The protests in response to the murder of George Floyd represented a shift in action that many have waited too long for. While many of the riots were the result of a cause commandeered by opportunists, they nevertheless highlight what happens when a small contained fire is constantly doused by fuel. There is no way to discuss Black Lives Matter nor the events that have followed Mr. Floyd’s passing without zooming in on the past; pouring over the minutiae of Jim Crow, the War on Drugs and many other coded policies and laws that have been dog-whistles aimed to maintain the status quo. In order to move forward, these are the topics that need to be addressed as ultimately, these are the behaviors America’s youth are socialized to carry on. An enemy one cannot identify and spot, is an enemy that cannot be fought or defeated.
Between Africans brought to the North American continent as slave labor and the Native, indigenous population that were cast from their homeland to make way for the glorified America we see today, even history books have been unable to spin this narrative from the ugliness that it contains. That these groups still see the effects of their American introduction to this day speaks volumes as to how much those have set the stage for the American Dream to be a reality for those in favor. For a group that cultivated plantations and dared to dream of Manifest Destiny, these are not goals easily given up. The labor alone dictates that the instructions for upkeep would indeed be passed on to the offspring of these early American heroes. To understand today is to understand this goal. And even while the rules of the game may change, the game still finds a way to stay the same. Credit must be given to the system, how it has evolved, finding a way to not only exist but grow in its efficiency. With the ultimate goal to be self-sustaining in spite of the wishes to extinguish it. This is what came about with the abolishment of slavery, and even better institution that would be harder to defeat and overthrow: Jim Crow and its lineage. 1619 is often viewed as the genesis of slavery in America, yet this practice had been a tried-and-true phenomenon for at least 175 years up until then. In fact, the North American English colonies were late to the party. Seeing the impact the slave trade had for its European neighbors in Spain and Portugal, this institution represented perfect timing as the settlers of this land wished to start anew. As a nation is forming, just as a business, what works is etched in stone to repeat and build upon. Utilizing slave labor as a basis to cultivate and stimulate the economy, worked. When the rules of the game change, it’s time to adapt. In a fight to maintain their way of life, the Civil War broke out between the defectors - the Confederate States of America - and the Union. The Republicans - strong proponents of abolishing slavery - eventually persuaded then-President Abraham Lincoln to make a proclamation abolishing the practice, which would come after the Battle of Antietam. As W.E.B. DuBois would highlight in his work, Black Reconstruction in America, it was through Black laborers understanding their worth and value that ultimately tipped the favor to the Union, “the black worker won the war by a general strike which transferred his labor from the Confederate planter to the Northern invader, in whose army lines workers began to be organized in a new labor force.” While slavery may have been defeated, the aftermath of the South’s reintegration, the Reconstruction era, would prove to be a Southern victory; essentially landing the former Confederate entity in a better position than it previously held. The plan for Reconstruction included a strategy for the investment in schools, healthcare, and Southern infrastructure not simply for the former Confederates but thanks to the Freedmen’s Bureau this reached the former slave as well. Lincoln’s assassination would bring rise to President Andrew Johnson; and while Lincoln himself wasn’t necessarily the figure history boasts him to be, his successor was the opposite - unwilling to work with Congress and very much so seemingly a Confederate apologist of sorts. Reconstruction under Johnson gave way to Jim Crow, however, the true antagonist came from - as DuBois claimed - the psychological wage afforded to the white laborers sharing land-tilling duties with the formerly enslaved population. This, and this alone, can be seen as the father to the mindset we still see present today. It is the basis of the socialization that has kept much of the status quo from changing as the settings have changed over time while the code has largely remained intact. Two workers, bound together by circumstance and set side-by-side in having what should be deemed as the same goals in mind, were separated. A child of the divide-and-conquer stratagem, this was perhaps the best bit of adapting to new rules that occurred. “It must be remembered that the white group of laborers, while they received a low wage, were compensated in part by a sort of public and psychological wage. They were given public deference and titles of courtesy because they were white. They were admitted freely with all classes of white people to public functions, public parks and the best schools. The police were drawn from their ranks, and the courts, dependent on their votes, treated them with such leniency as to encourage lawlessness. Their vote selected public officials, and while this had small effect on [their] economic situation, it had great effect upon their personal treatment and the deference shown [to] them. White schoolhouses were the best in the community, and conspicuously placed, and they cost anywhere from twice to ten times as much per capita as the colored schools. The newspapers specialized on news that flattered the poor whites and almost utterly ignored the Negro except in crime and ridicule.” If this sounds oddly familiar - written in 1935 as an account of the late 19th century, it’s because this has been the foundation. The titles of courtesy and deference remained and grew, giving way to what we today know to be privilege. Treating the poor white laborer better bred the thought that if the black laborer was being mistreated that there must have been rationale to substantiate it. Nevermind that the poor white laborer didn’t receive any physical amenities - still putting them in the same boat as their black counterpart - but the emotional and psychological experience was deemed sufficient enough. As “us” versus “them” is firmly established, the white laborer is distracted from seeking to improve their own conditions. One could argue this was a tactic utilized by the current occupant of the White House during his Presidential campaign. It continues to work because while the livelihood of the white laborer is not ideal, it is not the experience of the black laborer - or so believed. Between the birth of the Ku Klux Klan, Black Codes, and other Jim Crow-era laws - essentially a century-long practice - it has been made abundantly clear the tenor of where the country stands as it pertains to sharing the ideals of America with its black population. Overt segregation and race-specific water fountains may have disappeared in “body” but kept alive in spirit. As slaves plotting escape needed to do to execute their plans, the instructions for this way of life became coded. Slavery ending didn’t mean those willing to fight to preserve it would suddenly share their toys nicely. They needed to be smarter, they needed to hide and adapt. Jim Crow’s ‘Negros only’ would only give way to the same thing, just communicated differently: redlining and other forms of society closed off to the unwanted. Even for those that scoff at cosigning the mantras of the Ku Klux Klan, the beauty of the psychological wage is the interweaving of the interest between those proudly flying their Confederate flag and those benefitting from the titles of courtesy and deference. The system, really the trick, is brilliant. Ironically, the “over my dead body” crowd that rant and rave about their Second Amendment rights have understood this to some extent. As NPR’s The Gun Show perfectly illustrates, the reform that came from the Black Panther Party storming the California State Capitol informed the White people behind the NRA’s about-face that this event could befall them as well. The LGBTQ community has also witnessed such vilification in their fight to secure rights to marriage, access to healthcare, and safety against people wishing to exact harm amongst their ranks. This battle between the oppressed groups of our country and the perpetrators of said oppression have been taken on as platforms of our two primary political parties. The problematic nature of this is that the calls for progress can be dismissed as mere talking points of the Democratic and Republican party; this resulting in a stalemate instead of advancements for human and civil rights. What has seemed to happen over time is the hardwiring of the same points of view from the late 1860s into the systems we rely on today. Has anything changed from the schoolhouses DuBois referenced to the school districts of today? Districts in suburban, predominately White communities are flush with resources while the school districts in inner-cities typically are at the bottom of each state’s school ranking list. To make matters worse, initiatives aimed at fixing this - such as Boston’s METCO program - only seem to highlight the elephant in the room, while doing very little to fix the school departments youth are lining up in droves to leave. What continues to be a paradox is how the realities minorities face are so easily acknowledged while simultaneously being downplayed. Pre-gentrification, many middle-classed Whites stayed far away from the dangerous cities that bordered their safe havens adopting a roll-up-your-windows and lock-your-doors approach to driving through said places, but somehow for the person living in these communities, the idea is for them to pull themselves up by their bootstraps as one’s ancestors - arriving in the U.S. from Ellis Island - had; completely ignoring that their assimilation did not follow the same trend as that of the Black slave descendant. Even with gentrification, parts seen particularly unsafe are still untouched, the same as how the revenue being brought into the city manages to only benefit the areas that are being gentrified and invested in. Nevertheless, any attempts to heal and undo should be applauded in their intent and the understanding should be that there will need to be many attempts - and all hands in - to find the right solutions. The city of Asheville, North Carolina passed a resolution aimed at identifying appropriate forms of reparations to pay to its Black population as an apology and atonement for its part in slavery and Jim Crow. While the measure is not perfect, there will be a lot of eyes on seeing how the city plans to roll out this initiative with specifics, what has been discussed thus far does get at the root of what needs to be addressed in any form of reparations that should be proposed. Per the municipal bill, the newly minted Community Reparations Commission would be responsible for developing programs and resources with the help of other organizations and cities that desire to play a role. The goal would be to increase home and business ownership for minorities and close the gaps that exist in healthcare, education, employment and pay as well as strategize efforts to grow equity and generational wealth. Councilwoman Sheneika Smith summarized the need for this initiative perfectly, “(Slavery) is this institution that serves as the starting point for the building of the strong economic floor for white America, while attempting to keep Blacks subordinate forever to its progress.” While not every participant in white America has had the access to reap the rewards of that ‘strong economic floor’, the cling to privilege - titles of courtesy and forms of deference - and individualism has created many accomplices in the lack of change. Americans are socialized to worry about themselves while still feeling capable of calling out the deficiencies of other Americans, despite no true attempts to help uplift or remove barriers to social mobility. This is due to the idea of jockeying for positioning on the societal totem pole, as opposed to understanding that too many Americans are in the same boat and together can demand a better situation if united. But those in power saw this strategy, worked, and were wise enough to create a system that allowed it to function on autopilot. Hopefully being aware of the trick can allow for better dialogue in toppling the oppression too many Americans face in the 21st century. An example is Ava Duvernay’s Netflix documentary, 13th, which shows how slavery had been abolished in all but name; an ode to how the amendment essentially allows slavery to be admissible for those imprisoned with the word except being present. The worldwide protests of the murder of Mr. Floyd and cries of Black Lives Matter have taken a large step forward towards that understanding of unity needed to undo this well-oiled machine. What we should have learned is that the chants of many far outnumber the silence of a few. And the constant push for change and reform can and will lead to progress. With the tricks of the enemy in tow, hopefully can work together as a nation to defeat this new iteration of 1619. We will need more listening, more understanding and more empathy to create a country that can finally live up to its Constitution’s creed. Comments are closed.
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Ty FosterQuestion everything. WQHC Archives
June 2020
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