If you hated Delaware’s apology for slavery, you might be a racist
Taking one look at the comments on Gov. Jack Markell’s Facebook post announcing Delaware’s apology for slavery speaks volumes about casual racism in the state today.
“People looking at the past, and blaming another race for the problems they have today, is why racism will never go away,” wrote one commentator. Another was willing to back the apology, “[B]ut let the blacks say sorry first being on the top of the list for welfare, food stamps, doing crimes, don’t want to work, 20 kids by age 30, blame others for their problems, etc…”
Tags: Jack Markell, slavery
I am glad that delaware liberal has this site for people to give there opinion.i think most of the get info from hannity, lambaugh and others, they are on everyday talking or inferring that everyone wants something free.And most of people that say a few words and the host does all of talking
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I’m very happy the party of slavery has finally apologized for slavery.
The “not so casual” racism in Delaware amongst whites is still prevalent. Only difference I see between now and 35 yrs ago is the lack of the use of the “n-word” in public.
Political cartoon is right on .. what’s the use of words .. in this case, a proclamation saying “sorry” .. while sounding nice, and is politically correct .. will do nothing to change Delaware’s continued racism.
Low class whites have always heated and feared anyone blow them on the economic ladder and anyone above them on the intellectual ladder
I think that today the continuation of racism is because of the “thug” culture that is perpetuated by blacks mainstream music and mentality. Only strength, violence, and fear is respected. Is it any wonder that such an outlook would be met with derision and scorn?
Way to go, Bob j. Blaming the victims for hundreds of years of white folks destructive baggage.
Thug culture and rap music. Nope, not racist at all. Ugh.
I’m not in the camp that spent any time or effort promoting that, although my colleague right across the hall was instrumental (beginning with his time on the Human Rights Commission in Dover) in getting this done. He got the pen that Governor Markell used to sign the bill (he has an incredibly good collection of political memorabilia–you should see his Wendell Wilkie stuff).
But let’s be real. Slavery was perpetrated, first of all, by individuals who influenced government law and policy to codify their own economic wants (and lack of moral compass). It wasn’t the “Government” or the “State” of Delaware, those remarkable corporate entities whose culpability seems to let everyone else off the hook, that permitted and condoned slavery … it was the majority of ordinary white folks who didn’t find their way toward emancipation until the passage of the 13th Amendment.
In Georgetown and Millsville and Seaford in 1864-65 there were “Offices of Compensated Emancipation” wherein the slaveholders would sell their male slaves to the government as soldiers during the last year of the Civil War. You can see their documents at the DE Archives. After the war, as modern scholarship has thoroughly attested, hundreds of thousands of African-Americans were sentenced back to work without pay, sometimes for decades, in the mines, fields, and factories in which they had formerly worked as slaves. This practice continued (even in Delaware on a small scale) until the early years of the 20th Century.
I dislike the government apologizing for slavery as I disliked the government apologizing for Japanese internment or Native American dislocation and genocide because it allows the government to sound belatedly noble or conscience-stricken without doing anything else different the day before and the day after the apology. The apology also allows individuals who have benefited from structural racism over the past decades to posture (“I didn’t have anything to do with slavery”), promote bigotry (“the real problem wasn’t slavery but that the Blacks were/are lazy and thuggish”), or use it as a club against their associates of color (“Well, now we’ve apologized. You finally happy?”).
Maybe there is some soul-cleansing justification for the importance attached to a government that only served the will of its constituents apologizing for what it did pursuant to that will so that the constituents (like the boards of great corporations) can continue to enjoy immunity from guilt or any need to consider reparations.
Maybe. But I just don’t see it. So apparently that makes me … ?
Come on, let’s be honest here. Does racism exist? Yes, of course it does. Does it cause a lot of issues and problems? Yes, of course it does. But does exemplifying a criminal culture create problems as well? Yes, of course it does. “Thug life” has even made it as mainstream as youtube with different videos.
By the way cass, still waiting for western africa and islam to apologize for slavery. Or if you go back far enough, slavery should just be forgotten?
Slavery can be forgotten when its legacy stops being a pervasive part of society. Black people continue to bear the burden of that legacy, and white people perpetuate that legacy and profit from it. So this is you blaming the victims twice.
@Bob J
This is precious: But does exemplifying a criminal culture create problems as well?Yes, of course it does.
It’s funny, my DSU students listen to what you would consider offensive “Thug life” music, and watch “Empire” and social media about rappers and drug lords, and make jokes about Beyonce and police killings … while they are studying for their exams in Business Administration, Optical Physics, Aviation, Nursing, and Mass Communications.
This conservative bullshit about music and the thug life is comfortable, convenient, and totally misleading (as it was intended to be from the get-go). Minority cultural expression ALWAYS grates on the majority population, as surely as teenage musical taste ALWAYS grates on parents.
Your position is the comfortable, knee-jerk equivalent of simply stating what so many people think: “Yes, there’s racism, because those people deserve it.”
Well at least Bob J conclusively confirmed the statement posed in the title of the post.
First of all so-called Thug Life is a misconception of Hip Hop as an art movement and cultural phenomenon. Why do you have this misconception, I wonder? Here’s a primer:
http://hiphopdx.com/news/id.33879/title.killer-mike-gives-a-hip-hop-history-lesson-on-real-time-with-bill-maher
Second, the cultural movement of hip hop and the music and the art and the fashion came out of something. What do you think that something may be? Do you have any ideas? (Here’s a hint: it’s not because black people are criminals.)
Third, the idea that we aren’t culpable because others did it too or did it first is really a disgusting idea.
The entire American enterprise was built on the back of human beings who we kidnapped and whose labor we stole, whose rights we then restricted, whose earned GI Bill education funds we denied, whose mortgages we declined, whose freedom we took via incarceration at incredibly biased and uneven rates. We shoved people into the ghetto with little opportunity grow any wealth and wonder how this all got to be this way, like it’s some fucking mystery.
Bob J – It’s fine that you don’t know anything and your opinions are misguided. I pity the confusion you must feel every day. You don’t know the story because you haven’t needed to know it. I get it. Now go learn it.
I thought I had something to say, but I checked and I’m still white. Never mind.
Related to this topic, Rembert Browne has written some interesting commentary in Vulture (via Slate):
http://www.slate.com/blogs/browbeat/2016/02/15/why_white_privilege_is_everyone_s_burden.html
One of several money quotes:
“But issues between whites and nonwhites in America from generations ago are too cyclical to pretend that anything has been buried, that anything has been forgotten. Many of the old points of tension are still here, in large part because white people still don’t feel connected to the terrible acts of the past and are still waiting for those embarrassments to disappear from the collective consciousness. But no one’s going to forget. Which means, at some point, white people will have to give up the delusion that the playing field has magically leveled, and actually go through the difficult process of really figuring out what it means to be white, and what you want it to mean for you in the future.”
@Puck – I know that’s a clever little internet joke, which is fair enough, but you must know that’s exactly opposite of what the argument is, yes?
This is why the foundational conceit of the Browne essay above is a criticism of Macklemore’s newly released “White Priviledge II.”
As a white guy I’ve concluded that neither delusional denial nor silence are productive.
The “joke” isn’t clever.
Thanks for the link, Dorian.
It wasn’t a joke, and I haven’t seen it before. I guess I need to spend more time in Facebook comments. It was actually my exact thoughts on the subject, having composed and deleted a more substantive post first.
Just like sexism is a man issue, racism is a white issue. We can’t remove whites from racism. They need to participate. We can’t leave combating racism up to people of color. It won’t work that way.
The article Dorian links to is interesting. The author says this process will be messy. It will, and that’s a good thing… even if it makes us white people uncomfortable.
I just meant to say that I don’t get the feeling that white Americans are suppose to just shut up. I’m sure some of us have been told this (probably on university campuses) but it’s usually rash and always unproductive. We all need to speak. We just need to understand better what we’re speaking about.
“We just need to understand better what we’re speaking about.”
Exactly. It’s a learning process that begins with listening and learning and speaking.
i will speak on any issue i choose, color be damned.
Well then… go ahead and speak on this topic.
FYI: No one said you couldn’t speak. Why do you keep hearing this?
pandora: i’m sure you’re up on the current idea that white people are too privileged to be allowed to speak about other races, that men can only “mansplain” when speaking of feminism, that white feminists are chastised for speaking of black women. or, if such people do hazard a comment, they are called out if the words, no matter how well intended, do not conform exactly to what the “marginalized” groups would have them say.
Step right up folks…Come see the poor, oppressed white guy.
Wow. What a takeaway on different social groups. Being part of a conversation includes listening and speaking. And the examples you’ve listed shows you haven’t been listening.
It’s all about you, anonymous. Thanks for proving the point about privilege.
Maybe if anonymous would have read what was written here that would have been helpful.
not poor, not oppressed. but, guilty as charged, i am white. jason’s response is perfect: dismiss the opinion about who is “allowed” to speak because it comes from “a white guy.” my opinions about the things in question (race, gender) are liberal. but i’m not going to erase myself from any discussion because of, you know, the color of my skin.
Your pity party is hilarious, but not not novel or interesting.
yes, pandora, and your sanctimony is all about you. makes you feel all warm and fuzzy, i bet.
annonymous, say whatever you want…. but if you’re afraid what you’re going to say will offend someone, maybe it’s offensive. For now though, you are personally absolved from white guilt. You are hereby declared innocent of wrongdoing. *ding*
Look, you fucking idiot, we said everyone is included. In fact we said everyone needs a voice in this. The only caveat is that you try to learn about the topic rather than saying fucking stupid things. I’m guessing the reason people tell you to shut up isn’t because you’re white. It’s because your a mindless immature fucking fool with nothing interesting to say.
Again, it’s not because you’re white. It’s because you’re a dolt and have nothing insightful to add
pity party? i’m not losing any sleep over this stuff. i just like the discussion. i’ll vote with you guys.
What’s with the question mark? Are you confused? You started by bellyaching about how you’re not allowed to comment because you’re white. How is that not a direct cry for sympathy? If you make a pitiful comment you’re open to the “pity party” criticism.
What about the point of the cartoon? Great. A blue state that always votes D did something that should have happened a long time ago (kind of Markell’s M.O ya know?) How about Delaware’s countless other policies that disproportionately negatively affect black people? What about the cesspool of neglect and corporate greed that is Wilmington? Im glad the state apologized, but it’s too little too late if you ask me. Actions, not politically safe gestures are what we need.
ben: i’m not afraid at all that what i say will offend somebody. i’m criticizing those — not every liberal — who think only members of their group have a right to speak about anything relating to that group. it’s, you know, an opinion. on a topic.
dorian: if you don’t know this kind of thing is happening on the left, then you’re not as informed as you pretend you are. also from the ageless one: “we said everyone is included.” are you saying i’m somehow looking for the approval of delaware liberal? i’m talking about a general issue on the radical left, not the concerns of a few local bloggers.
also typical: i don’t agree with you so i’m a fucking idiot. i may be a fucking idiot, but it has nothing to do with any interaction i might have with a simpleton like you.
OK, so include this – listen and learn.
I lived in NYC for twelve years, three of them in Harlem. On the edge of Harlem but definitely in Harlem, five blocks from the Apollo Theater. I’ve eaten at Sylvia’s many times, walking there and home again. I witnessed the early days of street hip-hop, and then the advent of crack which changed everything. I have been mugged twice, once at gunpoint. Reagan’s welfare queen stories are bogus, but I saw actual welfare dependency up close, and it is real. But I also saw how single mothers – and there were a lot of them – were held back through lack of access to child care. In NY I worked in the low-wage economy for a long time alongside people of all races, sometimes losing jobs or promotions to black workers (and they usually deserved it on merit). When NY began its broken-windows policing in the Bratton/Giuliani era, it was welcomed by New Yorkers black and white, and only spun out of control later in terms of civil rights (but that’s another topic).
My sensibilities are rooted in that time, not in being a white guy from the suburbs. Even so, I realize NYC was fertile with opportunity for all races and doesn’t represent the modern reality of Delaware or a small inner city like Wilmington.
So when I want to comment about what “thug culture” is or isn’t, it is condescending to hear I need to “listen and learn.” I know if I offer some insight or nuance that is even slightly not affirmative of liberal orthodoxy, the regulars here are ready to put a white pointy hat on me, and I don’t want to hear that from people who ought to be my friends. That is how liberal self-censorship works.
By the way, awesome cartoon, and dead on.
dude! you complained about getting yelled at and targeted for being a white man. If you didn’t care, you wouldn’t have brought it up.
Since the “apology” guns sales in DE have gone way up… Just saying..
Watched LL Cool J on PBS’ Finding Your Roots. After rolling through his family tree – littered with many slaves and some free blacks – there wasn’t the slight shred of bitterness, or debt due, hatred or negativity about his feelings.
He made the conscious decision to focus instead on the strength of his ancestors in surviving slavery. He acknowledged that he could have embraced bitterness. He chose not to. The experience, in his view, reflected a defining quality of his family – survival and thriving.
Well, if LL Cool J is okay with his life/history then that settles it.
Because in whitesplaining land, LL Cool J speaks for all black people. Or he’s the Good Nero who knows how to accommodate white people’s denial.
SpeaKing of internet jokes that aren’t clever – Careful with that *splaining meme, it works both ways.
How does it work both ways?
I’ve always loved LL Cool J, but there’s no denying his offensive lyrics in his and Brad Paisley’s “Accidental Racist” song.
“If you don’t judge my gold chains/I’ll forget the iron chains”
and
“If you don’t judge my do-rag/I won’t judge your red flag”
Those lines stunned me. The examples (jewelry and clothing) aren’t comparable to slavery (iron chains and Confederate flag). I’ll never understand where he was coming from with those lyrics.
Furthermore, holding up one black man’s view – which coincidentally lines up with ATIAM’s view of how black people should handle this issue – isn’t remotely representative of black people. And we wouldn’t, as white people, allow people to say Rush Limbaugh spoke for us just because he’s white.
The idea the one successful black individual’s lack of resentment on a television program means that we should just “let it go” is stupid. Very, very stupid.
The fact the gun sales have increases in DE is just another example of what I said yesterday. We can all deny the problem all day and try to wait for it just to go away, but it won’t. Rather that just accepting what we’ve done (and continue to do) we fight it like a recalcitrant toddlers who won’t just go to sleep at bedtime. Very cranky and very immature.
@Puck – I agree with you. The new internet suffix —-splaining is fucking useless.
AGTIAM has figured it out!
We just have to give every black person a multi million dollar record deal and a “meh” filmography (no Oscar nominations though, that’s too much)
DG, it’s a very deft way to write off someone’s entire argument because of one aspect of who they are and simultaneously insult them for it.
Why does whitesplaining, mansplaining, straigthsplaining, etc. hit such a nerve?
And Cassandra specifically said, “whitesplaining land”. How is that different then when we say in Wingnut world? Or lump Republicans and Conservatives into groups? Or call out the 1%? Or gunners? Why is ‘splaining wrong when everyday on this blog we do the very same thing?
@Pandora – Simply put it’s because identity politics and basing authority on identity is not progressive.
what would your reaction be to “womansplaining”? Is that something that can exist?
Plus, for me, trendy slogans and “hashtags” and clever portmanteaus seem unserious and immature. I understand it’s a pop culture thing. I just don’t give people who speak or write in catchphrases much attention or credibility. In fact I’m very judgmental and assume these people have only a very superficial understanding of the topics being discussed.
it’s bumpersticker/sound-bite politics.
It’s like asking “how will breaking up the big banks solve sexism and racism?” it has nothing to do with anything, but makes a damn good talking point for sheeple.
Purposely didn’t express a perspective, opinion or viewpoint on LL J Cool’s view of his family history.
Despite that, ridicule, insults and obscenities followed.
Don’t kid yourselves – you’re part of the problem not the solution.
Maybe, Ben, but not in the same way. But if you want to discuss womansplaining then you’ll have to define what it is. Fair?
It reveals itself when we say “women’s intuition” (kinda a bad example, but it’s used sometimes in a negative way) and when we say, “Are you on your period?” or use words like “hysterical and emotional” in a debate. I have had all of these terms directed at me when I’m making a factual argument. It derails the conversation in sorta the same way someone throwing their god into their argument. Not much left to discuss after that.
Mansplaining hit a nerve because there really wasn’t a word to describe the behavior. Dorian and Steve N. addressed this perfectly on < href="http://delawareliberal.net//2015/03/23/do-men-really-trust-women/">another thread of mine:
Dorian:
And…
Steve N:
Good stuff.
Ain’t Taking it Any More is a weasel. Point was made clearly then backed away from with the old move of “I didn’t make the argument I just highlighted what somebody else said.”
Why don’t you take responsibility for the point you raised? Shameful. We know the point you were making and responded to it. Commenters who don’t take responsibility for the arguments they make certainly aren’t part of the solution.
@ATIAM
Yes, you did express an opinion. With this line right here: “there wasn’t the slight shred of bitterness, or debt due, hatred or negativity about his feelings.”
His words/sentiment, not mine.
Keep patting yourselves on the back – you’ve got it all figured out.
Oh, I get it AGTIAM, you were just passing on information with no motive behind it.
#dumbsplaining (see DG? I got a lot of stuff you hate in on that one 🙂
Pandora, I agree with what you wrote, and the point you made, but I think out “thought ships” kind of passed each other.
Perhaps im not understanding it. You pointed to one post the kind of ridiculed men for trying to separate themselves personally from “all men” and it seemed to dub personal experience, when applied to white men, as inconsequential. Seemed to, I get that it probably wasn’t intended to.
However, your personal experience as a woman, shapes your opinions on such topics. You point to it, you draw from it…. ya know, like any human should.
So from Steve’s post.. yes, I admit I have more power. I admit I have more privilege. I’m not PROUD of it, perhaps I’m a little embarrassed by it sometimes…. but I never did anything to make it that way. I’m not going to fail at life on purpose to “balance the scales”. —– This is a bit off topic, but to everyone who is NOT a white man, what is the correct way for a white man, aware of his privilege, should approach it? Im asking. I know know. Ive been accused of having “excessive white guilt”, I’ve been accused of “not understanding how great it is to be white”.. I actually, truthfully want to know.—- anyway …. When asked for my honest opinion, I’m going to answer honestly. I , personally try.. I REALLY REALLY try to avoid words and arguments like ’emotional, hysterical”.. 1, im not a dick, 2, I don’t have a death wish, so I would NEVER say “oh, you’re on your period”… I HAVE called women (or at least people on blogs claiming to be women) a “bully”, which is a cross gender thing you can be called for being, well, a bully. That’s all a lot of rambling, but it comes down to this. I think YOUR personal experience matters in all of your opinions. Does mine? also, this has been derailed from racism to sexism.
The weasel doubles down!
Of course he doubles down, DG.
Ben, actually acknowledging your privilege is perfect. It’s impossible to address a problem if people don’t admit it exists. I also think being able to address systemic racism, sexism, etc. would take a lot of pressure off people addressing individual racism, sexism, etc..
So, I don’t feel like acknowledging it is enough.
Totally, different example, I acknowledge that our factory farm system is awful. It’s hazardous for the humans who work there, it breeds super-bugs, and while I don’t really care about KILLING animals for food, do we HAVE to torture them for their whole lives before we do it? So I acknowledge it is a problem, I also know “responsible food” is more expensive. So how do I deal with that knowledge? I eat less meat and fewer eggs, and spend more money when I do eat those things in order to get something that a really hope isn’t just cleaver marketing. (I’m a very cynical person)
How, as a white man, can I still give my opinions, but for the sake of the metaphor, (a really weak one) also buy organic. It is not enough for me to just know there is a problem. I want to be actively engaged in helping people understand each other more, because I know there are many things I don’t understand about many experiences, but there are also many things people don’t understand about mine.
Ben, you’re being way too hard on yourself.
Here’s something I try to do (and don’t always succeed at). When someone is telling me about something that upset/angered them I try not to remove the focus from their issue onto mine.
Here’s a bad example: If someone says, “I hate my boss because…” the correct response would probably not be, “Not all bosses.”
I think that’s where a lot of my frustrations come from. I make a point and then have to spend a good deal of time absolving (?) people rather then defending/discussing my actual point.
I’ll respectfully disagree with that first bit. I’m being demanding of myself. I think more people should be more demanding of themselves rather than others. Especially people who start out life with an advantage over most people.. I mean, isn’t that the message that we (liberals, progressives, feminists) are trying to get out? maybe it’s not. Maybe I’ve missed the boat entirely.
I think it’s human nature to respond to something with personal experience. It is also human nature to defend one’s self, or one’s character/ intentions. sometimes, on this very website (ghasp) intentions and character are attacked rather than a statement. I skip reading every response to .. whoever.. that starts off with (or something like) “you’re wrong because you’re a man, and you don’t get it”
No we DONT get what it’s like to be treated poorly because of X chromosomes.. however, some people know what it’s like to be treated poorly for being fat, or short.. or any other number of things that people are horrible to each other for. I would ask that every try and remember that next time you are about to tell them their opinion is invalid, or they flat out ‘don’t understand because”…