The Original American Sin
Poll: Nearly 4 in 10 Trump SC supporters wish South won Civil War
http://thehill.com/blogs/ballot-box/269510-poll-38-percent-of-sc-trump-supporters-wish-south-had-won-the-civil-war
I am amazed when people weep nostalgic and long for the good old days. To quote the late comedienne Moms Mabley; “What good old days? I was here, where was they at!?”
Moms was born in the latter part of the 19th century just 25 years after the Civil War came to a close. As a result of that war, it became illegal to own men and women as slaves but it was still considered within societal norms to rape, beat, lynch, and humiliate men and women of African descent.
That normality continued throughout my childhood as I personally learned to fear crowds of white men in Chicago. Too often we happened to infringe on what they believed was their personal public spaces at the beach, YMCA, and suburban Chicago restaurants or hotels. We were chased, and humiliated and spat upon.
Even now as I visit the formerly Confederate states of the south, I cringe and look over my shoulder when going in to large crowds of white people. It is not that I fear what might happen. I remember what did happen to me growing up in Chicago. I remember running from white boys who were spitting on me and calling me…, “N”, well you know what I mean. I never trusted the police. I learned and saw firsthand the brutality of the protectors who were really predators.
I remember the pictures of what happened to my kinsmen and women as it was filmed on television, reported in newspapers, magazines and radios.
American was not built on free enterprise. It was built on slavery. The wealth of this nation came from almost 400 years of free labor. The north had the banks and ships, and the south had the cotton and the slaves.
When it comes to wanting to relive “Traditional American Values” history tells me what that would really look like.
1. Kill the Indian (native Americans, or whatever they called themselves before being slaughtered).
2. Exploit the Chinese (along with anyone else who had skin, eyes and hair of other than European hue).
3. Enslave the Africans (and use their women to make new slaves by raping them and dehumanizing the men).
4. Humiliate the Mexican (manipulate and suppress the people of such descent and make them work like slaves, since we have run out of slaves).
Most Americans are repulsed with the pictures of their fellow citizens who are killed by the men and women who are charged with protecting them. However, those within these communities see this as normal part of their everyday lives. I really don’t want Traditional American Values. These values really are the original American sin.