Repost


If you’re new(ish) to this blog, I’d like to encourage you to read two older postings. In case you missed them.

  • Unfairness, Perpetuated – A friend of mine recently complained that white racists like to adopt a position that “now that black people are free, they haven’t made anything of themselves.” Never mind that ignores a tremendous amount of accomplishment – which is insulting – it also ignores the fact that white people “freed the slaves” and then immediately came up with a new mechanism for keeping black people down. In this posting, Robert Paul Wolff explains how the economic knock-on effect of one tiny bit of racism can affect the outcome of a family for generations.
  • Seceding Over Slavery – The entire “states rights” and secession attempt by the south was just a recapitulation of a successful strategy that Americans had used before.

If we were white, if we were Irish, if we were Jewish, or Poles, if we had in fact in your mind a frame of reference, our heroes would be your heroes, too. And Nat Turner would be a hero for you, instead of a threat. Malcolm X might still be alive. And everyone is proud of brave little Israel – I don’t want to be misinterpreted, I’m not an antisemite – but you know when the Israelis pick up guns, or the Poles, or the Irish or any white man in the world says “give me liberty or give me death!” the entire white world applauds. When a black man says exactly the same thing – word for word – he is judged a criminal and treated like one and everything possible is done to make an example of this bad nigger so there won’t be any more like him.

– James Baldwin (interview with Dick Cavett)

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I’m not under the illusion that my writing is incredible, that’s not why. Actually, the posts I’m talking about largely consist of quotes. I think the topics is important.

Comments

  1. Reginald Selkirk says

    … hey haven’t made anything of themselves. … the economic knock-on effect of one tiny bit of racism can affect the outcome of a family for generations.

    Donald Trump and the Self-Made Sham
    As an in-depth investigation by The Times has revealed, Mr. Trump is only self-made if you don’t count the massive financial rewards he received from his father’s business beginning as a toddler. (By age 3, little Donald was reportedly pulling in an annual income of what today would be $200,000 a year.) These benefits included not only the usual perks of hailing from a rich, well-connected family — the connections, the access to credit, the built-in safety net. For the Trumps, it also involved direct cash gifts and tens of millions in “loans” that never charged interest or had to be repaid. Fred Trump even purchased several properties and business ventures, putting ownership either fully or partly in the names of his children, who reaped the profits…”

  2. says

    Reginald Selkirk@#1:

    By age 3, little Donald was reportedly pulling in an annual income of what today would be $200,000 a year.

    I spent much of last evening yelling at the TV every time a talking-head said that 3-year old Donald earned $200,000 a year. Thank you for stating it correctly!