About that Slavery Apology…..
When I wrote the other day that I thought it might be a distraction for the General Assembly to pass a resolution apologizing for Delaware’s role in the horrid disgusting dehumanizing bigoted evil institution of slavery, I did say the undeniable racism of certain leading conservative and Republican Party officials and of certain elements of the conservative base was almost enough of a motivation to pass such a resolution anyway, if only to expose their racism, sort of like spitting in their evil faces, if you will.
And boy, a full 48 hours did not pass to move the dial on my “almost enough of a motivation” to a “passionate and complete motivation:”
Arizona Congressman Trent Franks told blogger Mike Stark that African Americans were much better off under slavery.
[…]
FRANKS: In this country, we had slavery for God knows how long. And now we look back on it and we say “How brave were they? What was the matter with them? You know, I can’t believe, you know, four million slaves. This is incredible.” And we’re right, we’re right. We should look back on that with criticism. It is a crushing mark on America’s soul. And yet today, half of all black children are aborted. Half of all black children are aborted. Far more of the African American community is being devastated by the policies of today than were being devastated by the policies of slavery. And I think, What does it take to get us to wake up?
Wake us up to what, Bigot Franks? To the realization that we should return to the institution of slavery? You are the only telling us that the choice is between the policies of today (which by the way include the policies of equality and civil rights for our African American brethren if not complete freedom from the stain of discrimination) and the institution of slavery? You presented this as a black and white (no pun intended) choice between then and now, did you not?
Yes, abortion rates among African American women are much too high, but the solution is not to put them back in chains! And what about abortion rates among white women, or hispanic women, or Asian women? To people like Franks, who believes reproductive freedom is akin to a holocaust worse than the actual holocaust, one abortion is too much. So why is the Bigot Franks focusing his ire upon African American women or African American society?
Simple.
He is a dirty racist. And he thinks things were much better under slavery. Blacks knew their place then, at least. Unlike now, when one of them is President.
I suspect Franks is a dirty sexist too, for placing all women in chains has been the social conservative solution to the problem of women exercising their reproductive freedom, if not their complete freedom. I am sure if asked Bigot Franks would say things were much better back when women as a whole did not have a right to vote.
The solution, Bigot Franks, in case you even care, to higher abortion rates among African Americans, and in the American population as a whole, is better education. Awareness of safe sex protection and birth control. Awareness of adoption services.
So when faced with fuckin bullshit bigotry like this, were a prominent Republican Congressman yearns for a return to slavery, I say pass that slavery apology resolution everywhere. If only to spit in their faces.
wasn’t there something in today’s WNJ’s article about the issue mentioning a civil war monument in Sussex commemorating a person identified as a slave who was happy to be a slave?
If true (I couldn’t find it on their site), I put this in the following category:
move the dial on my “almost enough of a motivation” to a “passionate and complete motivation:”
Comments like Franks’s just remind how much we need to keep teaching history to people because people will try to rewrite it.
Will you explain to me how you go someone making the statement that “the high rate at which black babies are aborted is even worse than slavery” to “slavery was a good thing for blacks”? the two statements are not equivalent, and I don’t see any way that any honest person can make such a claim without using frighteningly convoluted logic.
Which is not to say that i agree with Congressman Franks position.
Why did that comment go into moderation? Is it because I mentioned slavery and abortion — the two topics at hand in the Fanks quote?
Was it because 6 out of 10 Texas think that man coexisted with dinosaurs?
I agree with RWR. The liberal policies of today are destroying faith,family, community, and economic viability for many in the African American Community. The KKK tried for generations to do what was been accomplished by accident in 40 years by the pro-abortion welfare state and broken inner city schools. The same is true of the reservations for Native Americans. Then you wonder why a lot of us don’t want the progressive/liberal crowd helping to fix health care, energy, and financial services.
I have no problem with a slavery apology. One day we will have one for abortion. Let’s hope there does not have to be 50 million more deaths to get it.
Yeah David slavery had alot going for it. Alll the outdoor work was wholesome and charachter building. Just the opposite of the liberal hell hole African Americans must endure today.
wait wait wait. David says that liberal policies (ie. “the pro-abortion welfare state”) is destroying faith/family/community and economic viability for African Americans… because.. why? We’ve made them lazy? and stupid? Seriously I can’t be reading this right, please elaborate. What will republican policies do? Everyone gets their own pair of bootstraps?
Liberal/Progressive policies have frozen many in schools that are dangerous let alone not giving a good education. They created lawless ghettos called public housing which removed successful role models such as black professionals (or Latino as the case maybe)from being able to be in the community. They destroyed the economy by requiring hurdles to start one’s own micro business. They undermined marriage by the head of household tax filing status and the welfare state. In liberal strongholds they fund an abortion genocide. They passed laws which more harshly penalize drugs that the poor use which has had a devastating effect on young men.
It is interesting that when the Democrats could no longer hold us down with segregation, they created a new system of bondage.
No, Jason, I am not comparing it to slavery. I am saying it is a subtle Jim Crow. Even if it is an unintentional one.
Republican David,
Are you certain you are where you need to be — party-wise I mean? Every so often you say something that sounds amazingly sane. Like just above. Your points about unintended consequences of public housing and public schools and old welfare-state rules are valid. Unfortunately, you then wander off into Republican talking points about abortion genocide and you lose my attention.
As a progressive, I can certainly acknowlege mistakes in the last century that led to compounding the problems of the ghettos, rather than improving them. We certainly don’t want to repeat those and your contribution to the solution is needed. But you and others of your ilk insist on linking everything to women’s reproductive freedom. You trot out terms like genocide in every discussion and it becomes hard to find room for you at the table. I can respect your position on abortion, but if you use it as a club to divide us at every turn, we’re never going to have any substantive dialogue.
The vast majority of Americans believe that Roe v Wade was properly decided and is the law of the land. Those who disagree have the freedom in this country to subscribe to their religious beliefs and practice a different creed. There is nothing in Roe that requires abortion. Your personal beliefs and your religious community’s beliefs are still protected. If you wish to practice abstinence-only you are free to do so, although we’ve seen how that works out.
I’m weary of having a wedge thrown into the discussion at every turn. I’m weary of having established law and facts ignored or distorted to prove some religious point. It’s time to render unto Caesar.
Just saying David. There is more than one way to go at this and I think we’ve proven that the current approach isn’t working.
But David is exactly right. Would the Klan would have loved to have managed to get 50% of black pregnancies aborted? Damn straight they would have! If whites imposed this abortion rate upon blacks, wouldn’t “genocide” be a reasonable label for it? Should we all be standing up and cheering it because black women are imposing it instead?
And he is exactly right on his other points about the consequences of all those policies — points that we conservatives have been trying to make for years, only to be called racist for saying them (heck, even a moderate like Moynihan was so labeled when he made those points decades ago).
According to statistics about 50% of all pregnancies end in miscarriage. It’s a tragedy! Women are horrible awful people.
The fallacy in David’s thinking and the thing that a guy who thinks that man coexisted with dinosaurs likes to believe is that it is “liberal policies” cause economic disenfranchisement. This is dumb people confusing of cause and effect. Pretty typical. It allows them to argue (and probably believe in their crazy minds) that the cure for economic disenfranchisement is more tough love economic disenfranchisement.
“These black folks could be as well off as Mike Castle if only they got off their lazy asses.” That of course, ignores the fact that Castle still lives off of family wealth accrued during slavery days and that wealth allowed him to go to the best schools and make the best connections.
UI-I know you wouldn’t want to give out bad data–the rate is closer to 20% on miscarriages–just tryin’ to protect your reputation:)!! Which means horrible, awful women can fly very low under the radar, and live on your street, AND maybe in your house!
Rebecca–great post, but I would add he is onto something also w/ the harsh penalties on drugs that poor people could afford…..
And jason330…you just remain incorrigible:)
Jason, I have no problem with young earth creationists, but I am a progressive creationist. http://www.reasons.org/ Dr. Hugh Ross more closely represents my beliefs. Since you keep bringing the issue up.
Ok, Rebecca for sake of discussion, let’s agree to disagree about abortion. While it is important to both of us, there are an hundred issues out there that need attention. I referenced it because it was part of the post. In other words, they brought it up.
I think a well done section 8 program would be much more valuable than public housing. Of course some people on my side object to catching kuddies (not my normal terminology so excuse the spelling) from poor people being around them. The objective evidence is that when whe had economically diverse communities that we had better ones. You had the doctor and businessman role model.
My problem with welfare reform is that in some cases we went from the father being out of the home to forcing the mother out as well(at least for the day). I favor a negative income tax approach.
I am glad that Joanne recognized the uneven enforcement and penalties of drug laws. How hard is it to get a good job once you have a felony on your record even from 16 or 18 even if it is from happening to have a small amount of crack. You make a mistake at 17 and you pay for life. It is crazy. It has devistated an entire segment of young men by giving them prison role models not military, lawyers, businessmen, clergy, or just hard working fathers. It even affects the culture of dress and music.
There is a counter revolution happening on the ground. I have hope.
Joanne and David,
I am in violent agreement, the drug laws are ridiculous. Addiction is an illness, not a crime. The laws are definitely designed to target poor, young, black men and let the rich off easy.
And you are absolutely right David, living with a felony conviction for a mistake made at 17 is cruel. I couldn’t agree more.
I found out first hand about how pervasive this is when I was getting signatures on a Dept. of Elections petition to place a candidate on the ballot. I was working in Rodney Square during the evening rush hour. The number of African-Americans who could not sign because they were convicted felons absolutely shocked me. These were hard working people, getting the bus to or from work, but they were disenfranchised. My eyes were opened, I can tell you. You won’t get any argument from me about the need for change.
We’ve found some common ground. What are we going to do about it? Besides sitting here at our keyboards, I mean.
if we’re agreeing, we must be on a different site!
http://www.upsidedown.com perhaps
seriously, i am VERY impressed with the discussion, impressively open-minded and respectful across the board.
WTF is happening!
The Delaware Rehabilitation Act provides for drug treatment programs instead of incarceration. That bill was taken to Markells office and nothing was done. The prison industrial complex in Delaware is a “job creator”. Its not about right and wrong. Its not about whether or not its viewed as a medical problem. Drug treatment costs $3400 instead of $34,000 per person per year to incarcerate. When the person gets out they are still addicted and now have a felony. Good luck trying to find any job in this economy with a conviction. The legislators mindset is that prisons create jobs. If an addicted were sent for the cure and stayed straight..thats a prison job not needed. OOPs, can’t have that!
The bill sets up drug treatment centers in every county. A wholistic approach to the problem. It takes into consideration the person and their needs. Maybe they just need treatment. Maybe they need job training, or housing its all encompassing.
If we had passed the Delaware Health Security Act there would be lots of money for these humane programs and the cost savings would be huge. The electeds are not interested in saving money long term, its short term thinking that is dragging this State down a financial rabbit hole.
There is a reason why AIDS in Delawae is in the top 3 nation wide. While other states have had “needle exchange programs for more than 30 years, mindless Delaware has a small pilot program. Why, because the uneducated, simple minded electeds in this state think that giving out a clean needle adds to drug addiction. None of these people do any research on their own. And when the research is presented to them, when citizens write the bills to correct the problem they are considered fools, and laughed at.
Both bills can be found at: deinformedvoters.org.
The prison industrial complex doesn’t like to see you writing about the prison industrial complex. Just sayin’
JK: on Delaware Rehabilitation Act, can you cite a bill number? I did a search on ‘rehabilitation’ and found 3 bills which appear to be different from what you describe.
For Delaware Health Security Act, do you mean SB120? Note that this boosts state income taxes by 2.5% on all filers, and by 5% (an additional 2.5%) for those with income above $250K ($500K for joint returns). I’m not complaining, simply noting that this little detail was missing from your description of the bill’s highlights.
That is quite a hike, and appears to be at odds with your description of this bill as generating huge cost savings.
Paul, you read about the Civil War monument in Sussex honoring the alleged ‘happy slave’ in the editorial pages of the WNJ.
There’s this from DKos:
Mother Jones reports on police officers in Texas using public intoxication laws to target minorities they don’t like.
They say everything’s bigger in Texas, and that includes absurdity in law enforcement. Most states and towns have public intoxication laws that allow peace officers to pick up the drunk and disorderly. But in the Lone Star State, the nation’s broadest PI law lets cops go virtually anywhere and arrest anyone for drunkenness—even if they’re quietly nursing a beer in a bar.
See when we get beyond name calling (you loney socialists and you wingnut right wing idiot) we can actually find some areas to for the public good. It is nice to try once in a while.
perhaps Delaware’s 882 Union war dead should be considered as enough of an “apology”…
That was worth every bit of the three days it took you to think up.
In three days, romeo can come back with the number of civil war dead that fought for the Confederacy. Certainly that would diminish the authenticity of Delaware’s apology, as suggested by romeo.
actually didn’t bother to read the thread until I was Even Q’s comment this afternoon.
I am touched that the two of you follow my comments so closely.
Three days late and pound short. Way to ruin my compliment with wrong facts. I should learn, but I never do.
if you think that was a compliment, you need to listen to your therapist more closely.
Paul: The Delaware Health Security Act is SB 120 and has several legislators signed on. Its now in the desk drawer of Senator Cook. We have asked repeatedly that the Budget office run the numbers to prove the savings to Delaware while covering everyone in the State. The numbers we have are very conservative. Health care for everyone and still save the state conservatively $4million the first year. It would not only bring jobs to Delaware, but the first state to enact it, will have corporations who don’t want to pay for health care running trucks across the border to set up business here. Pa Democratic Party unanimously passed theirs and Rendell will sign. Again Delaware the First State will be the Last State to enact sensible, common sense fixes to the economic crisis we have.
The Delaware Rehabilitation Act was delivered to every legislator, a meeting was held with one of Jacks underlings almost a year ago. It has been supported by NAACP and other community groups. You can find the act at deinformedvoters.org. This is true prison reform. It takes the drug addicted and puts them into drug rehab. It sets up a Rehab Center in every county. We had hoped the first would have been set up in New Castle County. The money that would have been saved is enormous. We have to ask these legislators some of whom have ties and contracts with the prison industrial complex in Delaware if they refuse to review the legislation because of their (secret) and not so secret ties to the prisons? The NAACP actually took that bill to their national committee who are attempting to have it supported and implemented nationwide. It will probably become real legislation in some other state, before it gets a review in Delaware. Its sad. Its all about good citizen work doing the research and creating a piece of legislation these dimwits in Dover would never have taken the time to do themselves.
Also at Deinformedvoters.org is the Campaign Finance Bill which is being overhauled based on the Supreme Court horrible decision.
Did I miss Delaware Liberal commenting on the Christiana Care story? At one time we heard they had $500 million in a slush fund. While they were refusing to take care of clients who didnt have health care, gotta make that profit. They have huge numbers of hospital infections, because they refuse to purchase the necessary products, or hire enough trained environmental protection people to keep infections down. When I had a pacemaker replacement my doctor told me he didnt want me to stay there for a minute more than I had to be. When I asked why he said, “They have spent enormous amounts of money on very expensive, top of the lineequipment, its all computerized, some of it works, some not. The nurses are complaining all the time they spent all this money but its actually making their jobs harder. The problem is the high infection rates, so I want you in, and out preferably the same day. Please look at the article and post something about it. Wanna talk about negligence and fraud Christiana Care is at the top of the list in Delaware.
Looping back with an update for this thread. David and Joanne, you might find an op-ed piece in today’s NYT interesting. It addresses the disparity in sentencing for crack versus powder cocaine.
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/03/03/opinion/03wed3.html?ref=opinion