me for loaning her the movie. As I said, the book is a slog. But it completely captivates.

Watch the video, and follow the dots to Black Lives Matter. Send the link to everyone you know. And if you are moved, do get a copy of the book for the whole story.

It is amazing how far we haven't come.

Wat

[pat_k]

4. Thank you so much for your thoughts and experience

Another thing that is so striking is the magnitude of the corruption of the courts and "policing" that evolved with the sole purpose of convicting as many black people as possible of bogus or minor offenses -- convictions that resulted in years of enslavement (and often death) in conditions even more appalling than chattel slavery.

When enslaved people were "property,," owners generally refrained from working them to death. Not so with the leasing of prisoners. The system evolved into a production line that could "turn out" a seemingly never ending "supply" of wrongfully imprisoned/enslaved human beings. The conditions in the mines, steel mills, plantations, and other industries was nothing less than outright torture. Because it was a system of leasing, it cost no more to simply "replace" those who were killed.

And then there was the "bonus." With a black prison population of 80 to 90 percent, the universal narrative was that black people committed crime at every opportunity. They had to be "controlled" in every way possible.

The stereotype remains firmly implanted in the American psyche.

As you say, this is difficult, but absolutely necessary reading. Just as "good people",turned a blind eye to the holocaust, "good" Americans turned a blind eye to the industrialized enslavement that continued, virtually unchecked, into WWII.

As a people, we must recognize and acknowledge the existence of a "collective" disconnection from empathy in the face of suffering. The disconnection is not necessarily total, or as extreme as at other times in our history, but that disconnection persists. We, as a people, witness dehumanizing poverty, homelessness, massively unequal education systems, mass incarceration, police brutality, and on and on -- and we, as a nation, tolerate it. And we will continue to tolerate it until enough of us reconnect to our humanity and declare "no more."

[watrwefitinfor]

8. Thank you, Pat. You summed up the book and

the whole "system" so eloquently.

May I also recommend "The Long Walk Home" - Sissy Spacek and Whoopi Goldberg as a young white housewife and mother and the black woman who worked as her maid, and who was active in the Montgomery Bus Boycott. It reminded me of growing up in that atmosphere and brought back all the emotions involved in being young and white and caring in the south at that time.

We, as a people, witness dehumanizing poverty, homelessness, massively unequal education systems, mass incarceration, police brutality, and on and on -- and we, as a nation, tolerate it. And we will continue to tolerate it until enough of us reconnect to our humanity and declare "no more."

I was so proud of all the young Black Lives Matter demonstrators this past summer - and so full of hope and joy that so many of them were white. And perhaps the beginning of the reconnection to humanity you described.

Wat

[pat_k]

9. Thanks for the recommendation. It's on the list!

Long Walk Home is listed as being included with Amazon Prime, but when you go to it, it says "This video is currently unavailable to watch in your location."

The only place I could find it is Pluto. It is now marked. Wish it were streaming on a commercial-free service, but at least it is available. I'm looking forward to it, particularly with your experience of it in mind.

For anyone else interested, here is the Pluto link (strangely, the service doesn't have a search, so it's a challenge to find):
https://pluto.tv/on-demand/movies/the-long-walk-home-1990-1-1

I too am cautiously hopeful that more white people are setting aside the notion that racism is countered with "not seeing color" or being "not racist" and are dedicating themselves to self-examination and becoming more effective and pro-active anti-racists. As Atticus Finch says to Scout:

“You never really understand a person until you consider things from his point of view… until you climb in his skin and walk around in it.”

And you can't attempt to walk in someone's shoes if you try to pretend you "don't see color" or believe it is only "bad people" who perpetuate racism. We must face reality and seek to understand the full spectrum of the contrasts in the "American Experience" between White Americans and Black Americans, Native Americans, Latin Americans, Asian Americans, and other groups. We need to connect with how traumatic and damaging those experiences are, our own role in the perpetuation of racism, and how urgently things need to change to spare future generations. (Although it is sometimes a useful term, I'm not a great fan of putting people into a single POC bucket. In particular, the "American Experience" for Black Americans and Native Americans over our history create unique, and deeply embedded and damaging structural conditions that must be understood.)

You're probably familiar with these books, but in case not, the ideas conveyed are helping me to find a more proactively "anti-racist" path.

White Fragility: Why It's So Hard for White People to Talk About Racism
Robin DiAngelo

How To Be An Anti-Racist (The opposite of "racist" isn't "not racist&quot
Ibram X. Kendi

And for friends and relatives who need a little push toward new thinking/approach, the series Facing Race on King5 (Seattle) is a good start. Episodes are available here.