It’s interesting what happens to places that were historical hotbeds of racism like Cairo, Illinois. You can see the intersection where two lynchings took place over a century ago, and all the crumbling buildings that aren’t being preserved. Strangely, there’s an arch proudly proclaiming ‘Historic Downtown Cairo’ amongst nothingness, about a block away from where all the shit went down. It’s as if the town wants to preserve something, but they don’t know what. Or they can’t be forthright about it. It’s absolutely bone-chilling.
"how slaves developed skills which, in some instances, could be applied for their personal benefit". Mmmm, actually, the Africans came with far more skills than the whites, like, oh, the entirety of southern cuisine and the entirety of music that has come from the south that didn't involve the glorification of legalized lynching. Compare the productivity of the gardens they were allowed to tend for themselves to the cash crops they were forced to tend. They didn't learn jack squat from the enslavers.
During WW2 both of the major Axis powers enslaved millions. One source of slave labour was POWs from the UK and USA. They were treated as slaves are treated and many died from the conditions that they suffered. At the end of the war, those activities were called 'war crimes'. And people were tried and executed for them. I want to find the folks in the US at least who would defend what happened to US citizens - possibly members of their family - and get them to explain how there is a difference between those events and what went on during the years that slavery endured in North America.
First they make it illegal to teach that racism exists.
Then they pull all books by and about black people from the schools.
Now they’re making it mandatory to teach that slavery wasn’t bad and that it “civilized” black people.
Because once you convince an entire generation that slavery was good and even necessary, that’s the first step toward re-enslavement.
Sound crazy? So did gassing millions of people in Germany. Fascism works in incremental steps. The frog is sitting in the pot, unaware that the water temperature is rising.
See also war crimes far more recent like in the breakup of Yugoslavia, the systematic murders of Tutsi in Rwanda or the kidnapping and resettlement of Ukrainian children and the treatment of the Uyghurs and the Rohingya.
And do these standards treat Andrew Jackson as a hero for how he treated the Seminole?
I suppose that refusing to recognize, or even mention, the brutal horrors their ancestors inflicted upon Black people is some kind of acknowledgement that their ancestors were dispicable, cruel, ignorant monsters.
Perhaps the greatest benefit of slavery was being taught to speak English by illiterate, inbred rednecks and crackers, with their very limited vocabularies largely consisting of euphemisms and slang. And were taught so well they didn't need to learn how to read or write...never mind that several 'individual' state legislatures criminalized that part of a slave's education.
"The slaves learned skills..." What, like people living in societies in Africa for 20,000 generations, with tons of skills, in agriculture, homebuilding, forest survival, religion, natural medicine, art, and music, not to mention mathematics and languages, are brought to America, and "learn skills" that can help them? Oh, saying it that way, that would 𝘩𝘶𝘮𝘢𝘯𝘪𝘻𝘦 them.
New scholarship:
The WROUGHT IRON breakthroughs that were a hallmark of the INDUSTRIAL REVOLUTION in the UK were based on technology developed by enslaved Black workers in Jamaica, who collaborated and pooled the metallurgy techniques they had brought from many different parts of Africa: https://mikkipedia.substack.com/p/the-industrial-revolution-was-black and https://www.theguardian.com/science/2023/jul/05/industrial-revolution-iron-method-taken-from-jamaica-briton
When I did, I didn't really have the context. And I was probably too young, chronologically and otherwise.
Sounds great! If I go back, I'll look at Fodor's and take your suggestion.
It’s interesting what happens to places that were historical hotbeds of racism like Cairo, Illinois. You can see the intersection where two lynchings took place over a century ago, and all the crumbling buildings that aren’t being preserved. Strangely, there’s an arch proudly proclaiming ‘Historic Downtown Cairo’ amongst nothingness, about a block away from where all the shit went down. It’s as if the town wants to preserve something, but they don’t know what. Or they can’t be forthright about it. It’s absolutely bone-chilling.
"how slaves developed skills which, in some instances, could be applied for their personal benefit". Mmmm, actually, the Africans came with far more skills than the whites, like, oh, the entirety of southern cuisine and the entirety of music that has come from the south that didn't involve the glorification of legalized lynching. Compare the productivity of the gardens they were allowed to tend for themselves to the cash crops they were forced to tend. They didn't learn jack squat from the enslavers.
During WW2 both of the major Axis powers enslaved millions. One source of slave labour was POWs from the UK and USA. They were treated as slaves are treated and many died from the conditions that they suffered. At the end of the war, those activities were called 'war crimes'. And people were tried and executed for them. I want to find the folks in the US at least who would defend what happened to US citizens - possibly members of their family - and get them to explain how there is a difference between those events and what went on during the years that slavery endured in North America.
First they make it illegal to teach that racism exists.
Then they pull all books by and about black people from the schools.
Now they’re making it mandatory to teach that slavery wasn’t bad and that it “civilized” black people.
Because once you convince an entire generation that slavery was good and even necessary, that’s the first step toward re-enslavement.
Sound crazy? So did gassing millions of people in Germany. Fascism works in incremental steps. The frog is sitting in the pot, unaware that the water temperature is rising.
We're not allowed to talk about the rising water temperature. That would be politicizing the dinner.
See also war crimes far more recent like in the breakup of Yugoslavia, the systematic murders of Tutsi in Rwanda or the kidnapping and resettlement of Ukrainian children and the treatment of the Uyghurs and the Rohingya.
And do these standards treat Andrew Jackson as a hero for how he treated the Seminole?
I suppose that refusing to recognize, or even mention, the brutal horrors their ancestors inflicted upon Black people is some kind of acknowledgement that their ancestors were dispicable, cruel, ignorant monsters.
Perhaps the greatest benefit of slavery was being taught to speak English by illiterate, inbred rednecks and crackers, with their very limited vocabularies largely consisting of euphemisms and slang. And were taught so well they didn't need to learn how to read or write...never mind that several 'individual' state legislatures criminalized that part of a slave's education.
Did I mention Birb lives in this dumb state and it sucks?
"The slaves learned skills..." What, like people living in societies in Africa for 20,000 generations, with tons of skills, in agriculture, homebuilding, forest survival, religion, natural medicine, art, and music, not to mention mathematics and languages, are brought to America, and "learn skills" that can help them? Oh, saying it that way, that would 𝘩𝘶𝘮𝘢𝘯𝘪𝘻𝘦 them.
And, as I note in a later comment, the entire "Southern" cuisine.
Snowflakes in FL. Vile, despicable snowflakes. Apparently even climate change can’t do anything about that. 🤬
It's Florida.
I'm sure that when she said that the "darkest parts of our history are addressed", she wasn't making a Freudian slip or anything.
Free skills and no college loans.
I guess that compensates for your spouse and kids being sold sold down the river.
I had 4th grade last year and I told them all about Jim Crow and other subversive facts. Good thing I don't live in Florida.