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My sister chose to enter into this arrangement with crossfit. She could have done something else if she preferred. She made an informed choice that being a cros

My sister chose to enter into this arrangement with crossfit. She could have done something else if she preferred. She made an informed choice that being a crossfit instructor was worthwhile. Your imagined cousin did not have this option. That's the fundamental distinction. However, it is very much worth discussing slavery in the Greek/Roman context - it did differ very much from American slavery. And even American slavery is known to us these days mainly from works of propaganda (e.g. Uncle Tom's Cabin, or modern propaganda like Django Unchained), so our perception of it may not be accurate either.

kakarot 10y ago
One group of people forced another group of people to labor for them under threat of physical violence. These people were systematically denied freedoms. Their owners were, naturally, extremely racist. What exactly about Django is meant to be propaganda? How does it misrepresent slavery other than the exaggerated comedic situations? Do you truly believe Quentin Tarantino was attempting to brainwash people about what slavery was like?
- yummyfajitas 10y ago
  Django Unchained was meant to make the viewer enjoy violence against certain people. To do this, they needed to make those people as awful and unsympathetic as possible.
  - kakarot 10y ago
    What do you presume Tarantino's motive would be for such a thing?
    - mirimir 10y ago
      He says: > In 2007, Tarantino discussed an idea for a type of Spaghetti Western set in the United States' pre-Civil War Deep South. He called this type of film "a southern", stating that he wanted "to do movies that deal with America's horrible past with slavery and stuff but do them like spaghetti westerns, not like big issue movies. I want to do them like they're genre films, but they deal with everything that America has never dealt with because it's ashamed of it, and other countries don't really deal with because they don't feel they have the right to."[3] Tarantino later explained the genesis of the idea: "I was writing a book about Sergio Corbucci when I came up with a way to tell the story. ... I was writing about how his movies have this evil Wild West, a horrible Wild West. It was surreal, it dealt a lot with fascism. So I'm writing this whole piece on this, and I'm thinking: 'I don't really know if Sergio was thinking [this] while he was doing this. But I know I'm thinking it now. And I can do it!' "[4] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Django_Unchained https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Django_Unchained
      - kakarot 10y ago
        So you're talking about those exaggerated comedic situations, then? The ones that were obviously unrealistic and meant for cinematic purposes? An educated mind does not interpret Django as a trustworthy source for information about slavery in early America and knows it shouldn't be cited in any essay on the subject except to make a comparison to actual events. If people are taking Django into account in their view of American slavery then that is an issue of education and not propaganda on behalf of Tarantino.
  - mirimir 10y ago
    Well, it's a Tarantino movie! That's what he does! But it doesn't mean that slavery isn't evil.
    - yummyfajitas 10y ago
      I didn't say it wasn't evil. I said that our perceptions of how it actually worked might not be accurate.
      - mirimir 10y ago
        I get what you say about debt bondage, and how it can be voluntary. And the right to bankruptcy more or less guarantees that. What I don't get is what about our perceptions of how slavery worked in the US might not be accurate. Except maybe in negligible ways. I mean, people were born into slavery. They could be given freedom. But they typically had no way to earn it. What am I missing? Actually, what's arguably missing is how widespread debt bondage was. Poor white immigrants were sold just like black slaves, and typically worked ten years to pay for their passage. And children who came with them had to work until 18, and could be sold separately. Edit: typo
        yummyfajitas 10y ago
        What I don't get is what about our perceptions of how slavery worked in the US might not be accurate. Except maybe in negligible ways. I mean, people were born into slavery. They could be given freedom. But they typically had no way to earn it. What am I missing? What you are missing is that the sadistic behavior seen in Django Unchained was uncommon. Slaves were expensive. People don't usually destroy a $40k Lexus for entertainment - they usually take good care of their expensive capital investments, and they treat their own car far better than a rental. In fact, slaves were often treated comparably or better than freeman laborers. Here is a modern treatment: http://www.latinamericanstudies.org/slavery/JLE-1977.pdf http://www.latinamericanstudies.org/slavery/JLE-1977.pdf Or you can read a contemporary treatment, from a northern unitarian abolitionist who visited the south: http://www.authorama.com/full/pdf/A-Southside-View-of-Slavery--Nehemiah-Adams.pdf http://www.authorama.com/full/pdf/A-Southside-View-of-Slaver... Note: none of what I've said here should remotely be interpreted as a defense of slavery. Just an acknowledgement that my modern mental picture of American slavery is likely not that accurate.
  - eastWestMath 10y ago
    If you had ever done any reading about american slavery, you'd know that Django sugarcoated it. Rape was common, most new families were separated, mandingo fighting existed as a hobby, corporal punishment was handed out with slight provocation. To be honest, I'm shocked that you're willing to make these sorts of comments with your name attached to your account. You don't think this would make your employer uncomfortable?

kakarot 10y ago

One group of people forced another group of people to labor for them under threat of physical violence. These people were systematically denied freedoms. Their owners were, naturally, extremely racist. What exactly about Django is meant to be propaganda? How does it misrepresent slavery other than the exaggerated comedic situations? Do you truly believe Quentin Tarantino was attempting to brainwash people about what slavery was like?

yummyfajitas 10y ago
Django Unchained was meant to make the viewer enjoy violence against certain people. To do this, they needed to make those people as awful and unsympathetic as possible.
- kakarot 10y ago
  What do you presume Tarantino's motive would be for such a thing?
  - mirimir 10y ago
    He says: > In 2007, Tarantino discussed an idea for a type of Spaghetti Western set in the United States' pre-Civil War Deep South. He called this type of film "a southern", stating that he wanted "to do movies that deal with America's horrible past with slavery and stuff but do them like spaghetti westerns, not like big issue movies. I want to do them like they're genre films, but they deal with everything that America has never dealt with because it's ashamed of it, and other countries don't really deal with because they don't feel they have the right to."[3] Tarantino later explained the genesis of the idea: "I was writing a book about Sergio Corbucci when I came up with a way to tell the story. ... I was writing about how his movies have this evil Wild West, a horrible Wild West. It was surreal, it dealt a lot with fascism. So I'm writing this whole piece on this, and I'm thinking: 'I don't really know if Sergio was thinking [this] while he was doing this. But I know I'm thinking it now. And I can do it!' "[4] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Django_Unchained https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Django_Unchained
    - kakarot 10y ago
      So you're talking about those exaggerated comedic situations, then? The ones that were obviously unrealistic and meant for cinematic purposes? An educated mind does not interpret Django as a trustworthy source for information about slavery in early America and knows it shouldn't be cited in any essay on the subject except to make a comparison to actual events. If people are taking Django into account in their view of American slavery then that is an issue of education and not propaganda on behalf of Tarantino.
- mirimir 10y ago
  Well, it's a Tarantino movie! That's what he does! But it doesn't mean that slavery isn't evil.
  - yummyfajitas 10y ago
    I didn't say it wasn't evil. I said that our perceptions of how it actually worked might not be accurate.
    - mirimir 10y ago
      I get what you say about debt bondage, and how it can be voluntary. And the right to bankruptcy more or less guarantees that. What I don't get is what about our perceptions of how slavery worked in the US might not be accurate. Except maybe in negligible ways. I mean, people were born into slavery. They could be given freedom. But they typically had no way to earn it. What am I missing? Actually, what's arguably missing is how widespread debt bondage was. Poor white immigrants were sold just like black slaves, and typically worked ten years to pay for their passage. And children who came with them had to work until 18, and could be sold separately. Edit: typo
      - yummyfajitas 10y ago
        What I don't get is what about our perceptions of how slavery worked in the US might not be accurate. Except maybe in negligible ways. I mean, people were born into slavery. They could be given freedom. But they typically had no way to earn it. What am I missing? What you are missing is that the sadistic behavior seen in Django Unchained was uncommon. Slaves were expensive. People don't usually destroy a $40k Lexus for entertainment - they usually take good care of their expensive capital investments, and they treat their own car far better than a rental. In fact, slaves were often treated comparably or better than freeman laborers. Here is a modern treatment: http://www.latinamericanstudies.org/slavery/JLE-1977.pdf http://www.latinamericanstudies.org/slavery/JLE-1977.pdf Or you can read a contemporary treatment, from a northern unitarian abolitionist who visited the south: http://www.authorama.com/full/pdf/A-Southside-View-of-Slavery--Nehemiah-Adams.pdf http://www.authorama.com/full/pdf/A-Southside-View-of-Slaver... Note: none of what I've said here should remotely be interpreted as a defense of slavery. Just an acknowledgement that my modern mental picture of American slavery is likely not that accurate.
- eastWestMath 10y ago
  If you had ever done any reading about american slavery, you'd know that Django sugarcoated it. Rape was common, most new families were separated, mandingo fighting existed as a hobby, corporal punishment was handed out with slight provocation. To be honest, I'm shocked that you're willing to make these sorts of comments with your name attached to your account. You don't think this would make your employer uncomfortable?