Daily Kos: Racist Conservatives Sweep Slavery Under the Rug
In the ongoing left-wing parade of charges that conservatism equals racism, add Daily Kos blogger Chauncey de Vega, who on Wednesday night hailed a Salon.com article on the avoidance of slavery talk as another opportunity to weave together “the tapestry that is historical memory, the slave-holding South, and contemporary conservatism.”
“Adults who dress up in Colonial era period clothing, believe that the Constitution is divinely inspired, and take the metaphor of ‘a shining city on the hill’ as a get out of jail pass for America's shortcomings both at home and abroad, have little use for such facts," de Vega lectured. “Selection bias, Fox News, and an embrace of a fantastical view of political and social reality, protects the Tea Party GOP faithful from any experience of cognitive dissonance.”
Chauncey hailed Salon writer Larry Birkenhead:
As Birkenhead beautifully details, the rise of the New Right and the Tea Party, the Republican Party's fetish for the Confederacy, its Lost Cause ideology, and embrace of States' Rights and nullification have brought questions of historical memory to the forefront of the public discourse during the 2012 presidential primary season.
Moreover, the literal white washing of the history of a traitorous Confederacy, what was a military state dedicated to racial tyranny, and a willful lie about the benevolence of whiteness, loom large in the Conservative political imagination. Those dreams are amplified and made more imminent when a black man is President of the United States, because for the populist conservative, neo-Confederate crowd, nothing could be more of an abomination.
For Tea Party GOP conservatives, the rhetoric of American Exceptionalism is inexorably tied to a Gone With the Wind, Redemption, race and reunion narrative. This tale has no use for such "inconveniences" as chattel slavery, white supremacy, the genocide of indigenous people, and racial pogroms.
He also dragged out the call for white collective guilt and racial reparations:
Who is this "we" that do not feel the connections to slavery in our bones? Why must United States history, and the idea of shared (and manufactured) community, almost by definition exclude black Americans? I know that I feel slavery in my bones and spirit. Our struggle and triumph in the face of almost unimaginable White barbarism is a legacy to be honored. And when I think of the fact that my grandmother's grandmother was likely born a slave, the connection to "the peculiar institution" is pretty deep in my blood and soul.
In all, America wants to forget on its own terms, because to fully acknowledge the centuries of chattel slavery in this country, and almost a century of Jim and Jane Crow, may actually require an acknowledgement of debts due. As I have long suggested, it is not the financial or monetary compensation for harm done to black Americans both in the past, and to the present by Whites and the Racial State, that is necessarily the deal breaker. No, it is the acknowledgement of wrong doing, and the simple words "I am sorry, we were wrong," that are at the root of why reparations are a non-starter in the United States.
An apology doesn't "cost" a thing, but for Whiteness (and many White people), it seems to be prohibitively expensive.
Because we all know that the sins of the father (or mother) are never passed down to the son or the daughter. Ironically, the privileges of whiteness, materially, economically, psychically, and politically, can be accrued with interest (and with no accountability at all) for centuries without end.
That is one hell of a bargain.
- Tim Graham's blog
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Comments
Republicans = emancipation
Submitted by CO2Maker on Fri, 12/30/2011 - 8:53am.
Democrats = Jim Crow
For whites, "I'm sorry" is "prohibitively expensive." For blacks, "No, you're not and never will be" is way too easy.
BTW, Larry Birkenhead? Where does he wear his shoes?
THANK GOD FOR LIBERALS!
Submitted by syvyn11 on Fri, 12/30/2011 - 8:54am.
Cause if it weren't for them, no one would drag us back to the past. Instead of us looking to the future.
This jackwagon must have learned his history in a public school
Submitted by TheHistorian on Fri, 12/30/2011 - 9:31am.
For your information, Jackwagon from the Kos, the Republican Party was founded on the precept of ending slavery. It was you Dhimmocrats that wanted to keep them. The Republicans gave them full rights, and there were a number of black Representatives in the Congress who were co-incidentally, Republican. It was the Dhimmocrats who, in order to resolve the Hayes-Tilden election, ended Reconstruction, and pushed the blacks to the back of the bus. It was a Supreme Court defined by the Dhimmocrats that kept "separate but equal" (Plessy v. Ferguson) the law of the land. It was Woodrow Wilson (D, Progressive) that fired all blacks from Civil Service. But because the conservatives will not go to a bargaining table with a bunch of black radicals who have spent their entire career being "community organizers" to give more money to blacks for slavery that even their grandparents didn't endure, means that they are racist? When that gift fails (as does the lottery for so many poor people) what will the Kos and the guilt-ridden liberals want to do next? It is the DailyKos that is ignorant and backward, not the conservatives.
As far as the Confederate "flirting", that was kept alive by the Dhimmocrats that ran these states until the Republicans finally got the Voting Rights Act passed (1965? why didn't the vaunted FDR do it in the 30's? if Dhimmocrats were so worried about black equality?). Especially since it was the Progressives that were concerned about the "mongrelization" of the white race, and Margaret Sanger started Planned Parenthood over that concern in order to abort black babies. Finally, it was famous Democrats like J William Fulbright (the Bill Clinton Fulbright scholarship donator), Albert Gore Sr, and "KKK" Byrd that blocked the Voting Rights Act and so much other legislation during Eisenhower's push for it.
It is a tribute to the perfidy of the Democrats and the arrogance of the black leadership that blacks vote Dhimmocrat.
Dennis Prager
This "writer?"
Submitted by Tugboat Phil on Fri, 12/30/2011 - 9:31am.
Does not understand that the very Constitution he belittles, was written to allow for the correction of the wrongs that existed at it's ratification. Unfortunately it has also allowed a select few "Justices" to interpret it in many ways that seem the exact opposite of what is contained in it.
He has it exactly backward.
Submitted by motherbelt on Fri, 12/30/2011 - 9:38am.
.....it is not the financial or monetary compensation for harm done to black Americans both in the past, and to the present by Whites and the Racial State, that is necessarily the deal breaker. No, it is the acknowledgement of wrong doing, and the simple words "I am sorry, we were wrong," that are at the root of why reparations are a non-starter in the United States.
It's the other way around. The "acknowledgement of wrong doing" [sic] would provide leverage for infinite demands.
And reparations are a "non-starter" because everyone knows they will be a "never-ender."
mb,
Submitted by Agnostic on Fri, 12/30/2011 - 11:38am.
reparations as they continue for their share in largesse in the following programs:
War on Poverty: $7 Trillion
HUD: $62 billion for 2010 alone
War on Drugs: $40 Trillion
Other US Debt at least in part due to social programs benefiting (some would say favoring) various minorities: Take your pick
some other tidbits:
From 'How Poor are America's Poor" -
From Edgar Browning -
I estimate that Social Security benefits for those in the poorest fifth of the population totaled $100 billion in 2005. Medicare provided another $115 billion, and educating the children of low-income families cost $105 billion more. (These figures do not measure total spending on these programs but only the expenditures benefiting those in the lowest fifth of the income distribution.) To these sums we may add $40 billion in uncompensated medical care and $78 billion in private charity.
Grand total: $1.058 trillion in 2005. It would be larger today....If a trillion dollars were simply given to those counted as poor by the federal government (37 million in 2005), it would amount to $27,000 per person. That’s $81,000 for a family of three, higher than the median income of all American families, and far greater than the poverty threshold of $15,577.
and when they talk about
Submitted by motherbelt on Fri, 12/30/2011 - 11:42am.
and when they talk about "reparations" they mean in addition to all that, of course.
They have no intention of giving up anything. Nothing is ever enough.
one more mothebelt,
Submitted by Agnostic on Fri, 12/30/2011 - 11:48am.
Here is a map that kind of puts the slave trade in perspective - Imagine if you removed the slavery to Spanish colonies how small the arrow to the West would be in comparison.
I'm not trying to make an excuse for such a barbaric activity but trying to show perspective.
It's self-explanatory
Submitted by motherbelt on Fri, 12/30/2011 - 11:54am.
It's the "deep pockets" calculation.
A couple of observations
Submitted by Rhymes With Right on Fri, 12/30/2011 - 9:45am.
1) Every Constitutionalist I know supports following the Constitution AS AMENDED, so has no interest in reinstitution slavery. On the other hand, the anti-Constitutionalists of Daily Kos seek to impose the slavery of over-weaning government on all of us, regardless of race.
2) I've never encountered a Constitutionalist who wants to change the Constitution through executive order or legislation to eliminate anyone's rights -- but the folks of the Daily Kos regularly support doing exactly that.
3) As far as an apology for slavery, we of the GOP have nothing to apologize for. Ditto Jim Crow and segregation. Oddly enough, those who demand such an apologies are DEMOCRATS --members of the party that supported and defended those institutions. I've never heard of a DEMOCRAT apology for those evils.
4) As far as an apology based upon my "whiteness", I have nothing to apologize for. To the degree that my family -- which never owned slaves -- owed blacks an apology, I believe my white Republican ancestors in the Union Army paid that debt by fighting to free the black slaves held by Democrats.
The angry Birkenhead forgets he formal apologies of Congress
Submitted by acaiguana on Fri, 12/30/2011 - 9:52am.
In 2009 both houses of Congress passed apology resolutions.
Many State Houses have passed apology resolutions.
Kinda makes the whole article a whine about reparations doesn't it?
:-)
ACA
...
Quoted from: 'Acaiguana notes from the Underground' (Soon to be at theaters near you)
Wander Why
Submitted by kilrod on Fri, 12/30/2011 - 10:16am.
"And when I think of the fact that my grandmother's grandmother was likely born a slave, the connection to "the peculiar institution" is pretty deep in my blood and soul."
Wonder why they don't ever mention who sold his/her grandmother's grandmother's mother/father into slavery to start with? I guess "the peculiar institution" just does'nt go that "deep".
kilrod "the Birther"
If an unborn child cannot trust you, why should I,??
Actually, he's got it backwards
Submitted by Morganfrost on Fri, 12/30/2011 - 10:39am.
Conservatives are generally in favor of individual liberty, including the right to sell or withhold one's labor how, where and to whom one chooses within fairly broad limits.
Liberals, on the other hand, are strongly in favor of union restrictions on labor, as well as heavy government interference in the employer-employee relationship, including regulation of allowable benefits, hours, conditions, wages, etc. In addition, liberals seem to favor treating the compensation one receives for one's labor as largely within the discretion of the government to take or leave as it pleases.
In reality, it's the left which favors slavery...
It's not one race that should take the blame
Submitted by DontFeedTheTrolls on Fri, 12/30/2011 - 11:11am.
When will blacks ever acknowledge that slavery was an industry in Africa long (millennia!!) before America, or even Europe, existed? Why are only Americans blamed for slavery by black Americans? Oops, I know why, exclusion of guilt for their own ancestor's wrongdoings.
Slavery is a blot on humankind, NOT solely the white race.
But wait, there's more . . .
Submitted by Junk Science Skeptic on Sat, 12/31/2011 - 1:10am.
Among countries/regions that have engaged in slavery, America was one of the last to begin the use of slavery, and one of the first to discontinue its use. Rather than waiting around for a consensus of opinion to lead to abolition, America stands alone as the only country that went to war (primarily) to abolish slavery.
America in general, and white America specifically, has long since corrected and atoned for it's involvement in slavery, thus no contemporary apology or reparations are appropriate in any way.
When the race-hustling industry begins to acknowledge the full scope of global slavery, and puts America's participation into accurate perspective, then they may begin to gain a fraction of credibility.
Sure,
Submitted by Boudin on Sat, 12/31/2011 - 1:17am.
But fat chance that ever happen's, there aint no money in it!
Reparations?
Submitted by Meredith1966 on Fri, 12/30/2011 - 11:31am.
Reparations? I say that word using the same tone as former Colts coach Jim Mora in his famous reference to playoffs. What reparations do you want, Chauncey? Something more than the decades worth of affirmative action? Something more than darn near 50 years worth of food stamps and other welfare payments (not all of which go to blacks, obviously, but if we were truly racist then blacks wouldn't be eligible for any of it)? Something more than minority set-asides in contracting and purchasing, all that HUB crap? An arguement could be made that all or some of that qualifies as reparations in that they directly or indirectly benefit minorities, particularly blacks. The whole concept of reparations is a sham, for it quickly dissolves into silliness when you start digging into who might be eligible for them were they to be given as direct cash payments, which I've always assumed is the form being asked for. I mean, really, are we going to send checks to Kobe Bryant, Oprah Winfrey, or Morgan Freeman? And, I'm sorry, but I was brought up learning that you never apologize for something you didn't do. I'm not apologizing for anything my ancestors may or may not have done, as I have no control over actions taken decades before I was born. Sorry, Chauncey, but you're SOL with me.
"I predict future happiness for Americans if they can prevent the government from wasting the labors of the people under the pretense of taking care of them." - Thomas Jefferson
the great BYRD
Submitted by jimtrees on Fri, 12/30/2011 - 12:16pm.
Robert Byrd once asked a reporter if he could imagine what the country would be like if we just picked our own cotton. The reporter chuckles and moves on to something else.
Jefferson Davis
Submitted by MidAmerica on Fri, 12/30/2011 - 12:41pm.
I am currently reading the Rise and Fall of the Confederate Government written by the President of the Confederacy, Jefferson Davis. Believe me, he hates Republicans and Abraham Lincoln for destroying the original foundation for the creation of the United States, the voluntary union of independent states.
Before the Civil War people were citizens of a state but after the war they were citizens of the United States. The power of the federal government had overtaken the power of state governments.
The issue of states rights is much more complicated than just a justification by the South for it's right to maintain the institution of slavery. Northern states also were concerned about an ever increasing power of the federal government. Wouldn't they be horrified at where it is today?
The ironic thing is that if it wasn't for the South demanding their states rights in order to defend slavery then the power would not been granted to the federal government in order to quell a rebellion (as the North saw it). Without the war Northern states would probably also have resisted the explosive growth of federal power and we would be in a different country today.
Showcasing Ill-Educated Liberals... Again
Submitted by BondPlainBond on Fri, 12/30/2011 - 3:47pm.
Even MORE liberals clamoring in the media to showcase their complete stupidity and utter lack of education when it comes to anything historical. These two dunces manage to tag-team the inherent stupidity of the other to call attention to nothing more than their Party's blind hatred of all things conservative.
Hell, even Obama, a so-called "Constitutional scholar" doesn't even know what the Three-Fifths clause was about and has misrepresented it, deliberately (?), in speeches.
Larry Birkenhead? Was George Lincoln Rockwell unavailable?
Submitted by drsamherman on Fri, 12/30/2011 - 4:48pm.
Larry Birkenhead can't be trusted with reporting a belch without a leftist agenda. I would sooner trust a seven year old with handling news reporting than that blowhard, negative-intelligence hack.
Government School is a Terrible Thing
Submitted by Dave. on Fri, 12/30/2011 - 11:11pm.
Please don't let this happen to your children.
-Dave
Vote for the American in November
How about this?
Submitted by LinTaylor on Sat, 12/31/2011 - 3:39am.
I'll pay reparations to anyone I've unfairly held in bondage or denied their inalienable human rights.
...
Boy, that was fast. Moving on...