Aging Capriciously

During the time of the slave trade, it is estimated that some 13 million African natives were captured and sent by ship to the Americas to work plantations in both North and South America.  They were sent because they represented cheap labor.  Not free labor because slaves had to be fed, clothed, and bought.  Of these 13 million individuals, somewhere between 2-3 million men, women and children perished on the voyage over.  They died from malnutrition, disease and outright murder by hangings, drownings, and beatings.  Consider if you will the shrinkage rate.  In merchandising shrinkage of a product is the loss of a product through “unavoidable” circumstances.

A good merchandiser does everything they can to avoid shrinkage.  The loss of a product represents loss of profit for a company.  Such was not the case with the slave trade.  Every slave was regarded as property but with a difference.  They were regarded as “expendable.”

“Black lives did not matter.”

A slaver or slave owner could “write” off the loss of a slave as simply a cost of doing business.  The market for slaves was never predicated on a 100 percent transfer of live merchandise.  If only 75 percent of the African natives made it over to the Americas, the cost of slaves would be based on that percentage.  The rest might today be called “collateral damage.”  They never could have been called an “unavoidable” expense since murder and starvation are hardly unavoidable.

Much has been made of the fact that slaves were regarded as “property” by the plantation owners in the south.  Confederate apologists say that slaves were well cared.  Logically, any property would be regarded as valuable.  Thus, slaves were well fed, well clothed and well housed.  History again is a lie.   The lower the cost of maintaining a slave, the more profit for a slave owner.  Thus, little expense was allocated towards feeding, clothing, or improving the life of a slave.  In any business, the future success of the business, is related to the further development of the workers in that business.  Companies spend billions of dollars a year on Human Resource Development (HRD) activities designed to train, educate, and improve the knowledge, skills, and abilities of their workers.  This was not the case with slavery.  There were no HRD programs for slaves.

Slaves had to clothe, feed, and take care of their own medical problems.  If they died, they were expendable.  Slaves could be replaced by breeding more slaves or by raping slaves and replacing any that died.  Slaves were not educated, and laws prohibited the teaching of reading or writing to slaves.  Knowledge has always meant power and that was one thing that must be denied to slaves.  Some slaveholders would teach select slaves reading or writing skills because they needed someone to run errands for them, but this was the exception in the USA and not the rule.

1819, Missouri: Prohibited assembling or teaching slaves to read or write. 1829, Georgia: Prohibited teaching blacks to read, punished by fine and imprisonment. 1832, Alabama and Virginia: Prohibited whites from teaching blacks to read or write, punished by fines and floggings.  — Anti-literacy laws in the United States

“The United States is unique in that it is the only country known to have prohibited the education of slaves.”  — Wikipedia

“Black lives did not matter.”

Several versions including movies and stories have portrayed the life of a slave as one of happiness and joy.  This version of history shows slaves as well cared for, well treated, and generally satisfied with their station in life.  Happy to be working for their white masters, happy to be caring for the children of their white masters and happy to be singing and dancing for their white masters.   One wonders then why there were over 250 slave rebellions before slavery was abolished in 1865.  This figure does not count the number of slaves who tried to escape by running away.  The famous “underground railroad” is estimated to have helped as many as 70,000 individuals (though estimations vary from 40,000 to 100,000) escape from slavery in the years between 1800 and 1865. — Fugitive slave

See the article “Did African-American Slaves Rebel?” by Henry Louis Gates Jr.

The most famous slave rebellion took place in Virginia in 1831.  The rebellion was led by Nat Turner.  After a considerable number of white people were killed the revolt was finally suppressed.  As an aftermath of the revolt, 56 slaves were officially executed but over 120 other slaves and free blacks were murdered in retaliation.  Valuable black property was not so valuable when it came to revenge.  To prove that black lives were not regarded as compensable property is the fact that after the rebellion at least seven slaveowners sent legislative petitions for compensation for the loss of their slaves. They were all rejected.

“Black lives did not matter.”

Again, one wonders why the happy singing slaves would go to the risk and peril of staging a slave revolt knowing full well that the consequences would mean a terrible death.  The slaves executed were often tortured and put to death with as much pain and suffering as possible.  There was no effort made to provide a humane method of execution.

“Black lives did not matter.”

In 1932, The United States Public Health Service (PHS) conducted the infamous “Tuskegee Study of Untreated Syphilis in the African American Male.”  This so-called study took place between 1932 and 1972.

“Investigators enrolled in the study a total of 600 impoverished, African American sharecroppers from Macon County, Alabama.  Of these men, 399 had latent syphilis, with a control group of 201 men who were not infected.   As an incentive for participation in the study, the men were promised free medical care, but were deceived by the PHS, who disguised placebos, ineffective methods, and diagnostic procedures as treatment.   The men who had syphilis were never informed of their diagnosis, despite the risk of infecting others, and the fact that the disease could lead to blindness, deafness, mental illness, heart disease, bone deterioration, collapse of the central nervous system, and death.” — Tuskegee Syphilis Experiment

“Black lives did not matter.”

The Vietnam war was in full swing from 1964 to 1973 in terms of major US troop involvement.  During this period, many of the men who served in front line combat units were enlisted from the draft rolls.

“By lowering the education standards of the draft, an estimated 40% of the 246,000 draftees of Project 100,000 were Black. Some activists in the US speculated that the uneven application of the draft was a method of Black genocide. Black people were starkly under-represented on draft boards in this era, with none on the draft boards of Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, or Arkansas.” — Military History of African Americans During the Vietnam War

“African American troops were more likely to be assigned to combat units.  Twenty-three percent of combat troops in Vietnam were Black.  The combination of our selective service policies, our testing of both drafted and volunteers, the need for skilled enlisted men in many areas of the armed forces, all conspired to assign blacks in greater numbers to the combat units of the Army and Marine Corps.  Early in the war, when blacks made up about 11.0% of our Vietnam force, black casualties soared to over 20% of the total.” — Vietnam War Statistics

“Black lives did not matter.”

A recent Harvard Study (2020) found that blacks were up to six times more likely to be killed by police during an encounter than whites.  They analyzed 5,494 police-related fatalities using data from Fatal Encounters a database of people killed in encounters with police.  There was a great deal of variation across the country but on average, blacks were three times more likely to be killed during a police encounter than whites.

The Harvard study did not show how many more times blacks are going to be encountered by police for routine matters.  A Stanford University study of nearly 100 million traffic stops from around the US has concluded that, on average, black drivers are 20% more likely to get pulled over than a white driver.  More likely to get pulled over and then more likely to get killed.  A black man or woman stopped for drunk driving is (on average) up to three times more likely than a white man or woman stopped for drunk driving to be killed during the encounter.

“Black lives still do not matter.”

A few weeks ago, up here in the North woods of Wisconsin in our rural Polk County we had a “Black Lives Matter” protest rally.  Mostly white rural people up here in our county.  About fifty or more people showed up carrying signs supporting the “Black Lives Matter” movement.  Karen and I made two signs and joined the rally.  Looking at the numbers of white people in the country supporting this movement, I can’t help but wonder if white people are finally “woking” up.  If they are “woke” how long will they stay “woke.”

Liberal whites are for many blacks more despicable than conservative racists.  Malcolm X noted in one of his talks that:

“The white liberal differs from the white conservative only in one way: the liberal is more deceitful than the conservative. The liberal is more hypocritical than the conservative. Both want power, but the white liberal is the one who has perfected the art of posing as the Negro’s friend and benefactor; and by winning the friendship, allegiance, and support of the Negro, the white liberal is able to use the Negro as a pawn or tool in this political “football game” that is constantly raging between the white liberals and white conservatives.” — Malcom X Speech 1963.

A recent example of white hypocrisy concerns the Alabama-based Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC).  A Center long heralded for their attacking racist groups like the Aryan Brotherhood and the KKK, they recently came under attack for racial discrimination within their own ranks.  The liberal champion at this organization was a lawyer named Morris Dees.  Famed for his standing up to the Klan and for the number of threats on his life, he resigned during the turmoil over the charges against him and the SPLC.  Some employees claim that the civil rights nonprofit group suffers from a “systemic culture of racism and sexism within its workplace.”

I have had many arguments with liberal friends over the issue of racism in the USA.  I generally find that they agree with me – up to a point.  We disagree on methods of dealing with racism often with large gaps in our strategies.  There is no way a liberal will ever agree to or countenance violence against oppression.  This is the reason that Martin Luther King was championed over Malcolm X.  Malcolm X did not believe in “turning the other cheek.”  Liberals believe that you can “Reason” with racists and help them to see the error of their ways.  In 1857 Frederic Douglas gave a speech now called “If There is No Struggle, there is No Progress.” (I will “reconstruct” this speech in my next blog)

After I argue with my liberal friends (often I defend some of the violence associated with protests) they will go home to their suburban white gated communities with their security walls and security guards who make routine patrols through their neighborhoods.  Driving through these communities, you will not be surprised to find few if any minorities living within the gated walls.  When Karen and I bought a home in Arizona we had to argue with the realtor because she insisted we buy a home in a gated community where we “would be safer.”  We refused and we have Latino and Black neighbors on our street.  We have children running up and down the street and we have no walls to block our view of reality.

Before the “Black Lives Matter” Rally began in Centuria, a small town in Polk County, an “All Lives Matter” group assembled across from us.  Sporting MAGA hats, Trump Signs and signs promoting “All Lives Matter” they watched us from across the street.  Later during the rally, they “buzzed” us with a pickup truck to harass us.  The police stationed themselves to watch for any potential violence and to keep the two groups apart.  I decided to walk down and talk to some of the guys standing near a pickup truck and ask them a few questions.

I approached two men.  One guy had a long beard, several tattoos and was probably in his sixties.  The other man was tall, muscular, a muscle t-shirt, several tattoos and was probably in his forties.  I told them that I was a member of the “Black Lives Matter” rally.  I then asked them if they supported us (I kept a straight face).  I had my Air Force veterans’ hat on.  They seemed somewhat surprised at my question and replied that “They believed all lives mattered.” They then wanted to know why we singled out only the lives of black people.  I noted the large number of blacks recently killed by police with little or no motivation.  They replied with some statistics concerning the large number of white people who are often killed by police during encounters.

I asked if either of them was a veteran.  The older guy said he was.  He said that he had served in the Army and that he was a Vietnam Veteran.  I asked if he had ever served with any black soldiers and if he thought they covered his ass when needed.  He told me that he had a great deal of respect for the black soldiers he served with.  We talked some military stuff for a few minutes and about the violence associated with some of the recent protest rallies.  I finally decided to ask one last question that I had been thinking about.  I asked “Why did you wait to protest ‘All Lives Matter’ until the ‘Black Lives Matter’ protests started?”  I did not get an answer.

I think the “All Lives Matter” slogan is a disingenuous white method of promoting racism.  It is easier to discount the effort to make black lives important by aggregating all lives into one anonymous amorphous coagulation of people who die.  Then we can ignore the black people who are subjected daily to racism and discrimination in American society.  What they are really saying is that:

Black Lives Still Don’t Matter!

“For to be free is not merely to cast off one’s chains, but to live in a way that respects and enhances the freedom of others.” —Nelson Mandela