So, if you want to see what Republicans have in mind for the rest of America if Trump or another Republican becomes president and they can hold onto Congress, just visit the Old South…
This just goes to show that the planter class and the Confederate leadership were treated far too leniently by the victorious Union. The planters should have been dispossessed, the leaders hanged, and the South should have been occupied militarily until its submission was beyond redemption. That none of this happened is due to the power of the morbidly rich in the north who wanted Southern cotton and markets, and the racism pervasive in white peoples everywhere then, and in too many still. We cannot undo the past. We can try to prevent its triumph by voting blue in November. We must. Because the South need not “rise again”. It never left, biding its time. We must assure that time never comes again.
I write this as a descendant if Southerners on both sides, including ancestors who fought for the Confederacy and owned slaves. It is a heritage I abhor and have spent my life in part feebly trying to rectify, as my parents did at great personal and professional cost. But if we are being honest, our country as a whole bears the taint of slavery, on which our economy was built and on which in part it continues to rest in our prisons. Ghastly, disgusting—and American. Remember, remember, vote blue in November.
Mr. Shults, though I do not, as a Black Man in the United States, share your political partisanship (which would be illogical given history) on either side of the duopoly, I am deeply moved by your candor and intellectual honesty.
Tell me Rohn, on whose side of the political equation do you fall in 2024. There are only two sides, Trump or Biden, A vote for anyone else is a vote for Trump and I do not think that Trump has the best interests or any interests at all in the black community, just the opposite as do his MAGA cult. Is that what you want. This could lead to a race war if Trump wins,in that case you are out numbered and out gunned.
I see no alternative but to hold one's nose and vote Blue, as I will do, the alternative is unthinkable.
Your racist ass has to be kidding me. It, despite your ignorance, has always been a "race war." This so-called "nation" that you call yours is a DIRECT result of "race war" from my Alkebulanian to Choctaw ancestors. And each and every time you pine for my attention with your ignorant pontifications and overall racist bullshit, I am going to light your sorry butt up.
You Europeans are in trouble and you have one, and only one, sliver of hope and that is to learn to play nice.
Which, from where I sit, seems to be impossible (perhaps it is your genetics/eugenics).
Relinquish your veiled threats to me, because you have yet to understand you are not only outmanned (globally) you are soon to be outgunned (globally). Of course, being a hundred years old, you will probably not witness the justice that you have coming.
1 in 10 cannot, possibly, "exterminate" the other nine without destroying himself and the world's majority is, slowly but surely, understanding this and the MINORITY is about to catch hell, Jack. Because the world's majority has, finally, understood that force must be met with force. I can tell you, as a man that has been through many a kinetic engagement, no matter how much of a badass you are (or perceive yourself as) no one man can whip three...let alone nine.
Not just a race war Okie, though that is the plot in the Turner's Diaries. (I have read it), but war against atheist, liberals, anyone who is not a white Christian nationalist.
Roy, I also think we went too easy on the German Nazi billionaires! The Nazis are like cockroaches and ants, except I think the insects have more of a conscience!
Roy, the problem started with Lincoln's assassination and the accession of Andrew Johnson, a racist Democrat. He stalled and back pedaled the nascent reconstruction.
Restoring the Unreconstructed States Although Congressional Reconstruction brought most of the southern states back into the Union before 1868, Ulysses S. Grant still had to address the southern problem. Virginia, Mississippi, and Texas remained unreconstructed when he took office, and Republicans at the national level remained undecided about what to do about problems in Georgia regarding the seating of new black legislators. Reconstruction posed a challenge for Grant because of the goals he hoped to accomplish. Grant sought to protect the political and civil rights of blacks, but he also wanted to maintain a Republican presence in the South. Protecting blacks inherently would drive many whites away from the Republican Party; convincing whites to remain with the Republican Party would require abandoning the blacks to the mercy of the state governments. Moreover, to preserve the national Republican Party at a time when fighting slavery and rebellion no longer gave members a common cause likely would mean refocusing the party’s interests away from the South. Finally, policies adopted during Presidential and Congressional Reconstruction limited Grant’s options for dealing with problems in the southern states. https://human.libretexts.org/Bookshelves/History/National_History/United_States_History_to_1877_(Locks_et_al.)/17%3A_Reconstruction/17.04%3A_Retreat_from_Reconstruction-_The_Grant_Years#:~:text=Reconstruction%20posed%20a%20challenge%20for,Republican%20presence%20in%20the%20South.
White Southerners had a paternalistic attitude towards "the coloreds". My grandmothr asked me in 1964, "why are them coloreds so upset, don't we treat them well enough", There wasn't a hateful bone in her body, in fact the only neighbors of he family 1870, 1880 were listed as "B" under race onthe census, and the family called the Mammy and Pappy which are terms of endearment that planters children used towards their house slaves.
We lived on what is now called soul food, collard greens, turnip greens, black eyed peas, hush puppies, and the chickens and pork that Pappy slaughtered and Mammy butchered., squirrel and corn meal breaded bream, fired crisp..yumm.
My ancestors stepped foot on Jamestown in 1620, 9th ggmother) and 1618 (8th great grandfather) there were no slaves then, not until 1661, but indentured servants of which he transported quite a few and got 50 acre patents for each servant.
The family grew some became planters, owned slaves, others failed and became dirt farmers.
My 5th ggf died before he could tutor his younger sons, thus they lacked the skills to enter into contracts (indentures) and were inspirational planters, never owned a slave until about 1830, when my 3rd ggf and his brother, a neighbor, owned at least one slave. Mine owned an old man over age 45, perhaps out of kindness less he starve. He was the last slave owner.
One of his sons, a great great uncle, abandoned his wife and three infant children and joined the Perry Rangers, was almost immediately transferred to the 28th Alabama and with 75 days was mortally wounded at Corinth to die in a confederate hospital.
A great great grandfather joyfully eft behind his wife and three infant children, to march up a dusty road to the county courthouse to enlist in the 37th (Bells) regiment and to die about 75 days later of a plague that swept through Camp Nelson, outside of Austin AR
A cousin was captured at Arkansas Post and died of Small Pox in Camp Douglas, outside of Chicago, another died on Missionary Ridge outside of Chattanooga, two were caught spying on the Federals outside of Vicksburg and were gun downed as theyu ran across a field. on their parents property.
Fools everyone, those that weren't conscripted like my great great grandfather and uncle, but I am actually glad for their outcome, had it not been the way that it happened, I would never have been born.
As regards the slave owning ancestors. No guilt here, because that is not me, not my history or my sentiments, nothing I can do to change the past.
I am, as you might be able to tell, a genetic genealogist, I do it for fun, an avocation,most I deal with need to find a "noble" or auspicious ancestor, me I don't care,I have plenty, but they are not me, I do not stand on their shoulders nor do I wallow under their feet.
Devils or angels, they are not me, and I do not believe in the bible and that crap about the sins of the father.
The number of ancestors whose descendants turn out to be crap are legion. Same with nondescript ancestors who left no record, and who have been magnificent people that contributed to our civilization and culture. Especially true of American Descendants of Slaves who are fortunate if they can identify an ancestor who lived in 1860
Roy: James Baldwin wrote that Faulkner “concede[d] the madness and moral wrongness of the South but at the same time he raise[d] it to the level of a mystique.” He insist[ed] that the white South can't be forced to integrate, and must be left to work through its moral dilemmas in its own time;..." IMHO Faulkner was prescient.
My dad and brother were Faulkner "scholars". One year they made the the front page of the Oxford (MS) Eagle with the caption "what are these Yankees doing here?" Ans. Studying the south.
Most of the south were not like you, Roy. Most like the Snopes family. The protagonist of the Bear, Benjy, told the tale twice told by an idiot, all "sound and fury" signifying nothing. Eventually, the south had to integrate despite "massive resistance."
'
Inside the south there was/is a "concurrent majority" People like you. The problem is they don't come forward.
Despite SEDM, economically the south are beggars with hat in hand. More people receive federal governmental benefits per square inch in red states. Besides all the stuff Thom enumerated, more SSI, food stamps, etc. School districts have more Chapter 1 students. https://smartasset.com/data-studies/states-most-dependent-federal-government-2023
The true beneficiaries of that SSI funding are landlords, grocers, shopkeepers, all businesses.
Daniel I have had this argument many times, last time with a Floridian, that integration cannot be forced, it can't, but left alone over time, it will,gradually. He used the same argument over slavery, left alone the slaves would have been freed.
These are not valid counter arguments f an example of how minorities can be and will be exploited is Germany.,and the U.S.A in this century. The difference being that the U.S. has a cornucopia of scapegoats.
My counter argument to the slavery will be abandoned over time, was what about the millions in the interval, born into and die in slavery..
The only hope of escaping racism is total race mixing, what the right wing calls "mud people" that scares the shit out of them, but not me.,and at a deep psychological level, that is,I think, the real fear of the White nationalists.
On the other hand even if there is no racial distinctions something else will surface serve, like blue eyes in a brown eyed world.
I was stationed at Ft. Jackson and Gordon, and many years later heard cases in the south. When I first went to Greenwood, MS, there were no public accommodations to avoid forced desegregation. To eat, had to buy at the supermarket or go to a "club" which was completely segregated.
Today, quite the opposite. More desegregated than most of the north. They didn't integrate themselves. In order to get a lot of the federal funding, they had to comply.
I find as much racism in Pennsyltucky. Primarily "ethnics". They resented that strikebreakers were sent north as reverse freedomriders in the 60's. Nixon's southern strategy involved forced busing, forced hiring, to break the FDR Democratic coalition. The result was white flight, abandonment of cities at the same time that Republican tax policy killed off middle class main street businesses and killed commuter railroads.
I haven't been south since 1964, but know what you mean about racism in the north. But haven't lived north since 1956, the years in between in he military, overseas, and in the Pacific NW., four years in Texas but again in the military.
I did see racism in Philadelphia when a woman who feuded with her neighbor sold her house to a black family, and the neighborhood went up in arms, because it depreciated the value of their homes, that was 1953 or 1954
Sometimes I hear the reason given for people not voting is "it doesn't matter, nothing ever changes." I hope people will print this column and carry it with them. If/when you hear someone say something like voting doesn't change anything, whip this out and remind them that many of the things that impact us the most in our daily life are the result of state legislatures. Turn those state legislatures BLUE, and you can expect to see improvements. Tell 'em as long as the Rs control those state legislatures, yeah, your life will remain tough and slave labor used by the prison-industrial complex will continue.
And..... if enough people vote Blue for their state representatives, they should vote Blue up and down the ticket. If enough people. Imagine turning some of those red states purple or blue. Imagine a Dem president who has more that 66 Dems in the Senate (veto-proof!) and a Blue House of Representatives. Just imagine the changes we would see!!! That's partly why the Poor Peoples Campaign is working so hard in Southern states. The power is there, in the vote, if only people mobilize send those Rs packing!!!
Private equity just purchased the ACT testing service and I read they want to test for aptitude so students are better placed where they belong. I don't like the sound of that along with testing all seniors for public service placement that Trump said wasn't his idea. trump didn't say he is opposed to the idea of a "draft." School districts have valuable real estate and I would not be surprised if Wall Street had a plan to extract that wealth while also milking the real estate assets from the healthcare system as they are doing.
Yes, SuZie...It's sad. I think of the endless-acquisition culture of ours as attracting individuals who suffer from the feeling of never having enough. And along with that drive for "more," that rationalizes itself as just "capitalism," comes a blindness to the needs of other people. So Gloria's picture of private equity companies buying up school districts in order to milk (steal) their real estate assets, makes me imagine that people who would do that place no value on understanding the needs of the people who live in those districts and use those schools. Maybe I misunderstood her, but I don't give people a pass just because they're engaging in "business." I believe that there are more important values of caring and sharing that people like that are missing out on.
They are like sharks Madeline, same with real estate developers they have to keep acquiring, developing, moving if they don't they will suffocate.
In finance we were taught and glorified the wonders of leverage,leverage in the stock market, leverage in everything. Leverage is debt, how much of someone else's money do you have invested. Problem is that when you use someone else's money they want a return on investment,principal and interest, and that forces them to stay in motion.
Trump,I doubt has enough liquid assets to pay his fines, much less his lawyers,and his lawyers know that they are working pro bono, they see a big payout if he is elected. They are gambling.
Trump couldn't sell Trump Tower to pay a fine, and Letitia James knows that, because it is leverage, not once by maybe floor by floor, and debtors have first claim on assets.
If the state of NY takes over Trumps hotels and tower, they become the landlord, with all of the headaches you can expect from the Saudi's, Sovereign Funds, Russian Oligarchs, multi millionaires, the rich and famous.
BTW, I wasn't criticizing Gloria or anybody, I was just expressing my disappointment that there could be people who even think of things such as "milking" school districts for their real estate assets. :(
This is the first I've ever heard of the SEDM, so thank you for that, Thom. I want to look into it further, and into this character Vace Muse, or amuse bouche--whatever. Actually, I think that this has always been the plan from the get-go, and SEDM is just one more name for it. It also is known as colonialism, imperialism, or plantation economics.
In 1970, maybe 71. I was part of a record breaking demonstration to prove long range,low level airborne assault. We took off from McChord AFB,WA in a C141, flew low level 200 to 300 ft above MSL, all the way to Lanai Island, and then dropped via parachute, I landed in all saw grass that grew over a pineapple field, I call itmolasses grass,it cut the uniform the skin and had a deuce of time recovering the parachute.
We repaired to an 18th Century Victorian Hotel, waited on the veranda in a rocker until picked up.
It was then owned by Dole Corporation, now owned by Roy Ellison of Oracle. Imagine the wealth of a man who can own a whole island in the Hawaii chain.
Tom Cruise, so I hear, wrecked a Mustang on the island. I imagine thus, that Ellison is also a member of the Scientology cultm
Thanks PaulI get my Ellison's mixed up,tis Larry not Roy. Some dude on Raw Story years ago, a surfer, gave me a ration of shit when I mentioned jumping into Lanai Island, he thought I was a friend of Ellisons or some such, and tried to make a big deal out of.
When I lived in Redmond, WA (Microsoft Central) I had a neighbor whose daughter graduated from Pepperdine,Booth was her last name, first name eludes me at the moment, she and her hubby were on the make, all into networking and climbing the social ladder, phony as a three dollar bill and transparent at that.. I would escort her mother, when she walked her dog, Aggie Agada) was a few years my senior, but quite frail. Must have been a sight, the aged leading the aged. Nothing romantic, not at all, believe me, just being helpful and neighborly. I also took her cat to the Vet because she wouldn't, I notice it being lethargic and losing weight, a sign of thyroid disease.
Insecure white men who are emotionally threatened by competent women and people of color, always revert to delusions of white, male supremacy to shore up their fragile egos. It's the racism, the anti-semitism, and the misogyny, stupid…and the cruelty is the point.
It would be great if white folks, especially white men like you, THOM, could begin to reflect on why it seems necessary to use scapegoats in order to feel good about oneself. A little self reflection might go along way towards humanizing our world.
Invoking Thom's name in that context, is that what you really meant to do, Madeline?
No one white guy I know of has done more questioning of white privilege and the damage testosterone does in this world than our Thom Hartmann. He is my brother from another mother, and I am so proud of him because he is doing the work you mentioned every day.
I agree about Thom, alis...I've been listening and learning from him for decades. I'm suggesting something only a little bit more specific, the act of self-reflection by ALL white folks, not just by Thom, regarding why they might need to scapegoat others in order to feel good about themselves. I think it's helpful to all of us, no matter our gender, skin tone, class, or caste, to wonder, via introspection, why we need to see others as "less than" in order to feel as if we're OK. This wasn't a criticism or indictment of Thom, it was just addressed to him precisely because he has the capacity to understand what I'm saying. Thanks for your comment, alis.
How do we get people to see ths stuff? They are all “hear no evil, see no evil” about the Right Wing, and they think this is all propaganda and lies. It’s HISTORY! {And even sadder, it’s CURRENT EVENTS}
Of all the combatant forces against MAGA's turning America into retrogative Dixie, every possible means to promoting unions is, IMHO, the most crucial. When unions become strong, they not only address the merits of restoration of the middle class, they conjoin many of the threats of all those who are threatened by MAGA Dixie (who have vested interest in keeping them separate in order to more easily control and destroy them). Women particularly who have carved their way out of white male subjugation by having become union members can weld together many issues while protected by the organized clout of unions. An army of organized resistence must be built, and the union jack is the union.
WWII created a shortage of males, the solution was Rosie the Riveter and the WASPs.
No sooner was VJ day declared than Rosie and her compatriots were ordere to sit through movies and class teaching them how to re apply make up, wear sun dress, please the man and take orders from the head of the house
During Reconstruction after the Civil War, Blacks and most Whites were in the same boat. The old power players convinced the Whites that Blacks were their competitors and dangerous. Thus the oligarchs manipulated Whites to work against their own interests. Divide and conquer! And so it has continued ever since!
Still happening. Trump scapegoats immigrants like Hitler scapegoated the Jews. Ironically he is the poster boy for employer sanctions for using illegals on his jobsites. He also imports workers from the Balkans on temporary visas to displace workers at his properties.
"Fully 800,000 (out of a total 1.2 million prisoners) Americans are currently held in conditions of slave labor in American jails and prisons."
It appears that number is somewhere between 1.8 and 2 million, Mr. Hartmann. As for the content of your piece I can only state that which I have mentioned to you many times over the years: the sexiest thing in U.S. politics is Anti-Blackism. It is what built the United States.
Negative. I was interpreting (and referencing) the total number of prisoners through the lens of the 13th Amendment which makes all incarcerated persons legally slaves.
Great article again, Thom! For the past several years I've noted that MAGA is little more than the Confederacy reborn, with the addition of some overt racism in the rust belt.
Absolutely horrific. The Civil War was never resolved for the old south. They (and I understand that I am generalizing here. There are good, intelligent southerners who are as horrified as we are over SEDM) have carried that chip on their collective shoulders ever since they lost the war. Now, enabled by a psychopath named trump, the southern resentment doors have been flung open and buried grievance has burst upon America.
History is the best teacher. The poor, undereducated, non white males of the world will not be kept in thrall indefinitely. Rage eventually wins out over victimization. The result is never pretty. (See: the French Revolution). But in the benighted minds of the MAGA, Project 2025, SEDM peeps, history, as is education in general, is an unnecessary exercise that just gets in the way of their domination.
The real irony here is that trump's main base is made up of economically and educationally disadvantaged people. The only overlap with the designers of Project 2025 et.al. is that the only commonality is race, white.
These trump cheerleaders are not going to reap any rewards from trump and the 1% ers should trump win. And for those of us who study history, we know that the most dangerous group of people are the hardcore supporters of a movement who eventually feel betrayed by said movement. (See: Mussolini).
I recall after coming back from being forced to "kill Commies for Christ" as a young naive kid drafted to the immoral Vietnam war, and going into factory work. I got to see the difference between a union and non-union job. And this was in Southern California. In the non-union jobs, there were few benefits, forced overtime with threat of losing one's job, unhealthy working conditions, and bullying supervisors. Finally got a union job and saw that sexism, racism, bullying, forced overtime were non-existent. If any of that started to happen, a grievance would be filed with the union steward, and justice was served. That was in the early 70s. I got out of factory work some years later because of all the Defense Department contracts factories were relying on. I did not want to contribute anymore to the war machine. I cannot imagine in the early 70s working in a non-union factory in the old South. And I am thankful I finished a few college degrees to expand my world beyond the poorly paid working class who is angry and feeling helplessly stuck in their world. Living in the part of NC that voted for Biden, I see how there is a cold war between the "Old South", especially in the rural areas, and those of us who see through this antiquated system of servitude to the Oligarchs, and their puppets in the church and the Congress. And another thing, there are too many well paying jobs with good benefits that are making all kinds of weapon systems for killing. The dependency on these contracts is just better paying servitude to the Military/Industrial/Political/Media Complex. And they are in the North and South having Senators and Congressmen supporting them for votes and the taxes they pay.
Mudsill the putting of over half of American's living in poverty is Reagan's success. This point of the GOP's cheap labor essential slavery that the Dems need to campaign on along with abortion rights and 3 or 4 economic issues to offer the Dem base voters. This is the winning campaign strategy for the Dems.
So true. And if present day Northern Ireland has anything to teach us it will work to secure political local and statewide autocratic hegemony. Here in Northern Ireland education remains deeply segregated along religious and cultural divides even though the vast majority of parents are demanding integrated education and have been for many years now. The reason this continues is because there are just too many in the ruling establishment here who gain from ongoing enforced cultural ignorance and its assured delivery of Orange/Green votes from a disempowered, ignorant and continually impoverished electorate.
Okay, so the name is Vance Muse, not Vace, which is too bad, since I think he could have served the cause of civilization much better as a piece of pottery.
This just goes to show that the planter class and the Confederate leadership were treated far too leniently by the victorious Union. The planters should have been dispossessed, the leaders hanged, and the South should have been occupied militarily until its submission was beyond redemption. That none of this happened is due to the power of the morbidly rich in the north who wanted Southern cotton and markets, and the racism pervasive in white peoples everywhere then, and in too many still. We cannot undo the past. We can try to prevent its triumph by voting blue in November. We must. Because the South need not “rise again”. It never left, biding its time. We must assure that time never comes again.
I write this as a descendant if Southerners on both sides, including ancestors who fought for the Confederacy and owned slaves. It is a heritage I abhor and have spent my life in part feebly trying to rectify, as my parents did at great personal and professional cost. But if we are being honest, our country as a whole bears the taint of slavery, on which our economy was built and on which in part it continues to rest in our prisons. Ghastly, disgusting—and American. Remember, remember, vote blue in November.
Mr. Shults, though I do not, as a Black Man in the United States, share your political partisanship (which would be illogical given history) on either side of the duopoly, I am deeply moved by your candor and intellectual honesty.
Bravo!
Tell me Rohn, on whose side of the political equation do you fall in 2024. There are only two sides, Trump or Biden, A vote for anyone else is a vote for Trump and I do not think that Trump has the best interests or any interests at all in the black community, just the opposite as do his MAGA cult. Is that what you want. This could lead to a race war if Trump wins,in that case you are out numbered and out gunned.
I see no alternative but to hold one's nose and vote Blue, as I will do, the alternative is unthinkable.
"Race War?"
Your racist ass has to be kidding me. It, despite your ignorance, has always been a "race war." This so-called "nation" that you call yours is a DIRECT result of "race war" from my Alkebulanian to Choctaw ancestors. And each and every time you pine for my attention with your ignorant pontifications and overall racist bullshit, I am going to light your sorry butt up.
You Europeans are in trouble and you have one, and only one, sliver of hope and that is to learn to play nice.
Which, from where I sit, seems to be impossible (perhaps it is your genetics/eugenics).
Relinquish your veiled threats to me, because you have yet to understand you are not only outmanned (globally) you are soon to be outgunned (globally). Of course, being a hundred years old, you will probably not witness the justice that you have coming.
"... you are out numbered and out gunned."
True. Hence, so-called "Race War" is always, but Always, a euphemism for Racial Extermination, aka Black (Brown, Red, Yellow) Genocide.
Uh, can you say m-a-t-h?
1 in 10 cannot, possibly, "exterminate" the other nine without destroying himself and the world's majority is, slowly but surely, understanding this and the MINORITY is about to catch hell, Jack. Because the world's majority has, finally, understood that force must be met with force. I can tell you, as a man that has been through many a kinetic engagement, no matter how much of a badass you are (or perceive yourself as) no one man can whip three...let alone nine.
Not just a race war Okie, though that is the plot in the Turner's Diaries. (I have read it), but war against atheist, liberals, anyone who is not a white Christian nationalist.
Well, well, well. Klansman BillyBob has read "The Turner Diaries." Like Trump and Mein Kamph. No shit?
I bet BillyBob keeps it on its nightstand before it goes to bed each night and has the temerity to brag about it. What an effing surprise.
Roy, I also think we went too easy on the German Nazi billionaires! The Nazis are like cockroaches and ants, except I think the insects have more of a conscience!
Roy, the problem started with Lincoln's assassination and the accession of Andrew Johnson, a racist Democrat. He stalled and back pedaled the nascent reconstruction.
Restoring the Unreconstructed States Although Congressional Reconstruction brought most of the southern states back into the Union before 1868, Ulysses S. Grant still had to address the southern problem. Virginia, Mississippi, and Texas remained unreconstructed when he took office, and Republicans at the national level remained undecided about what to do about problems in Georgia regarding the seating of new black legislators. Reconstruction posed a challenge for Grant because of the goals he hoped to accomplish. Grant sought to protect the political and civil rights of blacks, but he also wanted to maintain a Republican presence in the South. Protecting blacks inherently would drive many whites away from the Republican Party; convincing whites to remain with the Republican Party would require abandoning the blacks to the mercy of the state governments. Moreover, to preserve the national Republican Party at a time when fighting slavery and rebellion no longer gave members a common cause likely would mean refocusing the party’s interests away from the South. Finally, policies adopted during Presidential and Congressional Reconstruction limited Grant’s options for dealing with problems in the southern states. https://human.libretexts.org/Bookshelves/History/National_History/United_States_History_to_1877_(Locks_et_al.)/17%3A_Reconstruction/17.04%3A_Retreat_from_Reconstruction-_The_Grant_Years#:~:text=Reconstruction%20posed%20a%20challenge%20for,Republican%20presence%20in%20the%20South.
White Southerners had a paternalistic attitude towards "the coloreds". My grandmothr asked me in 1964, "why are them coloreds so upset, don't we treat them well enough", There wasn't a hateful bone in her body, in fact the only neighbors of he family 1870, 1880 were listed as "B" under race onthe census, and the family called the Mammy and Pappy which are terms of endearment that planters children used towards their house slaves.
We lived on what is now called soul food, collard greens, turnip greens, black eyed peas, hush puppies, and the chickens and pork that Pappy slaughtered and Mammy butchered., squirrel and corn meal breaded bream, fired crisp..yumm.
My ancestors stepped foot on Jamestown in 1620, 9th ggmother) and 1618 (8th great grandfather) there were no slaves then, not until 1661, but indentured servants of which he transported quite a few and got 50 acre patents for each servant.
The family grew some became planters, owned slaves, others failed and became dirt farmers.
My 5th ggf died before he could tutor his younger sons, thus they lacked the skills to enter into contracts (indentures) and were inspirational planters, never owned a slave until about 1830, when my 3rd ggf and his brother, a neighbor, owned at least one slave. Mine owned an old man over age 45, perhaps out of kindness less he starve. He was the last slave owner.
One of his sons, a great great uncle, abandoned his wife and three infant children and joined the Perry Rangers, was almost immediately transferred to the 28th Alabama and with 75 days was mortally wounded at Corinth to die in a confederate hospital.
A great great grandfather joyfully eft behind his wife and three infant children, to march up a dusty road to the county courthouse to enlist in the 37th (Bells) regiment and to die about 75 days later of a plague that swept through Camp Nelson, outside of Austin AR
A cousin was captured at Arkansas Post and died of Small Pox in Camp Douglas, outside of Chicago, another died on Missionary Ridge outside of Chattanooga, two were caught spying on the Federals outside of Vicksburg and were gun downed as theyu ran across a field. on their parents property.
Fools everyone, those that weren't conscripted like my great great grandfather and uncle, but I am actually glad for their outcome, had it not been the way that it happened, I would never have been born.
As regards the slave owning ancestors. No guilt here, because that is not me, not my history or my sentiments, nothing I can do to change the past.
I am, as you might be able to tell, a genetic genealogist, I do it for fun, an avocation,most I deal with need to find a "noble" or auspicious ancestor, me I don't care,I have plenty, but they are not me, I do not stand on their shoulders nor do I wallow under their feet.
Devils or angels, they are not me, and I do not believe in the bible and that crap about the sins of the father.
The number of ancestors whose descendants turn out to be crap are legion. Same with nondescript ancestors who left no record, and who have been magnificent people that contributed to our civilization and culture. Especially true of American Descendants of Slaves who are fortunate if they can identify an ancestor who lived in 1860
Roy: James Baldwin wrote that Faulkner “concede[d] the madness and moral wrongness of the South but at the same time he raise[d] it to the level of a mystique.” He insist[ed] that the white South can't be forced to integrate, and must be left to work through its moral dilemmas in its own time;..." IMHO Faulkner was prescient.
My dad and brother were Faulkner "scholars". One year they made the the front page of the Oxford (MS) Eagle with the caption "what are these Yankees doing here?" Ans. Studying the south.
Most of the south were not like you, Roy. Most like the Snopes family. The protagonist of the Bear, Benjy, told the tale twice told by an idiot, all "sound and fury" signifying nothing. Eventually, the south had to integrate despite "massive resistance."
'
Inside the south there was/is a "concurrent majority" People like you. The problem is they don't come forward.
Despite SEDM, economically the south are beggars with hat in hand. More people receive federal governmental benefits per square inch in red states. Besides all the stuff Thom enumerated, more SSI, food stamps, etc. School districts have more Chapter 1 students. https://smartasset.com/data-studies/states-most-dependent-federal-government-2023
The true beneficiaries of that SSI funding are landlords, grocers, shopkeepers, all businesses.
Daniel I have had this argument many times, last time with a Floridian, that integration cannot be forced, it can't, but left alone over time, it will,gradually. He used the same argument over slavery, left alone the slaves would have been freed.
These are not valid counter arguments f an example of how minorities can be and will be exploited is Germany.,and the U.S.A in this century. The difference being that the U.S. has a cornucopia of scapegoats.
My counter argument to the slavery will be abandoned over time, was what about the millions in the interval, born into and die in slavery..
The only hope of escaping racism is total race mixing, what the right wing calls "mud people" that scares the shit out of them, but not me.,and at a deep psychological level, that is,I think, the real fear of the White nationalists.
On the other hand even if there is no racial distinctions something else will surface serve, like blue eyes in a brown eyed world.
I was stationed at Ft. Jackson and Gordon, and many years later heard cases in the south. When I first went to Greenwood, MS, there were no public accommodations to avoid forced desegregation. To eat, had to buy at the supermarket or go to a "club" which was completely segregated.
Today, quite the opposite. More desegregated than most of the north. They didn't integrate themselves. In order to get a lot of the federal funding, they had to comply.
I find as much racism in Pennsyltucky. Primarily "ethnics". They resented that strikebreakers were sent north as reverse freedomriders in the 60's. Nixon's southern strategy involved forced busing, forced hiring, to break the FDR Democratic coalition. The result was white flight, abandonment of cities at the same time that Republican tax policy killed off middle class main street businesses and killed commuter railroads.
https://music.youtube.com/watch?v=hTLHxpUQ_B8
I haven't been south since 1964, but know what you mean about racism in the north. But haven't lived north since 1956, the years in between in he military, overseas, and in the Pacific NW., four years in Texas but again in the military.
I did see racism in Philadelphia when a woman who feuded with her neighbor sold her house to a black family, and the neighborhood went up in arms, because it depreciated the value of their homes, that was 1953 or 1954
Sometimes I hear the reason given for people not voting is "it doesn't matter, nothing ever changes." I hope people will print this column and carry it with them. If/when you hear someone say something like voting doesn't change anything, whip this out and remind them that many of the things that impact us the most in our daily life are the result of state legislatures. Turn those state legislatures BLUE, and you can expect to see improvements. Tell 'em as long as the Rs control those state legislatures, yeah, your life will remain tough and slave labor used by the prison-industrial complex will continue.
And..... if enough people vote Blue for their state representatives, they should vote Blue up and down the ticket. If enough people. Imagine turning some of those red states purple or blue. Imagine a Dem president who has more that 66 Dems in the Senate (veto-proof!) and a Blue House of Representatives. Just imagine the changes we would see!!! That's partly why the Poor Peoples Campaign is working so hard in Southern states. The power is there, in the vote, if only people mobilize send those Rs packing!!!
Good point, Roland!
thanks!
Private equity just purchased the ACT testing service and I read they want to test for aptitude so students are better placed where they belong. I don't like the sound of that along with testing all seniors for public service placement that Trump said wasn't his idea. trump didn't say he is opposed to the idea of a "draft." School districts have valuable real estate and I would not be surprised if Wall Street had a plan to extract that wealth while also milking the real estate assets from the healthcare system as they are doing.
What kind of human beings even think this way? 🙁
Ivy League MBAs.
Yes, SuZie...It's sad. I think of the endless-acquisition culture of ours as attracting individuals who suffer from the feeling of never having enough. And along with that drive for "more," that rationalizes itself as just "capitalism," comes a blindness to the needs of other people. So Gloria's picture of private equity companies buying up school districts in order to milk (steal) their real estate assets, makes me imagine that people who would do that place no value on understanding the needs of the people who live in those districts and use those schools. Maybe I misunderstood her, but I don't give people a pass just because they're engaging in "business." I believe that there are more important values of caring and sharing that people like that are missing out on.
They are like sharks Madeline, same with real estate developers they have to keep acquiring, developing, moving if they don't they will suffocate.
In finance we were taught and glorified the wonders of leverage,leverage in the stock market, leverage in everything. Leverage is debt, how much of someone else's money do you have invested. Problem is that when you use someone else's money they want a return on investment,principal and interest, and that forces them to stay in motion.
Trump,I doubt has enough liquid assets to pay his fines, much less his lawyers,and his lawyers know that they are working pro bono, they see a big payout if he is elected. They are gambling.
Trump couldn't sell Trump Tower to pay a fine, and Letitia James knows that, because it is leverage, not once by maybe floor by floor, and debtors have first claim on assets.
If the state of NY takes over Trumps hotels and tower, they become the landlord, with all of the headaches you can expect from the Saudi's, Sovereign Funds, Russian Oligarchs, multi millionaires, the rich and famous.
BTW, I wasn't criticizing Gloria or anybody, I was just expressing my disappointment that there could be people who even think of things such as "milking" school districts for their real estate assets. :(
This is the first I've ever heard of the SEDM, so thank you for that, Thom. I want to look into it further, and into this character Vace Muse, or amuse bouche--whatever. Actually, I think that this has always been the plan from the get-go, and SEDM is just one more name for it. It also is known as colonialism, imperialism, or plantation economics.
Perhaps we can update Kennedy's metaphor to: A tide that raises only yachts.
It takes a huge tide to lift some of the super yachts - like The Rising Sun
once owned by the CEO of Oracle,
Larry Ellison - unfortunately my
dinghy got swamped- as did so many
others in the post Reagan discombobulation .
In 1970, maybe 71. I was part of a record breaking demonstration to prove long range,low level airborne assault. We took off from McChord AFB,WA in a C141, flew low level 200 to 300 ft above MSL, all the way to Lanai Island, and then dropped via parachute, I landed in all saw grass that grew over a pineapple field, I call itmolasses grass,it cut the uniform the skin and had a deuce of time recovering the parachute.
We repaired to an 18th Century Victorian Hotel, waited on the veranda in a rocker until picked up.
It was then owned by Dole Corporation, now owned by Roy Ellison of Oracle. Imagine the wealth of a man who can own a whole island in the Hawaii chain.
Tom Cruise, so I hear, wrecked a Mustang on the island. I imagine thus, that Ellison is also a member of the Scientology cultm
Larry has also purchased a flock of residential properties in Malibu close to Pepperdine
University where I was an adjunct Econ professor.
Mere mortals can’t afford anything close by and the commute isn’t easy .
I wouldn’t be so concerned about one rich man but it’s symbolic of how the Robin
Hood of the new deal has turned into Hood Robin
over the past 40 years.
Thanks PaulI get my Ellison's mixed up,tis Larry not Roy. Some dude on Raw Story years ago, a surfer, gave me a ration of shit when I mentioned jumping into Lanai Island, he thought I was a friend of Ellisons or some such, and tried to make a big deal out of.
When I lived in Redmond, WA (Microsoft Central) I had a neighbor whose daughter graduated from Pepperdine,Booth was her last name, first name eludes me at the moment, she and her hubby were on the make, all into networking and climbing the social ladder, phony as a three dollar bill and transparent at that.. I would escort her mother, when she walked her dog, Aggie Agada) was a few years my senior, but quite frail. Must have been a sight, the aged leading the aged. Nothing romantic, not at all, believe me, just being helpful and neighborly. I also took her cat to the Vet because she wouldn't, I notice it being lethargic and losing weight, a sign of thyroid disease.
??
A personal conversation in response to something Roy said. Unfortunately in public, but that is substack
A rising tide drowns those that cannot swim.
Insecure white men who are emotionally threatened by competent women and people of color, always revert to delusions of white, male supremacy to shore up their fragile egos. It's the racism, the anti-semitism, and the misogyny, stupid…and the cruelty is the point.
It would be great if white folks, especially white men like you, THOM, could begin to reflect on why it seems necessary to use scapegoats in order to feel good about oneself. A little self reflection might go along way towards humanizing our world.
Invoking Thom's name in that context, is that what you really meant to do, Madeline?
No one white guy I know of has done more questioning of white privilege and the damage testosterone does in this world than our Thom Hartmann. He is my brother from another mother, and I am so proud of him because he is doing the work you mentioned every day.
I agree about Thom, alis...I've been listening and learning from him for decades. I'm suggesting something only a little bit more specific, the act of self-reflection by ALL white folks, not just by Thom, regarding why they might need to scapegoat others in order to feel good about themselves. I think it's helpful to all of us, no matter our gender, skin tone, class, or caste, to wonder, via introspection, why we need to see others as "less than" in order to feel as if we're OK. This wasn't a criticism or indictment of Thom, it was just addressed to him precisely because he has the capacity to understand what I'm saying. Thanks for your comment, alis.
Followers of Phyllis Schlafly and many other "conservative" women scapegoat too. https://www.fieldteam6.org/partner
Yes they do, Daniel...this is an unfortunate and common occurrence in our culture as a whole. Please see my response to alis, if you like.
How do we get people to see ths stuff? They are all “hear no evil, see no evil” about the Right Wing, and they think this is all propaganda and lies. It’s HISTORY! {And even sadder, it’s CURRENT EVENTS}
Of all the combatant forces against MAGA's turning America into retrogative Dixie, every possible means to promoting unions is, IMHO, the most crucial. When unions become strong, they not only address the merits of restoration of the middle class, they conjoin many of the threats of all those who are threatened by MAGA Dixie (who have vested interest in keeping them separate in order to more easily control and destroy them). Women particularly who have carved their way out of white male subjugation by having become union members can weld together many issues while protected by the organized clout of unions. An army of organized resistence must be built, and the union jack is the union.
WWII created a shortage of males, the solution was Rosie the Riveter and the WASPs.
No sooner was VJ day declared than Rosie and her compatriots were ordere to sit through movies and class teaching them how to re apply make up, wear sun dress, please the man and take orders from the head of the house
I absolutely agree with you, Gerald.
During Reconstruction after the Civil War, Blacks and most Whites were in the same boat. The old power players convinced the Whites that Blacks were their competitors and dangerous. Thus the oligarchs manipulated Whites to work against their own interests. Divide and conquer! And so it has continued ever since!
Still happening. Trump scapegoats immigrants like Hitler scapegoated the Jews. Ironically he is the poster boy for employer sanctions for using illegals on his jobsites. He also imports workers from the Balkans on temporary visas to displace workers at his properties.
"Fully 800,000 (out of a total 1.2 million prisoners) Americans are currently held in conditions of slave labor in American jails and prisons."
It appears that number is somewhere between 1.8 and 2 million, Mr. Hartmann. As for the content of your piece I can only state that which I have mentioned to you many times over the years: the sexiest thing in U.S. politics is Anti-Blackism. It is what built the United States.
And it is what will destroy it.
Got a link for those numbers? I can correct the article…
https://www.sentencingproject.org/research/
I’m not seeing the number of people in slave labor on that site. Do you have that?
Negative. I was interpreting (and referencing) the total number of prisoners through the lens of the 13th Amendment which makes all incarcerated persons legally slaves.
Great article again, Thom! For the past several years I've noted that MAGA is little more than the Confederacy reborn, with the addition of some overt racism in the rust belt.
Absolutely horrific. The Civil War was never resolved for the old south. They (and I understand that I am generalizing here. There are good, intelligent southerners who are as horrified as we are over SEDM) have carried that chip on their collective shoulders ever since they lost the war. Now, enabled by a psychopath named trump, the southern resentment doors have been flung open and buried grievance has burst upon America.
History is the best teacher. The poor, undereducated, non white males of the world will not be kept in thrall indefinitely. Rage eventually wins out over victimization. The result is never pretty. (See: the French Revolution). But in the benighted minds of the MAGA, Project 2025, SEDM peeps, history, as is education in general, is an unnecessary exercise that just gets in the way of their domination.
The real irony here is that trump's main base is made up of economically and educationally disadvantaged people. The only overlap with the designers of Project 2025 et.al. is that the only commonality is race, white.
These trump cheerleaders are not going to reap any rewards from trump and the 1% ers should trump win. And for those of us who study history, we know that the most dangerous group of people are the hardcore supporters of a movement who eventually feel betrayed by said movement. (See: Mussolini).
I recall after coming back from being forced to "kill Commies for Christ" as a young naive kid drafted to the immoral Vietnam war, and going into factory work. I got to see the difference between a union and non-union job. And this was in Southern California. In the non-union jobs, there were few benefits, forced overtime with threat of losing one's job, unhealthy working conditions, and bullying supervisors. Finally got a union job and saw that sexism, racism, bullying, forced overtime were non-existent. If any of that started to happen, a grievance would be filed with the union steward, and justice was served. That was in the early 70s. I got out of factory work some years later because of all the Defense Department contracts factories were relying on. I did not want to contribute anymore to the war machine. I cannot imagine in the early 70s working in a non-union factory in the old South. And I am thankful I finished a few college degrees to expand my world beyond the poorly paid working class who is angry and feeling helplessly stuck in their world. Living in the part of NC that voted for Biden, I see how there is a cold war between the "Old South", especially in the rural areas, and those of us who see through this antiquated system of servitude to the Oligarchs, and their puppets in the church and the Congress. And another thing, there are too many well paying jobs with good benefits that are making all kinds of weapon systems for killing. The dependency on these contracts is just better paying servitude to the Military/Industrial/Political/Media Complex. And they are in the North and South having Senators and Congressmen supporting them for votes and the taxes they pay.
I got an idea Tim, Let's just surrender turn everything over to Putin, Xi , Un,Khameini and Sinwar.
No more Military Industrial complex, peace in our time, what a deal.
Mudsill the putting of over half of American's living in poverty is Reagan's success. This point of the GOP's cheap labor essential slavery that the Dems need to campaign on along with abortion rights and 3 or 4 economic issues to offer the Dem base voters. This is the winning campaign strategy for the Dems.
Biden needs to point out that Trump is a deep state
traitorous plant! Who will only exploit the poor of all races!
So true. And if present day Northern Ireland has anything to teach us it will work to secure political local and statewide autocratic hegemony. Here in Northern Ireland education remains deeply segregated along religious and cultural divides even though the vast majority of parents are demanding integrated education and have been for many years now. The reason this continues is because there are just too many in the ruling establishment here who gain from ongoing enforced cultural ignorance and its assured delivery of Orange/Green votes from a disempowered, ignorant and continually impoverished electorate.
Okay, so the name is Vance Muse, not Vace, which is too bad, since I think he could have served the cause of civilization much better as a piece of pottery.