Fifty-three years ago, James A. White Sr. joined the US Air Force. But as an African American man, he had to go to shocking lengths to find a place for his young family to live nearby.
He tells this story about the lived experience of “everyday racism” — and how it echoes today in the way he’s had to teach his grandchildren to interact with police
“I don’t have the luxury of being angry. I need to do everything in my power to eradicate racism in my lifetime.”
An 18-year-old, African-American male joined the United States Air Force and was assigned to Mountain Home Air Force Base Idaho, and was a part of the air police squadron. Upon first arriving there, the first goal that I had was for me to identify an apartment, so I could bring my wife and my new baby, Melanie, out to join me in Idaho.
I immediately went to the personnel office, and talking with the guys in personnel, they said, “Hey, no problem finding an apartment in Mountain Home, Idaho. The people down there love us because they know if they have an airman who is coming in to rent one of their apartments, they’ll always get their money.”
And that was a really important thing. He said, “So here is a list of people that you can call, and then they will then allow you to select the apartment that you want.” So I got the list; I made the call.
The lady answered on the other end and I told her what I wanted. She said, “Oh, great you called. We have four or five apartments available right now.” She said, “Do you want a one-bedroom or two-bedroom?” Then she said, “Let’s not talk about that. Just come on down, select the apartment that you want. We’ll sign the contract and you’ll have keys in your hand to get your family out here right away.”
So I was excited. I jumped in my car. I went downtown and knocked on the door. When I knocked on the door, the woman came to the door, and she looked at me, and she said, “Can I help you?” I said, “Yes, I’m the person who called about the apartments. I was just coming down to make my selection.”
She said, “You know what? I’m really sorry, but my husband rented those apartments and didn’t tell me about them.” I said, “You mean he rented all five of them in one hour?” She didn’t give me a response, and what she said was this: She said, “Why don’t you leave your number, and if we have some openings, I’ll give you a call?”
Needless to say, I did not get a call from her. Nor did I get any responses from the other people that they gave me on the list where I could get apartments.
So as a result of that, and feeling rejected, I went back to the base, and I talked to the squadron commander. His name was McDow, Major McDow. I said, “Major McDow, I need your help.” I told him what happened, and here’s what he said to me: He said, “James, I would love to help you. But you know the problem: We can’t make people rent to folks that they don’t want to rent to.And besides, we have a great relationship with people in the community and we really don’t want to damage that.”
He said, “So maybe this is what you should do. Why don’t you let your family stay home, because you do know that you get a 30-day leave. So once a year, you can go home to your family, spend 30 days and then come on back.”
Needless to say, that didn’t resonate for me. So after leaving him, I went back to personnel, and talking to the clerk, he said, “Jim, I think I have a solution for you. There’s an airman who is leaving and he has a trailer. If you noticed, in Mountain Home, there are trailer parks and trailers all over the place. You can buy his trailer, and you’d probably get a really good deal because he wants to get out of town as soon as possible. And that would take care of your problem, and that would provide the solution for you.”
So I immediately jumped in my car, went downtown, saw the trailer — it was a small trailer, but under the circumstances, I figured that was the best thing that I could do. So I bought the trailer. And then I asked him, “Can I just leave the trailer here, and that would take care of all my problems, I wouldn’t have to find another trailer park?”
He said, “Before I say yes to that, I need to check with management.” So I get back to the base, he called me back and management said, “No, you can’t leave the trailer here because we had promised that slot to some other people.”
And that was strange to me because there were several other slots that were open, but it just so happened that he had promised that slot to someone else.
So, what I did — and he said, “You shouldn’t worry, Jim, because there are a lot of trailer parks.” So I put out another exhaustive list of going to trailer parks.
I went to one after another, after another. And I got the same kind of rejection there that I received when I was looking for the apartment.
And as a result, the kind of comments that they made to me, in addition to saying that they didn’t have any slots open, one person said, “Jim, the reason why we can’t rent to you, we already have a Negro family in the trailer park.”
He said, “And it’s not me, because I like you people.” (Laughs) And that’s what I did, too. I chuckled, too. He said, “But here’s the problem: If I let you in, the other tenants will move out and I can’t afford to take that kind of a hit.” He said, “I just can’t rent to you.”
Even though that was discouraging, it didn’t stop me.
I kept looking, and I looked at the far end of the town in Mountain Home, and there was a small trailer park. I mean, a really small trailer park. It didn’t have any paved roads in it, it didn’t have the concrete slabs, it didn’t have fencing to portion off your trailer slot from other trailer slots. It didn’t have a laundry facility.
But the conclusion I reached at that moment was that I didn’t have a lot of other options. So I called my wife, and I said, “We’re going to make this one work.” And we moved into it and we became homeowners in Mountain Home, Idaho. And of course, eventually things settled down.
Four years after that, I received papers to move from Mountain Home, Idaho to a place called Goose Bay, Labrador. We won’t even talk about that. It was another great location. (Laughter) So my challenge then was to get my family from Mountain Home, Idaho to Sharon, Pennsylvania.
That wasn’t a problem because we had just purchased a brand-new automobile. My mother called and said she’ll fly out. She’ll be with us as we drive, she’ll help us manage the children. So she came out, her and Alice put a lot of food together for the trip.
That morning, we left at about 5 a.m. Great trip, having a great time, good conversation. Somewhere around 6:30, 7 o’clock, we got a little bit tired, and we said, “Why don’t we get a motel so that we can rest and then have an early start in the morning?” So we were looking at a number of the motels as we drove down the road, and we saw one, it was a great big, bright flashing light that said, “Vacancies, Vacancies, Vacanies.”
So we stopped in. They were in the parking lot, I went inside. When I walked inside, the lady was just finishing up one contract with some folks, some other people were coming in behind me. And so I walked to the counter, and she said, “How can I help you?” I said, “I would like to get a motel for the evening for my family.” She said, “You know, I’m really sorry, I just rented the last one. We will not have any more until the morning.” She said, “But if you go down the road about an hour, 45 minutes, there’s another trailer park down there.” I said, “Yeah, but you still have the ‘Vacancies’ light on, and it’s flashing.” She said, “Oh, I forgot.” And she reached over and turned the light off. She looked at me and I looked at her.
There were other people in the room. She kind of looked at them. No one said anything. So I just got the hint and I left, and went outside to the parking lot. And I told my mother and I told my wife and also Melanie, and I said, “It looks like we’re going to have to drive a little bit further down the road to be able to sleep tonight.” And we did drive down the road, but just before we took off and pulled out of the parking lot, guess what happened? The light came back on. And it said, “Vacancies, Vacancies, Vacancies.” We were able to find a nice place. It wasn’t our preference, but it was secure and it was clean. And so we had a great sleep that night.
The piece that’s important about that is that we had similar kinds of experiences from Idaho all the way through to Pennsylvania, where we were rejected from hotels, motels and restaurants. But we made it to Pennsylvania. We got the family settled. Everyone was glad to see the kids. I jumped on a plane and shot off to Goose Bay, Labrador, which is another story, right? (Laughter)
Here it is, 53 years later, I now have nine grandchildren, two great-grandchildren. Five of the grandchildren are boys. I have master’s, Ph.D., undergrad, one in medical school. I have a couple that are trending. They’re almost there but not quite. (Laughter) I have one who has been in college now for eight years. (Laughter)
He doesn’t have a degree yet, but he wants to be a comedian. So we’re just trying to get him to stay in school. Because you never know, just because you’re funny at home, does not make you a comedian, right? (Laughter) But the thing about it, they’re all good kids — no drugs, no babies in high school, no crime.
So with that being the backdrop, I was sitting in my TV room watching TV, and they were talking about Ferguson and all the hullabaloo that was going on. And all of a sudden, one of the news commentators got on the air and she said, “In the last three months, eight unarmed African-American males have been killed by police, white homeowners, or white citizens.” For some reason, at that moment it just all hit me. I said, “What is it? It is so insane. What is the hatred that’s causing people to do these kinds of things?”
Just then, one of my grandsons called. He said, “Granddad, did you hear what they said on TV?” I said, “Yes, I did.” He said, “I’m just so confused. We do everything we do, but it seems that driving while black, walking while black, talking while black, it’s just dangerous. What can we do? We do everything that you told us to do.
When stopped by the police, we place both hands on the steering wheel at the 12 o’clock position. If asked to get identification, we tell them, ‘I am slowly reaching over into the glove compartment to get my I.D.’ When pulled out of the car to be searched, when laid on the ground to be searched, when our trunks are opened to be searched, we don’t push back, we don’t challenge because we know, you’ve told us, ‘Don’t you challenge the police. After it’s over, call us and we’ll be the ones to challenge.”
He said, “And this is the piece that really bugs me: Our white friends, our buddies, we kind of hang together. When they hear about these kinds of things happening to us, they say, ‘Why do you take it? You need to push back. You need to challenge. You need to ask them for their identification.’” And here’s what the boys have been taught to tell them: “We know that you can do that, but please do not do that while we’re in the car because the consequences for you are significantly different than the consequences for us.”
And so as a grandparent, what do I tell my grandsons? How do I keep them safe? How do I keep them alive? As a result of this, people have come to me and said, “Jim, are you angry?” And my response to that is this: “I don’t have the luxury of being angry, and I also know the consequences of being enraged.”
Therefore, the only thing that I can do is take my collective intellect and my energy and my ideas and my experiences and dedicate myself to challenge, at any point in time, anything that looks like it might be racist.
The first thing I have to do is to educate,
The second thing I have to do is to unveil racism, and
The last thing I need to do is do everything within my power to eradicate racism in my lifetime by any means necessary.
The second thing I do is this: I want to appeal to Americans. I want to appeal to their humanity, to their dignity, to their civic pride and ownership to be able to not react to these heinous crimes in an adverse manner.
But instead, to elevate your level of societal knowledge, your level of societal awareness and societal consciousness to then collectively come together, all of us come together, to make sure that we speak out against and we challenge any kind of insanity, any kind of insanity that makes it okay to kill unarmed people, regardless of their ethnicity, regardless of their race, regardless of their diversity makeup.
We have to challenge that. It doesn’t make any sense. The only way I think we can do that is through a collective.
We need to have black and white and Asian and Hispanic just to step forward and say, “We are not going to accept that kind of behavior anymore.”
Part 2 concerns the consequences of Colonialism on the African people (with slight editing and rearrangement of the original source):
“Africa is almost 4 times the size of the United States of America in land size and in all kinds of riches, especially in raw materials such as platinum, cobalt, uranium, tantalum, gold, diamonds and oil…
Africa was destroyed by imperialist Europe and is still being destroyed by Europe.
The effects of colonialism past and present are visible all over Africa.
Africa has suffered the worst genocide and holocaust at the hands of the architects of slavery and colonialism.
What is called “European Renaissance” was the worst darkness for Africa’s people.
Armed with the technology of the gun and the compass that it copied from China and the Arab Empire, Europe became a menace for Africa against her spears.
So-called “civilized” Europe and claiming to be “Christian” came up with the Transatlantic Slave Trade. There was massive loss of African population and skills.
A few historians have estimated that the Gold Coast (today’s Ghana) alone, lost over 2 million of its people to slavery over 4 hundred years.
What would have been Britain’s level of development had millions of her people been put to work as slaves out of their country over a period of four centuries?
As if slavery had not already done enough damage to Africa’s people, European leaders met in Germany from December 1884 to February 1885 at the imperialist Berlin Conference.
The Belgian King Leopold stated the purpose of the Berlin Conference as “How we should divide among ourselves this magnificent African cake.”
Africa was thus plunged into another human tragedy.
The Berlin Treaty of February 26, 1885, of the European imperialists sliced Africa into “Portuguese Africa”, “British Africa”, “German Africa”, “Italian Africa,” “Spanish Africa”, “French Africa” and “Belgian Africa.”
There was no Africa left for Africans except Ethiopia, encircled by paupers of land dispossessed people who were now the reservoir of cheap native labor for their dispossessory.
Somalia, a tiny African country, had the misfortune of becoming “British Somaliland”, “Italian Somaliland”, and “French Somaliland.”
Colonial brutality on the colonized Africans knew no bounds.
Here are a few examples of atrocities committed against Africans by colonialists.
A British philosopher, Bertrand Russell wrote about some of these colonial atrocities perpetrated by Belgium in the Congo in the name of “Western Christian Civilisation.”
Russell wrote:
“Each village was ordered by the authorities to collect and bring in a certain amount of rubber – as much as the men could bring in by neglecting all work for their own maintenance.
If they failed to bring the required amount, their women were taken away and kept as hostages…in the harems of colonial government employees.
If this method failed…troops were sent to the village to spread terror, if necessary by killing some of the men…They were ordered to bring one right hand amputated from an African victim for every cartridge used.” (Introduction To African Civilisations, John G. Jackson 310-311)
The result of these atrocities according to Sir H.H. Johnston was the reduction of the population in the Congo from 20 million to 9 million people in fifteen years.
The worst genocide also occurred in Namibia in 1904.
Namibia was then a German colony. The Herero people resisted German colonialism. A well armed army under General Lothar von Trotha defeated the people in Herero at the Battle of Waterberg.
The German colonial aggressors drove these Africans from their land to the desert where there was no water. Over 70% of the Herero population died of dehydration in that desert.
In South Africa, the Khoisan people were exterminated by colonialists after being hunted like animals and dispossessed of their land.
Colonised Africans were treated not only as sub-humans, they were denied basic rights such as education and the right to land for decent housing, farming, mining and fishing.
Colonial functionaries were honoured for barbaric actions and atrocities. For example:
The British government honoured its colonial officials such as “Sir Andries Stockkenstrom“. Stockkenstrom had earlier said:
“The question of robbing natives of their land is not whether it is right or wrong to plunder their land, massacre and exterminate the Hottentots, the Kaffirs…the simple question is will it PAY?
But if the Bible and the missionary stands in the way of this one thousand per cent profit…If in short, they cannot promote the great work of converting a nation of shopkeepers into a nation of millionaires,…gun powder will produce a more efficient gospel for the purpose of our system of civilization.” (R.U. Kenny, Piet Retief, Cape Town and Pretoria: Human and Reason, 1976 page 77)
When introducing inferior education for African mental enslavement in South Africa, Hendrik F. Verwoerd, that arch implementer of apartheid colonialism, said:
“There is no place for him (the African) in the European community above the level of certain forms of labour.
Until now, he (the African) has been subjected to a school system which drew him away from his community and misled him by showing him the green pastures of the European society where he is not allowed to graze.” (‘Apartheid: The Story Of A Dispossessed People, Motsoko Pheko page 150 Marram Books London 1984)
Slavery and colonialism enriched Europe and reduced Africa to abject poverty.
The riches of Africa and her raw materials fueled the economies of imperialist countries. The British Prime Minister, Sir Winston Churchill bore testimony to this fact when he said:
“Our possession of the West Indies gave us the strength, the support, but especially the capital, the wealth, at the time when no other European nations possessed such reserve, which enabled us to come through the great struggles of the Napoleonic Wars.
The keen competition of commerce in the 18th and 19th centuries enabled us not only to acquire this appendage of possessions which we have, but also to lay the foundations of that commercial and financial leadership which when the world was young,…enabled us to make our great position in the world.” (‘The Long Road To Humanity’, by Stanton A. Coblentz page 325 and Introduction To African Civilizations John G. Jackson page 306)
It was against this background of genocide in the name of “European civilization” that Africans in the Diaspora who had been shipped from Africa and enslaved in the West Indies and in the Americas realized that the solution to Africa’s people both at home and abroad was Pan-Africanism…To be followed on part 3
It was Not planned during this confinement, but I observed that my day work is split in 3 proportional categories of tasks. 1/3 for physical activities (1 hr for early walk, 1 30 min for gardening and physical exercises). 1/3 for reading, writing, publishing on my blog and following on news. 1/3 for home maintenance (laundering, washing dishes, mopping, cooking…). I take 2 short invigorating siesta of less than an hour to focus on breathing and plan the next set of tasks.
Purify your heart and mind, and pray anywhere you want, and any which way you want
Men authors are at disadvantages in describing their childhood: They failed to observe, to comprehend and quickly forgot whatever feeling and minor events might have affected them
No need for personality cult. If your “hero” figured something out, learn what he learned and don’t emulate him in everything else.
Most of Jesus’ disciples and early Christians were dead serious that they would rise on the third day. Especially the martyrs. No need to wonder how initially Christianity made any headway.
My heroes are Malcolm X and James Baldwin: Religion is Never a basis to define and demand human rights.
Malcolm X transformed many times his political model, as cruelty, violence and injustices could no longer fit within his current understanding and model of resistance.
The Modern States that learned to listen to the demands and request of its people and reacts promptly in reconsidering its laws are the most advanced, regardless of their size in land and population and are the most respectful of the UN resolutions regarding human rights. They have confidence that their educated and cultured citizens are more attuned to the world calamities than their functional institutions.
Mener une vie cachée’ n’est pas une vie décente: sans engagement face a l’injustice, rien n’est decent.
Slavery is very ancient, before even religions took hold on society. The cruel and brutal behavior of “owners” of slaves reached a high level of discrimination as religious sects guessed correctly that it satisfies the interest of the power-to-be classes and directly their own interests.
They give you life. And they give you death. And they tell you take care of your Destiny in between. But we all know what is destined to the living species.
Age should Not entitle you to play the wise-man: Young people are Not hearing your counsel or advice or wise-cracking humors. Learn to loosen up and say “reflected humor” that are within the humanist values: Your humor should Not match the humors of the younger ones’: that’s the best message you can share with the next generations.
The Ivy League school Harvard College dropped standardized test requirements is changing its admissions requirements as it figures out how to attract the best applicants in a pandemic, and also after years of complaints that SATs penalize low-income students.
Keep digging archaeological sites: It is important to remember, every now and then, that powerful empires and great civilizations were forgotten. That all empires will eventually decline into oblivion.
Demand for private flights from Hong Kong to Australia and North America jumped 214% in January, just as the pandemic was spreading beyond China. (In all pandemics, the elite class is never hurt, and their comfort Not altered)
Notes and tidbits posted on FB and Twitter. Part 165
Note: I take notes of books I read and comment on events and edit sentences that fit my style. I pa attention to researched documentaries and serious links I receive. The page is long and growing like crazy, and the sections I post contains a month-old events that are worth refreshing your memory.
Another surprise is that when it comes to purchasing course materials and answering old questions in assignments, many succeed in locating previous students who took the course. They never attempted to get an idea of the course before registering.
I have tried many teaching styles, revised several times the contents and arrangements of the course chapters, and experimented with various methods to encourage the students into reading the course materials on their own volition. Nothing worked. A few diligent students were my teaching rewards.
I varied the number of quizzes, exams, assignments and lab projects, tried to encourage my university students to read research articles, investigated new presentation techniques, gave them hints on how best to read and assimilate the materials, emphasized on thinking like engineers and not memorize information, and I even assigned students to read to class: I received basically the same observations, no matter how I change the course. A few diligent students (2 to be precise) were my teaching rewards.
Many university students don’t bring any paper or pen to take notes, many refuse to redo their assignments for a couple extra points or for closure sake, and most of the redone works (even after correcting them in class) show no improvement.
One of my constraints for homework: the end product has to be hand written, including tables, charts and figures. I can manage to read physicians’ prescriptions better than their handwriting assignment.
Zionist Ashkenazi Jews (including Neocons) who obey only the Talmud (and never the Torah), have formed a world power banking, extortion cult of war and death that has little or nothing to do with being devout adherents of Judaism. These are the folks who think nothing of breaking the law, lying (Kol Nidre), stealing, graft, corruption, assassination, blackmail, extortion or destroying tens of millions of people to get their way.
There is this couple of students who demonstrate this want to learn: it is always refreshing to feel that a few students are serious about the money invested by their parents for them to learn at universities.
Slavery is rampant in most countries, especially in West Africa (Mauritania, Ivory Coast, Gambia…), Yemen, Sudan and the Far East. Slavery is even practiced on its own citizens. Other countries abuse the “imported” work force to subjugate them into a state of slavery. (East European highway truck drivers consider themselves slaves to western Europeans capitalists)
Slaves were first “imported” from Madagascar, Sudan, East Africa and the current States bordering the Sahara Desert to Sultans in Morocco and the Ottoman Empire. Saudi Arabia is highest in that practice and the UN is declining to broach this indignity.
In the 18th century, the European colonial powers and the USA shipped slaves from West Africa for several centuries.
Here’s a handy guide to help avoid buying Halloween treats produced by child slaves.
Last September, a lawsuit was filed against 8 companies – including Hershey, Mars, and Nestle – alleging that the companies were duping consumers into “unwittingly” funding the child slave labor trade in West Africa, home to two-thirds of the world’s cacao beans.
Worker ages range from 11-16 (sometimes younger).
They are trapped in isolated farms, where they work 80 to 100 hours a week.
The film Slavery: A Global Investigation spoke with freed children who reported that they were often beaten with fists and belts and whips.
“Anytime they loaded you with bags (of cocoa beans) and you fell while carrying them, nobody helped you. Instead they beat you and beat you until you picked it up again.”
To help you avoid supporting slavery this Halloween, Here’s are ten chocolate companies that benefit from child slave labor:
Hershey
Mars
Nestle
ADM Cocoa
Guittard Chocolate Company
Godiva
Chocolates by Bernard Callebaut
Fowler’s Chocolate
Kraft
See’s Candies
Legislation nearly passed in 2001 in which the FDA would implement “slave free” labeling on the packaging.
Before the legislation made it to a vote, the chocolate industry – including Nestle, Hershey, and Mars – used its corporate money to stop it by “promising” to self-regulate and end child slavery in their businesses by 2005. This deadline has repeatedly been pushed back, with the current goal now at 2020.
As one freed boy put it: “They enjoy something I suffered to make; I worked hard for them but saw no benefit. They are eating my flesh.”
Here is a list of more socially consciouscompanies who have made a point to avoid profiting off the suffering of child labor:
Clif Bar
Green and Black’s
Koppers Chocolate
L.A. Burdick Chocolates
Denman Island Chocolate
Gardners Candie
Montezuma’s Chocolates
Newman’s Own Organics
Kailua Candy Company
Omanhene Cocoa Bean Company
Rapunzel Pure Organics
The Endangered Species Chocolate Company
Cloud Nine
(Question: How higher are their prices? How much real chocolate they contain?)
(EDITOR’S NOTE: This article previously listed Dagoba Organic Chocolate as a company that doesn’t rely on child slave labor. US Uncut has since learned that Dagoba Organic Chocolate was purchased by Hershey’s, one of the ten candy companies listed here that uses child slaves. We have since amended the list and apologize for the error. -CRG)
Note: Multinationals don’t generally buy socially consciouscompanies outright or publicly. They tacitly sell them most of the cocoa they need.
How a letter written in 1855 gave Kyra Gaunt a whole new perspective on slavery.
White Americans aren’t the only ones who don’t like to remember slavery and its history.
According to the Office of Minority Health, in 2012 there were 43.1 million people who identify as African-American.
I could lay money that, next year, fewer than 1 percent will publicly celebrate the 150th anniversary of June 19th, or what we call “Juneteenth” — also known as Freedom Day and Emancipation Day — even though the holiday is recognized in 43 of our so-called United States.
It was on this day in 1865 that, two years after Abraham Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation, the state of Texas freed the last enslaved Africans in America.
Many African-Americans don’t have detailed stories about our enslaved ancestors or their escape. At least, my family didn’t.
When I grew up, no one in our community talked about slaves. Slaves were objects in public debates, always referred to in some generalized manner. The talk was always “we come from slaves” (not enslaved African people).
We were property, not human beings whose culture and nationality was stripped with every stroke of a slavemaster’s whip.
So I was struck to my core with tears when I recently read a copy of a letter written by my great-great-grandfather in 1855. He’d recently escaped slavery in Portsmouth, Virginia, on the Underground Railroad.
When he reached Philadelphia, he sent this note to a friend, entreating him to help his (first) wife and children, who were in jail — left behind as a casualty of his emancipation.
MY DEAR FRIEND:—Allow me to take the liberty of addressing you and at the same time appearing troublesomes you all friend, but subject is so very important that i can not but ask not in my name but in the name of the Lord and humanity to do something for my Poor Wife and children who lays in Norfolk Jail and have Been there for three month
i Would open myself in that frank and hones manner. Which should convince you of my cencerity of Purpoest don’t shut your ears to the cry’s of the Widow and the orphant & i can but ask in the name of humanity and God for he knows the heart of all men.
Please ask the friends humanity to do something for her and her two lettle ones i cant do any thing Place as i am for i have to lay low Please lay this before the churches of Philadelphaise beg them in name of the Lord to do something for him i love my freedom and if it would do her and her two children any good i mean to change with her but cant be done for she is Jail and you most no she suffer for the jail in the South are not like yours for any thing is good enough for negros the Slave hunters Says
& may God interpose in behalf of the demonstrative Race of Africa Whom i claim desendent i am sorry to say that friendship is only a name here but i truss it is not so in Philada i would not have taken this liberty had i not considered you a friend for you treaty as such
Please do all you can and Please ask the Anti Slavery friends to do all they can and God will Reward them for it i am shure for the earth is the Lords and the fullness there of as this note leaves me not very well but hope when it comes to hand it may find you and family enjoying all the Pleasure life Please answer this and Pardon me if the necessary sum can be required i will find out from my brotherinlaw i am with respectful consideration.
SHERIDAN W. FORD.
Yesterday is the fust time i have heard from home Sence i left and i have not got any thing yet i have a tear yet for my fellow man and it is in my eyes now for God knows it is tha truth i sue for your Pity and all and may God open their hearts to Pity a poor Woman and two children.
The Sum is i believe 14 hundred Dollars Please write to day for me and see if the cant do something for humanity.
I wept deeply when I read this letter and an accompanying account of a merciless whipping before his escape. His writing spoke of options I never, even as a professor, realized a slave could have.
Here was a literate man well versed in writing by 1855, who clearly articulates the value of his freedom, five years after the passage of the Fugitive Slave Act from the Compromise of 1850 — which ended Reconstruction and led to the discriminatory, second-class-ranking Jim Crow laws.
He could have been snatched back to Virginia if ever found in Boston by his lawful captors.
This is more than any memory passed down orally and better than any autobiography published in a book. It was evidence of a liberated truth.
It was a local knowledge penned by a formerly enslaved man’s full grasp of a belief in God, in his humanity and in the justice of being newly free.
It seemed like a miracle to read the words of someone I am related to, someone I could trace to my bloodline instead of some generalized story about slavery. Reading the handwritten words of my grandfather’s grandfather changed something in me.
It turns out that we were more than anything I had ever learned — more literate, more compassionate, more enlightened — and contemporary youth must be remembered to this kind of inscribed evidence of our cultural evolution.
Evidence of owning not just one’s liberty but one’s own literacy. I can now claim my descendence from the Race of Africa from the words of my own kin, from within my immediate family, and not from some televised fiction.
The cherry-picked popular slave narratives or mediated memories from Alex Haley’s miniseries Roots are like secondhand clothes, mediated scripts of third-world stories. They carry no local knowledge or memory at all: they are broken memories of forced migrations thrown overboard.
When we do get to the real memories, we try to tell “the right” story, the “grotesque” how-could-they-do-this-to-us story, or the capitalism-was-built-on-the-back-of-the-debt-paid-with-our-free-labor-and-forced-sex story.
There’s Toni Morrison’s beloved story of a mother killing her children rather than let them live as chattel slaves. Non-blacks aren’t the only ones who resist remembering slavery.
My great-great-grandfather lives first-hand: “i love my freedom.”
We know slaves taught themselves to read and write. In this exchange of ideas written in 1855, Sheridan Ford speaks to not just valuing but owning his own freedom in ways no Hollywood script by Spielberg or Tarantino could ever aptly capture. Now I can’t wait to tell about his second wife, my great-great-grandmother Clarissa Davis, who escaped to freedom dressed as a man.
Ethnomusicologist and Baruch College-CUNY professor Kyra Gaunt, Ph.D,. is a 2009 TED Fellow. Her scholarship focuses on black girlhood, with special attention to their offline musical play and online content creation.
Slavery is rampant in most countries, especially in West Africa (Mauritania, Ivory Coast, Gambia…) and the Far East, Yemen, Sudan, are practiced on its own citizens. Other countries abuse the “imported” work force to subjugate them into a state of slavery.
The Middle East, once at the forefront of slavery, is back in the spotlight again as now there are more cases emerging of contemporary slavery that are gradually catching up with the horrific events of the past.
Slaves were “imported” from Madagascar, Sudan, East Africa and the current States bordering the Sahara Desert.
In the 18th century, the European colonial powers and the USA shipped slaves from West Africa for several centuries.
The many hot spots of the MENA region, Sudan, Libya, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Lebanon, Jordan and the UAE were pointed out as the countries that have the most number of slaves.
Khalil Dagher , regional intern of the World Youth Alliance Middle East, posted this article.
Those trafficked into the Middle East are often put into forced labor; forced to work for long periods of time, sometimes up to 16 hours without pay.
They are often subjected to beatings, forced sexual relations and forced abortions.
Most of these victims end up dead before ever gaining their freedom. The majority of trafficked victims knew their trafficker. They were a family member, a friend, a relative, or a neighbor.
(Qatar for example, now on the verge of hosting the 2022 World Cup, is being accused of mistreatment of the workers from Bangladesh, Nepal and the Himalaya States, employed to build the stadiums, or a form of slavery. Over 400 workers died so far from overwork, malnutrition and unsanitary dwelling).
With over 150,000 slaves, Mauritania ranks first globally as the country with the largest slave population. (It is reported that a third of the population are slaves)
In Jordan, child labor is huge with some 30,000 children working, mainly in shops, cafes, and restaurants.
Even Israel is in on the act following in the footsteps of the likes of Lebanon with a huge human trafficking sector.
Low-level skilled workers from China, Romania, Africa, Turkey, Thailand, and Philippines, Nepal, Sri Lanka and India face forced labor conditions.
Many have had their passports confiscated by their “sponsors,” never receive wages due to debt bondages, and face threats and physical intimidation.
Women from Russia and former Soviet states are commonly trafficked for the purpose of sexual exploitation.
In Sudan women and children are taken captive, then enslaved, branded, and bred. Women chosen as concubines (a woman who lives with a man but has lower status than his wife or wives) are genitally mutilated.
In Uganda, armed factions kidnap kids to become ruthless killers, after forcing them to kill their mothers.
In Lebanon human trafficking has developed into sex work. With Lebanon being one of the least conservative countries in the Middle East, brothels or ‘’whore houses” have found fertile ground in the spoils of the shadowy industry.
In analyzing the causes of slavery, it can be seen that it is often a by-product of poverty.
Countries that lack education, economic freedoms and the rule of law, and which have poor societal structure can create an environment that fosters the acceptance of slavery.
The majority of the trade is initialized in the developing world such as in Asia and Africa, where, the Middle East is merely another one of the drop-off points en route.
Government corruption around the world allows slavery to settle into a norm. Countries within the Middle East and North Africa are infamous for being corrupt states with police bribes and even government officials themselves playing a big role.
Even though it is illegal, millions have become vulnerable to slave holders and human traffickers looking to profit from the theft of people’s lives. This new slavery has two prime characteristics: slaves today are cheap and they are disposable.
From deceiving maids to work for a wealthy family in Lebanon to trading slaves from one buyer to another as if they were products in South Sudan, slaves are a rare commodity that won’t die down anytime soon until the right methods are aimed at stopping this from growing.
It is easy to analyze the causes of slavery in the Middle East and all over the world and identify it as a problem, but it is even easier to find solutions to eradicate slavery.
It’s important to state that this is only a plan of action that has to be adopted by all parties involved from the UN to members in society.
First plan of action is for governments to do more than they actually say. It’s the duty of the governments in the Middle East and all over the world to build a national plan to end slavery within its borders.
They can do this by bringing together all relevant existing government agencies, and appointing an anti-slavery ambassador charged with coordinating their efforts and actively involving the local anti-slavery organizations in their countries that are closest to the problem.
Second plan of action is for the UN to get more involved by putting pressure on permanent members to provide funds and resources to special representatives to aid in the eradication of slavery, The Security Council should appoint a committee of experts to review the existing conventions on slavery and recommend how to unify and clarify these conventions.
The Security Council should establish a commission to determine how the existing UN inspection mandate could be applied to slavery.
Third plan of action is to promote plans that promise slavery-free cities. For example, Public Awareness Raising which could involve conferences in schools and universities all over the region and the world, promote the use of social media networks, and encourage more research to be done, going down to the street level and educating those who don’t know about slavery on the issue, and finally go to your community level where we all can be a hero and tackle slavery as a mobile force.
These are a few steps that can be used to finally eradicate slavery but will only take place when society as a whole decides to come together as a united force in social mobilization from the bottom up with the aim at influencing those in power that there is a problem that needs to be tackled.
Until then however, slavery will continue to go on right under our noses and in our back yards with no aim at ever stopping.
The Middle East is only a small percentage of what has developed into a social problem that should have ended centuries ago.
Societies’ Blind Spots through the centuries and civilizations
For various reasons such as maintaining structural hierarchies, preserving privileges, class struggle, religious and ideological dominance, knowledge development, economic systems… societies through the centuries had particular Blind Spots that hindered its progress toward equitable and fair rights to all the people.
For examples:
1. In the French revolution of 1789, somehow the rights for women were totally forgotten in the equation of Liberty, Equality, and Human Rights. Historians prefer to attribute this neglect to the notion that women were not an issue in this struggle, since societies were patriarchal in their structure for centuries and women managed to tacitly navigate the system in order to maintain sort of a power balance withing the family foundation… Mind you that it was the women who marched on the Bastille prison on October 1789…
Prior to the French revolution there was the US revolution, independence, and Constitution and Bills of Rights… And still, women rights were no where to be found.
The right to vote was secured in France shortly before WWII…
2. Slavery was an admitted way of life till the 18th century. Obviously, the darker the color the more evident it was that the person was more eligible to be worked as a slave, since the people Africa were theorized in religious circles to be denied the same kind of soul as the other lighter colored people… Giving the slaves the same rights as “free-men” was a “blind spot” that society could not fathom in any political discussion. The like of Spartacus movements were cruelly crushed as if bitten by rabid dogs…
3. The Industrial Revolution gave priority to hiring children for reasons entirely at odd with current laws. Children rights to safe and healthy environment was anathema in the political circles. Families would even encourage their children to go to work early on and supplement the resources instead of wasting precious time in school.
Fact is, through the ages, it was the tiny people, mainly children and drwarfs, who were used to dig tunnels in order to extract gold and silver: It was too time consuming to enlarge the passage of tunnels in the hard rock with hand tools…
4. Since the Industrial Revolution, the notion that environment degradation and air pollution were serious factors to consider in wealth generation was not considered. Commercial Whale Fishing went on for centuries before the idea that whales and fish can be depleted if marine life is not managed scientifically.
5. Four decades ago, the opinion that man is the main nemesis in earth climate change and degradation of water and air quality was not an issue in discussions.
6. Openly slaughtering animals was common occurrence and pretty natural to observe. Currently, laws and procedures are constraining how animals are killed and processed.
7. The term “paradigm shift” in field of sciences and sociology is synonymous with “blind spots” in mankind march toward higher levels of dignity and respect for human rights…
7. I ask you to send me a list of blind spots that you are aware of in previous centuries, and the ones that were Not Blind Spots previously and are currently blind spots.
Essentially, blind spots are common behaviors once a culture is stamped as the normal way of living and thinking. Once a culture is chiselled in rocks and common laws, it is hard to deviate and consider other perspectives…
The main hindrance in spotting beneficial conducts for improving society behavior is the built in ideosyncraties that limit communicating efficiently with other cultures.
Every culture is endowed with facilities to spotting the blind domains in other cultures. If a civilization denies the right to its people to listen carefully and seriously study the trends in other cultures, then it is almost impossible to overcome the built-in blind spots in a particular culture.
Questions:
1. Have you tried to research the blind spots in your culture? For example, saying “How I came not to see this obvious shortcoming?” “How this natural right was oblivious to my mind?”
2. Many blind spots look terribly a matter of common sense a couple of decades later, and we failed to see the obvious looking in our face. What blind spots do you think will be uncovered in the next decade?
3. Modern quick, efficient and global mass communication facilities should generate mass contacts with other cultures. Do you think that this enhanced communication will greatly facilitate the uncovering of blind spots in many cultures?
4. Can you research the current blind spots that were not that blind at all in previous ages and civilizations? Spots that were not that blind or dark to the common people because they practiced what is currently viewed as anathema to progress? Think of these multinational companies destroying the livelihood of billion of people and preventing them from eeking a significant profit from their small family entreprises…
With humility for accepting other cultures as sources for breakthrough in mankind cooperation, and a flexible mind to comprehend other cultures way of life… it is possible to face global obstacles for a sustainable life on earth.
Mauritania? An “Arab” State in West Africa? Where a Third of population are slaves?
Mauritania is a vast desert State in West Africa, bordering Morocco, Algeria, Mali, Senegal…and the Atlantic Ocean. Apparently, its population is barely 3 million, a third of them are slaves and mostly women.
Mauritania is a member of the “Arab League“, but the US State Department opted to group Mauritania smack in Africa, and this State is “administered” as such by the US Secretary of State…
Lucky Mauritania? That the US has decided to forget this country as part of the “Arab”World”: It must have been saved plenty of humiliation and indignities heaved on the remaining “Arab States” by the US foreign policies…
Peter Dörrie posted on May 23, 2012, under: “The Arab Spring you haven’t heard about — in Mauritania”:
“You may not have heard of it, but the West African country of Mauritania has what is probably one of the most vibrant and active protest movements in the world today.
Protests drawing tens of thousands of people take place almost weekly in the capital Nouakchott, with many smaller protests happening on a daily basis around the vast country.
Photo by Magharebia, via Wikimedia Commons
The protests are overwhelmingly nonviolent, even in the face of frequent violent suppression, and have been going on since February 2011.
It would be comfortable to file these protests as another part of the Arab Spring: Mauritania is on the southern reaches of the Saharan Arab belt, and large-scale protests here started with the self-immolation and subsequent death of YacoubOuld Dahoud, an action mirroring the suicide of Mohamed Bouazizi, which set off the revolt in Tunisia.
As in other Arab countries that experienced large-scale protests, Mauritania is governed by an autocratic regime whose leader, Mohamed Ould Abdel Aziz, originally came to power through a coup d’état.
But while these similarities exist and the pro-democracy protests in Tunisia, Egypt and elsewhere in the Arab world surely have been a source of great inspiration for local activists, Mauritania merits a second look.
First, the range of participating actors in Mauritania are as diverse as their agendas. While a common concern of all protest movements is the end of the rule of Abdel Aziz, there are a host of other issues that various groups want to have addressed, not all directly related to the country’s ruler.
(Saidou Wane, a Movement for Justice and Equality in Mauritania activist speaks during a protest against the government at Fountain Square in April. Photo via Cincinnati.com)
Some estimates say that up to a third of Mauritania’s population is enslaved (even though the practice has been formally abolished many times). Victims are overwhelmingly ethnic black Africans.
This creates racial tensions in Mauritania’s multi-ethnic society, but also religious ones, as certain interpretations of Islam are used to legitimize slavery.
These tensions have forced their way into the open in the context of current protests, with anti-slavery activist Biram Ould Abeid publicly burning Islamic legal manuals discussing the issue. Abeid was subsequently arrested by the authorities, and his case is controversially debated among other activists.
Another very active group, traditionally eyed suspiciously in Western societies, are the Islamists. Organizations like Tawassoul demand a State and society based on principles of Islamic law.
While not cooperating a lot with other protest movements, they have been incredibly persistent in their activities against the regime, including protests of Salafist women against democracy (which is seen as not compatible with Islam) and for the release of imprisoned husbands.
More familiar political standpoints are expressed by the traditional political opposition and various youth movements, the biggest of which has followed the modern tradition of naming itself after the date of the first big protest, 25F (February 25, 2011). These groups focus on democratic reform and an end of the reign of President Aziz.
With all these different actors and goals competing for internal support and attention, it is remarkable that protests have almost completely stayed peaceful for well over a year. While protesters frequently face violence from police (including kittling, arbitrary arrests, beatings, water cannons, tear gas and attack dogs), the protesters have employed a wide range of nonviolent tactics.
In addition to traditional rallies, marches, speeches and sit–ins, protesters have occupied public squares with tents and use social media and video live streaming to coordinate protests, document violence and communicate with the outside world.
As the growing momentum of the protests show, these nonviolent tactics have so far fulfilled their goal of mobilizing the general population against the regime. But President Aziz should not be counted out just yet.
While the diversity of the protesters and their goals shows that a vibrant civil society and widespread discontent exists in Mauritania, their disunity may still allow Aziz to carry the day.
Already, the affair around the Islamic book burning by anti-slavery activist Abeid has allowed President Aziz to portray himself as a defender of Islam.
Given the incompatibility of demands by pro-democracy activists and Islamists, it is easy to imagine President Aziz discovering his inner zealot to rally support from this part of society (a strategy tried and tested on the other side of continent in Sudan).
Another possible development could see Aziz taking advantage of the regional situation.
There are large parts of neighboring Rep. of Mali controlled by Islamist groups who proclaimed the Independence of Azawat in the northern region (see link in note). And the fear of an “African Afghanistan” is running high in European, U.S. and African capitals.
President Aziz could implement some feigned democratic reforms and present himself as a beacon of stability in the region, hoping for (and probably getting) Western military support and closed eyes, ears and mouths in the U.N. Security Council and the African Union.
Given the level of mobilization in Mauritania so far, the pro-democracy movements in Mauritania have a good chance of succeeding against such moves. Looking at successful nonviolent struggles elsewhere, activists in Mauritania could enhance the likelihood of success by working to undermine the foundations of the regime.
Actions like strikes and boycotts can be incredibly effective, if well employed. Additionally, the protest movements could reach out to security forces, trying to convince at least elements of them to turn over to their side.
After all, police and soldiers need to feel that they will be part of a better future as well, otherwise many of them will go with the devil they know instead of with the change they mistrust.
Note 1: Since, France has engaged troops to stop the Islamist forces marching toward south Mali, and so far, a few African contingents are participating, lukewarmly.
Adonis Diaries 