Dear Fellow White Men, Please Stop Watering Down Slavery
--
The Destruction of Slavery Equivocation
We Live in a Democracy. In case you might have been unaware. Not in an autocracy. It’s critical to understand, because I’ve grown intolerant of hearing the white man argument that keeps popping up that seeks to water down or equivocate slavery in America, and thus white racism in America. Their argument goes something like this: slavery happened in other places in the world, all over the globe, and all across history. Even whites were enslaved. Yeah, the next thing you’re going to tell me is about the benefits of slavery.
Please stop. Here’s why: we live in a democracy. Not just any democracy. The first one where a group of people decided to put in writing that principles that each representative from their regions would abide by the natural rights of all. Yes, I know they didn’t all adhere to those principles, most resisted since it was new and the first time. Philosophy, even the “correct” political philosophy to start a new country on, won’t feed the kids. It’s a struggle to enact. But some states did abolished slavery right away, others came on board in the North, but others in resistance, politically, then violently, and clung to it until the end of civil war. And then beyond — just under a different name.
Autocracy, in contrast, existed before written American democracy everywhere in the Old World. It goes something like this: I’m the King (Sultan, Monarch, Czar, Emperor of China) go fetch me some white women (or a harem, a concubine, etc.) That is a form of slavery or as we call it today, sex trafficking. It is not democracy. Other slaves were used to move things and do labor, those caught in battle, sure. But this autocratic demand and control by an autocratic monarch isn’t the sole reason of the differences between “Old World” slavery and “New World” slavery.
*****
The differences are measurably vast and vitally important for those who want to look at the evolutionary patterns and developments of this diabolical institution. Because, surprise, no slave enjoyed being a slave — in both worlds. We are still stuck with the legacy of American Slavery, that flavor left over from the British and a couple of other European powers that brought it to the New World. So, we must deal with…
