Some BLM supporters claim that during US slavery and Jim Crow, White People had the unrestricted advantage of generation upon generation of opportunities in building wealth and education that have been passed down to their descendants; that Police are inherently an offspring of Slave Patrols of the South that target Black People; and that the US Government and all of its aspects were created for White People and are racist.
The below facts and opinion are in response to that narrative:
MORE than 400 years ago people of every race were enslaved by people of their own race and of different races. Becoming a slave was dependent on five factors: 1) economic or social status 2) indebtedness to others 3) prisoners of war 4) citizens of inferior societies, and 5) religion. The color of skin of the master or slave was irrelevant. Over 100 Countries still have slaves, with Mauritania Africa being at the top of the list. Mauritania, on the West coast of Africa, is on the list at number one because they have over twenty percent of their people being forced into slavery.
Slavery has existed since civilization began and was generally accepted by the majority. Through warfare, slave owners could potentially become slaves and they knew it. This ironically did not sour them from owning other humans. Going back as far as Greece and Rome, freed slaves were limited in their ability to vote, own land, hold office or participate in politics. Slaves and former slaves have historically been looked upon as a lower class or invisible. 400 years ago, the Barbary and African Slave Trades were prevalent throughout the continent of Africa. These slaves were White and Black and were captured, enslaved, and sold by Arab Muslims and Africans to anyone that would buy them. Originally, slaves were predominantly captives from tribal battles and/or criminals of some sort, including debtors. RACE was not a factor in slavery until the Transatlantic Slave Trade as slaves moved from all races to predominantly Black and the “class” of a person could mostly be determined by the color of their skin. Because Europeans settled the America’s and slavery had been accepted for at least a century before in Europe, the continuation of slavery was not a foreign concept nor an ethical one, let alone illegal.
Homo Sapiens have been evolving for over 300k years. As we evolve, we progress into what we perceive as better conditions for ourselves and our fellow man. The “traditional” slave has been a part of this evolution until very recently. Unfortunately, it seems to be of historical and human nature to dominate those of lesser stature as we still have human trafficking and various forms of slavery in existence today. Perhaps we are not so far removed from animalistic behavior as we would like to think. Considering it took about 450k years for fire to become a routine tool used by humans, it is not unreasonable to think it will take a considerable amount of time and persistence to recondition ourselves out of the deeply ingrain concept of dominance and slavery and what it meant or means to be a slave. Of course, I am in no way condoning slavery, but I am also not willing to condemn it as a mortal sin of our ancestors as they did not understand or perceive it as such. Just as cannibalism, torture or burning at the stake are considered brutal and inhumane today, slavery today is also viewed in that same light. The point is, these were all once widely accepted practices that through growth and evolution have been predominately wiped out of existence. Keep in mind that it is absolutely irrational to think we can apply today’s standards to the lives of yesterday’s people, but I believe we must acknowledge how primitive we were and how much we have evolved. We still have a long way to go in eliminating destructive and inhumane behaviors from our world, but we have accomplished so much in such a very short period of time and our progress should be celebrated, not destroyed.
Recent history gives us the United States of America that was founded in 1776 and in 1865 slavery was abolished in our Nation. Abolitionists began the movement to rid the US of slavery immediately following the American Revolution. Western expansion at the beginning of the 1800’s began the process of “Free States” that forebode slavery. In 1862 President Abraham Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation. In 1865 the 13th Amendment was ratified. After WWII, the US saw an increased push for Civil Rights. In 1948 the military was integrated and in 1954 the school systems were integrated. In 1964 the Civil Rights Act was signed into law. In 1965 the Voting Rights Act was signed into law and in 1968 the Fair Housing Act was signed into law, thereby officially abolishing Jim Crow laws. All of this would not have been possible if the majority of the citizens of the United States did not make it happen. Note that White People were the majority at 88% of the US population in 1960. Slavery was legal in the United States for less than 100 years. That’s pretty amazing considering it existed, and still exists in parts of the world today, and was accepted amongst humans of all races for thousands and thousands of years.
The system and structure of our Republic was created and modeled for the People of the times-1776. Our Republic is the BEST system in the WORLD! Whether you agree or disagree, you must understand that it was NOT created just for White People, it was created for United States Citizens. The definition of a United States Citizen has changed over time — it has evolved, as we have evolved. Verbiage of the original Constitution has been revised by Amendments. Local laws have been abolished and rewritten to be inclusive of all Citizens. THAT is the beauty of our Republic. All races and genders are considered equal under the United States Constitution today.
Even as our laws have changed, we should acknowledge that Black People ARE at a disadvantage because of their minority status. But so are women, Hispanics, Asians, Gays, etc., because they are also minorities. This is NOT a racial issue. This is an effect of IN GROUP BIAS. In group bias, or in group favoritism, is a bias in which people tend to favor people who exist in similar groups as them. These groups could be formed by gender, race, religion, or even a favorite sports team. We tend to overwhelmingly favor people who are like us and who belong to these similar groups. Think about your life and who you flock to most. Look at how the weak kid was treated when picking teams, the fat kid for Prom King or Queen or the nerdy kid in class. In the United States the majority is White — therefore, you see a majority of White in group bias. However, when a White Person travels to an area where they are not the majority, they also experience what some would call “racism” or “in group bias.” This is a FACT.
244 years. The United States of America has been the United States of America for just two hundred and forty-four years. Considering how long it took humans to accept the use of fire, I think we are doing pretty darn good at evolving from a peculiar institution that has been in ALL our “DNA” since the dark ages. Disadvantages are being addressed daily but unfortunately the “fix” for some of those disadvantages tends to tip the scale in the opposite direction. Rather than enacting programs to ensure discrimination is abolished and people are included based on their merit and not their race, gender etc., we have created discrimination at 180 degrees in the opposite direction with programs like Affirmative Action and benefits created for one’s specific race. This is not truly a “fix” and there are some people who refuse to acknowledge this. We ALL evolve each and every day, and hopefully we ALL learn to accept the differences in each other, and the similarities. EVERY ONE of us has bias, and bias is NOT racism although we do need to address the bias’s in our society. One cannot expect perfection in an imperfect world, but we can certainly continue to strive for it.
The years of advantage, or White Privilege, that some people say White People have had over Black People is a SEMI-truth. First, not all White People were free, wealthy, or educated. Just as not all Black People were slaves, poor or uneducated. These three aspects alone put some White People in step terribly similar to the economic and social status of slaves and some Black People in the economic and social status of the wealthy. The Panic of 1797, the bank and trust failures of 1857 and 1873, the 1893 Reading Railroad bust, the 1907 Recession, the 1929–1938 Great Depression, the Dust Bowl, the 1945, 1949 1953, 1957, and 1960 Recessions, and more, along with war, natural disasters, tax hikes and cuts, as well as the political environment ALL had a significant impact on ALL US citizens and their wealth. Many people of ALL races lost everything. Many people that had nothing were driven even further in debt or died from poor conditions, starvation, or suicide. Let us not forget the many, many women and children that were left with no bread winner after the numerous wars of our Country that were predominately fought by White Men. The Revolutionary War, the War of 1812, the Mexican-American and the Civil War, the Spanish-American War, etc. Even the World Wars were predominately White. Many of those that did make it home were crippled or suffered from PTSD and could no longer work to provide for their families. The expansion West took its toll on many White families. Industrializing the Nation cost many lives of ALL races. And how can anyone be so presumptuous to assume every White Male was savvy enough to invest his and his family’s finances wisely? Education was also a MAYBE for White People. Many White children were needed to work to help feed the family and many migrated West with their families where there was no access to education. ALL these factors must be considered when we speak of Reparations and this idea that ALL White People had an advantage over ALL Black People is just plain not true. However, we can acknowledge that White People THEORETICALLY had a POTENTIAL advantage during slavery and Jim Crow, if none of the above disasters or necessities affected their POTENTIAL wealth and education. We must acknowledge that not ALL White People came to America with a silver spoon and most worked their tails off to MAYBE survive and POSSIBLY gain wealth and knowledge. There were no absolutes and certainly no guarantees. “What if’s” do not count. Sure, a good majority of White People of early American history had the POSSIBILITY of success more so than the majority of Black People. We can all acknowledge that. We all MUST acknowledge that. But the absolutes and the ideal that ALL White People of today benefited from our ancestors needs to stop. It is just not true. The majority did not.
The aspect that Police are racist toward Black People and that police originated from Slave Patrols is another fallacy. Law enforcement has always existed in one form or another. The first constables (from the Roman comes stabuli, or “head of the stables”) with duties very similar to today’s sheriffs, were around at least since the 9th century, and traveled to the Americas from Europe to supplant the systems that existed there at the time in the 1600s. In the American colonies the constable was the first law enforcement officer. His duties varied from place to place according to the needs of the people he served. Usually, the constable sealed weights and measures, surveyed land, announced marriages, and executed all warrants. Additionally, he meted out physical punishments and kept the peace. Moreover, the attempt to paint policing — all policing “across America,” in former slave states and free states alike — as the poisoned fruit of American slavery is problematic. First, every decent country has police, including the non-white ones. Second, the South lost the Civil War. Under Reconstruction, the Radical Republicans imposed the North’s will on the South. The slave patrols were disbanded. Some patrollers did indeed become police. But so did African-Americans. Meanwhile, the evil energies of the patrols were primarily expressed elsewhere — in the form of vigilante groups like the KKK. When Reconstruction ended, the South imposed tyrannical Jim Crow laws. In other words, the history is complicated. But the important point is that it is history, not America today. As far as today’s Police concentrating their energy on Black People, the statistics prove otherwise. A new study published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences demolishes the narrative regarding race and police shootings, which holds that white officers are engaged in an epidemic of racially biased shootings of black men. It turns out that white officers are no more likely than black or Hispanic officers to shoot black civilians. It is a racial group’s rate of violent crime that determines police shootings, not the race of the officer. The more frequently officers encounter violent suspects from any given racial group, the greater the chance that members of that racial group will be shot by a police officer. In fact, if there is a bias in police shootings after crime rates are considered, it is against white civilians, the study found.
While I understand the plight of the disadvantaged in today’s US society and I truly hope we can strive to overcome this, I struggle with the focus being on any one particular group as there are many, many people such as Hispanics, the homeless, Gays, the poor and women facing the same or similar disadvantages as African-Americans in our society. I also vehemently disagree with Cancel Culture and I rebuke the concept that ONLY White People are at fault for all the above. Being Black does not always mean you have suffered more than the next person any more than being White does not mean you have always worked harder for what you have, and vice versa. Being Black does not mean your ancestors where not part of the problem any more than being White means your ancestors are the problem. And being Black, White, Asian, Gay, etc should ALWAYS allow you to be proud of who you are, your race, your culture, and what you represent. Having the ability to shout or express “White Pride” should be just as accepted as being able to shout or express “Black Pride” and so forth, without judgement, and for as long as we deem it necessary to differentiate each other by color or race.
While the perspective of a White, heterosexual woman clearly cannot fully understand the perspective of a person of color, a male or of a person of the LGBTQ+ community, it is my hope that the facts and opinion provided above will shed light on the concept and history of slavery and discrimination and the evolution away from it. We will never escape in group bias, but we can all strive to recognize it and consciously work to credit or discredit people based solely on their merits and character, and work our very hardest to pass better standards on to our next generation. We also cannot expect 300,000 years of slavery and the effects of slavery to be “cured” in 150 years. It is and will continue to be, a work in progress.
~Sue Ann
MsMadDog51 Publications
09/08/2020
