The Black Codes
Most people, Black or white have at least heard of Jim Crow. Jim Crow legalized segregation and racism and is generally thought to have existed between 1877 and the mid-1960s and the Civil Rights movement. People don’t generally consider that the Civil War ended in 1865 and there was a twelve-year gap between the granting of freedom and the beginning of Jim Crow. Some can accurately place the Reconstruction era within that timeframe, knowing for a brief moment there were Black elected officials, including some statewide in Mississippi, and South Carolina. What most people are totally unaware of is the Black Codes. They are rarely taught in schools, and were an attempt by Southern states to duplicate slavery immediately after the Civil War.
The Black Codes were implemented state by state to do something about the newly freed enslaved people that in some locations outnumbered white people. In many cases, they sent Black people that ran afoul of the Black Codes, back to the very plantations from whence they came. It was illegal for Black people to be unemployed, to congregate in groups of three or more. Black people could be taxed for working in any other occupation than a farmer, or servant. If you quit a job mid-year you were subject to arrest. The implementation of Black Codes coincided with the founding and rise of the Klan. People don’t generally know about the Black Codes and they should be taught.
Affirmative Action
The messaging about Affirmative Action is that it gave “free stuff” to people that weren’t qualified or otherwise entitled to. It took something from deserving white people and gave it to minorities. That message is part of a constant drumbeat and nobody is being taught otherwise.
The message about Affirmative Action should be that it was an attempt to correct a condition where the federal government, state and local governments, government contractors, major corporations, and small businesses, all had a long record of discriminating in contracting and employment with minorities (and women). Women were added as an afterthought but became one of the biggest ways to cheat the system by employing wives, friends, and family members to keep most of the money in the same pot.
I would submit that Affirmative Action didn’t open things up in an equitable way. It set a minimum that became a cap. If a government contract required 15% minority participation, the end result was 15% participation, though minorities represented a much larger percentage of the population. Affirmative Action was never giving away free stuff, nor was it a panacea that brought equality to America.
Breeding of Enslaved People
I can understand it would be uncomfortable addressing this topic, or concerned their children of any age might learn it. Yet, this is American history, and it goes back to the Constitution of the United States. That document, the foundation of all our laws, is a compromise between states that wanted slavery and others that didn’t. Article One; Section Nine, Clause One, was a promise that the International Slave Trade wouldn’t end for at least twenty years. South Carolina and other states needed that guarantee because they depended on the import of African slaves. Little did they know that Virginia, Maryland, Delaware, and others planned to rid themselves of the International Slave Trade, to increase the demand for domestic-bred slaves.
On the first day available, Thomas Jefferson, a Virginia plantation owner, got rid of the International Slave Trade which made him and others richer men. To meet the demand for enslaved people, alleged by some historians to be a coincidental “natural increase” among births of enslaved people, slaves born in some states, in particular, continued a pattern of a dramatic increase. This wasn’t by accident; it was due to the forced mating and rape of enslaved women to make sure enough slaves were on hand to sell further South. This might make children feel bad, refusing to teach history isn’t the answer.
Fair Housing
Some American are familiar with the Fair Housing Act of 1968, it allegedly corrected the ills that existed before it; redlining, steering, and equality in lending terms. What it didn’t address is that Veterans and minorities in general missed out on one of the biggest factors that created the middle class.
VA and FHA loans provided an opportunity for people to acquire homes which generally is the biggest source of wealth Americans have. Imagine if you will that Black Americans weren’t able to get FHA and VA loans based solely on their color? Project the impact of those restrictions which were in place for decades, would have on multiple future generations. This is the kind of information that needs to be known in order to appreciate any current attempts to address historical wrongs.
Voter Suppression
The last time a white person told me there was no such thing as voter suppression was this morning. They may recognize that voter suppression was once a thing, but they think it went away with the Voting Rights Act of 1965 or some other law that ended it. They don’t recognize that some of the very same mechanisms that restricted voting in the 1960s are in place today performing the same function.
Giving the best possible spin, people don’t recognize voter suppression today because they’ve never been taught how it was implemented in the past. Gerrymandering, redistricting, placement of polling locations, poll monitors, and election police, all have roots in voter suppression. Either they go unrecognized because it was never learned or they go unaddressed by those who are the beneficiaries. Either way, voter suppression must be ended.
White Replacement Theory
“We Will Not Be Replaced!” They chanted it in Charlottesville when white supremacists gathered for what became a violent rally supporting their cause. The theory is that white people will be replaced by Jewish people, Blacks, and other minorities when they are entitled to all that they have, much of it obtained as a result of white supremacy.
What America needs to know is that proponents of that theory have reached the upper echelons of the White House and influential groups across the land. We need to know (and teach) what white replacement theory is so we can root it out when it raises its ugly head.
Whiteness
Whiteness didn’t exist until after Bacon’s Rebellion in 1676 in Virginia. America invented it. Whiteness caused a dramatic shift in the source of America’s cheap labor, going from a system that utilized a large percentage of indentured servants to almost exclusively enslaved people. When white indentured servants, Black indentured servants, and Black enslaved people joined forces to burn down Jamestown, VA, then the capital. It was too much for the powers that be to accept so they invented whiteness. They eliminated indentured servitude and made the white indentured servants that once worked alongside Black people, their superiors based solely on the color of their skin.
Who is and was considered white has expanded over the years. As we reach 2045 and the existing group of white people becomes a minority. Look for whiteness to expand more so that they might maintain their majority.
Reparations
What little that is taught about reparations is that they are not economically feasible and that there is no way to accurately determine who might be entitled? What isn’t addressed is the rationale for reparations and who has received them in the past.
We may know about reparations given to some Japanese Americans after being held in internment camps during World War Two. Little is known about reparations given to white slaveowners after the Emancipation Proclamation and Civil War. Black people were eligible for small amounts if they agreed to leave the country forever.
For the record, some Black farmers were given their portion of forty acres (no mule) but after they developed the land, it was taken back and returned to the previous white owners. Before reparations are dismissed, it’s only reasonable that they at least be understood.
The Haitian Revolution
This isn’t American history but the impact on America was so great that it needs to be taught. The fear of the revolt of enslaved people was the rationale for slave patrols, literacy laws, and the Second Amendment if you acknowledge Patrick Henry’s contribution to the Constitution. a partial story of Toussant Louverture is one of the few things often taught during Black History Month. Not so much how he was betrayed, how France made Haiti pay for their freedom for a lifetime and the role Europe and the United States played after the revolution in keeping Haiti down.
The Haitian Revolution was an example that plantation owners never wanted to be emulated in America. Denmark Vessey was inspired by the Haitian Revolution and planned to raise an army of 9,000 enslaved people to take over Charleston and the surrounding area. Black people were prevented from reading lest they find out about that revolt and others. Nat Turner is believed to have modeled his revolt on the Haitian Revolution. Don’t sleep on it.
The Founding Fathers
Americans are taught to revere the founding fathers, to the point where we learn lies rather than acknowledge the truth. Most of them owned and mistreated enslaved people, and all of them made compromises to accept the practice of enslavement.
It’s said we shouldn’t judge people of the past based on today’s moral standards. Many people of the day both knew and did better. They deserve no excuse for their behavior and the truth must be told.
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This post was previously published on MEDIUM.COM.
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You may also like these posts on The Good Men Project:
Escape the Act Like a Man Box | What We Talk About When We Talk About Men | Why I Don’t Want to Talk About Race | The First Myth of the Patriarchy: The Acorn on the Pillow |
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