Institutional Racism

[raum]

I don't have any white guilt. that is bullshit. I don't have any white pride, either. let's all be proud or ashamed of shit we can't change... and people wonder i become more and more of a hermit.

People are, frankly, stupid about racism, and the history of race dynamics. all of us. especially in the US. Here is a few facts from one of my favorite african american studies academics.

"The fact is large numbers of free Negroes owned black slaves; in fact, in numbers disproportionate to their representation in society at large. In 1860 only a small minority of whites owned slaves. According to the U.S. census report for that last year before the Civil War, there were nearly 27 million whites in the country. Some eight million of them lived in the slaveholding states.

The census also determined that there were fewer than 385,000 individuals who owned slaves (1). Even if all slaveholders had been white, that would amount to only 1.4 percent of whites in the country (or 4.8 percent of southern whites owning one or more slaves).

In the rare instances when the ownership of slaves by free Negroes is acknowledged in the history books, justification centers on the claim that black slave masters were simply individuals who purchased the freedom of a spouse or child from a white slaveholder and had been unable to legally manumit them. Although this did indeed happen at times, it is a misrepresentation of the majority of instances, one which is debunked by records of the period on blacks who owned slaves. These include individuals such as Justus Angel and Mistress L. Horry, of Colleton District, South Carolina, who each owned 84 slaves in 1830. In fact, in 1830 a fourth of the free Negro slave masters in South Carolina owned 10 or more slaves; eight owning 30 or more (2).

According to federal census reports, on June 1, 1860 there were nearly 4.5 million Negroes in the United States, with fewer than four million of them living in the southern slaveholding states. Of the blacks residing in the South, 261,988 were not slaves. Of this number, 10,689 lived in New Orleans. The country's leading African American historian, Duke University professor John Hope Franklin, records that in New Orleans over 3,000 free Negroes owned slaves, or 28 percent of the free Negroes in that city.

To return to the census figures quoted above, this 28 percent is certainly impressive when compared to less than 1.4 percent of all American whites and less than 4.8 percent of southern whites. The statistics show that, when free, blacks disproportionately became slave masters.

The majority of slaveholders, white and black, owned only one to five slaves. More often than not, and contrary to a century and a half of bullwhips-on-tortured-backs propaganda, black and white masters worked and ate alongside their charges; be it in house, field or workshop. The few individuals who owned 50 or more slaves were confined to the top one percent, and have been defined as slave magnates.

In 1860 there were at least six Negroes in Louisiana who owned 65 or more slaves The largest number, 152 slaves, were owned by the widow C. Richards and her son P.C. Richards, who owned a large sugar cane plantation. Another Negro slave magnate in Louisiana, with over 100 slaves, was Antoine Dubuclet, a sugar planter whose estate was valued at (in 1860 dollars) $264,000 (3). That year, the mean wealth of southern white men was $3,978 (4)."

Ok enough quoting, here is what I think:

Due to the development of the US, and the turbulence of such a tremendous war, and such a odd lack of reconstruction in the south; and then the devestation of the family dynamic in the great depression - alot of people have almost no roots to study their family history or context. Fortunately in Louisiana, we have more intact records, but oddly, alot of people never even attempt to look. i had a friend, a good friend who was always talking about his family like they consultants for Alex Haley, or something. I paid for his geneaology. they were slaveowners. and it was funny, when he found somethign out about his own past, this country became a little more real.

As for racism - NEVER in my life have I been racist against anyone; but i still crack up over racial humor. mainyl because ti is a caricature of the most absurd abuse of social decision making i can think of. But even i have prejudices and even have to make generalities to prioritize my time and efforts to socialize - like i don't tend to hang out with people who demonstrate misunderstanding me - cause they can't follow me.. When done healthily, discrimination is a good thing - and can ensure you have a better quality of community.

[AYHJA]

I don't know about those figures, not in a skeptical way though, but I've been really, really curious about my family's history...I've been doing some digging, mainly because almost all of my grandmother's siblings are dead, the eldest being born around 1914...My aunt now is 88 years old I think...She's old enough to remember her mothers mother, and her father's mother, and even her grandparents...That puts me at least as far back as 1865...From what I have been able to gather so far is that my ancestors were never really slaves, slaves...My grandmother's, father's, mother, my great, great grandmother, worked inside...
Her son, my grandmother's father, was half white, and bought the land that my house sits on...He was the HNIC for other sharecropper's in the area...He did well enough that he was the first person in our area to have both electricity and an indoor bathroom...To put that into perspective, when my mother used to come down here as a child, all but one of her aunts had outhouses still...My grandmother and all her sisters went to private school...

Basically, I'm trying to say that without a doubt, shit was bad...And there are some ROTTEN motherfuckers other there...But there is certainly a skew on institutional racism...I'm planning on doing a post about my findings when they're more complete, in hopes that others may be inspired to know a little more about their history...

[raum]

that's awesome to hear kumicho. i am glad to see your desire to know a bit more about your family is being met!

[Aemeth]

Some interesting stats, raum. I was aware of much of that, but not to that extent. Maybe it is time I track down my Norwegian roots :)

And I agree, white guilt or any form of anything like this is detrimental to progress and equality. It is a shame that people think, by over-sympathizing for someone, that they are actually helping them. Nope. You're just an unconscious racist muthafucka :)

[Aemeth]

Raum, why do you think US History textbooks don't emphasize the fact that more Negroes owned slaves? Judging by how the rest of history is presented, even during the era of slavery, one would think this would fit the mold, no?

[raum]

History has been highjacked by special interest groups, and everyone without a self-centered motive is uninterested. History became easy when questions became multuiple choice.

American history is a rich treasure, for every American.