3 ms·
That was an incredibly powerful set of personal testimony. I just don't get exposed to that visceral reminder of what slavery was very much. And still so much o
by NotSammyHagar 7y ago
That was an incredibly powerful set of personal testimony. I just don't get exposed to that visceral reminder of what slavery was very much. And still so much of the south is in denial about it. Setting up gerrymandered districts in Virgina, making it harder for people to vote in ways that clearly make it harder for blacks to vote. So much of that is still here. I'm from a southern state, it's not exactly unknown to me that this has been the way it was for a lot of people. Now that I live in my west coast tech utopia I don't see people who seem to live in that world (sarcastically I kind of say this, look at all the homeless but there is less visible racism, so it must be more hidden). This should be required reading in schools. My own history classes told me a lot about how horrible slavery was, but wow, nothing like this.
I'm amazed they published that in the newspaper. Look through the editorials in it, search for jefferson davis and read what people say about changing school names. That was a freaking brave editorial decision. - https://www.montgomeryadvertiser.com/story/news/education/2019/06/03/jefferson-davis-birthday-alabama-holiday-why-three-montgomery-high-schools-named-confederates/2638908002/ https://www.montgomeryadvertiser.com/story/news/education/20...
- pegasus 7y agoIt's already gone. WBM archive link: https://web.archive.org/web/*/https://www.montgomeryadvertiser.com/in-depth/news/2019/06/03/alabama-state-holiday-jefferson-davis-birthday-where-lord-9-slave-testimonies/3740398002/ https://web.archive.org/web/*/https://www.montgomeryadvertis...
- Vinnl 7y ago> I'm amazed they published that in the newspaper. (...) That was a freaking brave editorial decision. As someone not from the US: what would the controversy here be? (i.e. what reason would someone opposed to publishing this name?) The Netherlands has done pretty awful things in Indonesia after WW2, and while that is unfortunately hardly mentioned in high school, I can't imagine it being controversial for a Dutch newspaper to publish testimonials of it.
- simonh 7y agoImagine that a large number of people in the Netherlands thought that what the Netherlands did in Indonesia were right and justified, and that the Netherlands should still have colonies and Indonesians should be ruled from the Netherlands to this day. Imagine these people still fly flags celebrating Netherlands rule of Indonesia and name their schools after the officers responsible for committing those atrocities in Indonesia, which they deny actually happened.
- Vinnl 7y agoHow often do people actually approve of slavery, or deny that it happened? I mean, I know there are some - I've seen articles as well. But surely those are only the excesses of a fringe movement, not something the newspapers should actively take into account when deciding what to publish?
- ikeyany 7y agoRacial supremacy is what people sympathize with, not slavery per se. For example, the assumption that a white person's word is inherently more valuable than a black person's word left some particularly nasty stains on America's history - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emmett_Till https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emmett_Till
- simonh 7y agoThey deny the excesses of slavery, or excuse them, and argue that whites are inherently superior and should rule over other races as subjects. There are an awful lot of people in the south that at a minimum are sympathetic to those views.
- Vinnl 7y ago"An awful lot" as in: enough to pressure newspapers into not publishing accounts of it? That's... Wow.