The Legacy of Slavery and Racism
By Farhang Jahanpour
OXFORD, Dec. 9, 2020 (IPS)
– In a powerful address at the
Hungry Club Forum on 10
May 1967, Martin Luther King
Jr. spoke about US’s so-called
“three original sins,” the evils
of slavery, poverty and war or,
more generally, racism, materialism
and militarism.
He said: “There can be no
gainsaying of the fact that racism
is still alive all over America.
Racial injustice is still the
Negro’s burden and America’s
shame. And we must face the
hard fact that many Americans
would like to have a nation
which is a democracy for white
Americans but simultaneously
a dictatorship over black Americans.
We must face the fact that
we still have much to do in the
area of race relations.”
Great strides had been made
in the United States in combating
racism since those words
were uttered, but the events of
the past year have shown that
there is still a long way to go and
the gains are still fragile.
Lenin’s old maxim, ‘There
are decades where nothing happens;
and there are weeks where
decades happen’, seems to apply
to the events since George
Floyd’s death. The gruesome
killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis,
Minnesota, on 25 May
2020 gave rise to an unprecedented
campaign against police
brutality in the United States,
and in turn has acted as a fuse
for a worldwide uprising against
racism and inequality.
George Floyd was arrested,
handcuffed and pushed face
down to the ground while a
white police officer pressed his
knee on his neck for almost
nine minutes, despite Floyd’s
pleas saying that he could not
breathe, until his body became
motionless.Floyd’s killing triggered
Contributing Writers: Azad Ali, Tangerine Clarke,
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massive demonstrations
in more than 350 cities in the
United States and around the
world, and started a movement
that goes well beyond the civil
rights movement of the 1960’s
and may prove to be a turning
point in the campaign for racial
equality.What is remarkable is
that those who took part in
those massive demonstrations
were not all black and ethnic
people, but they were joined by
millions of white people who
reject the legacy of slavery and
are determined to help their
fellow human beings to achieve
the dignity and equality that
they deserve. They know that a
society that is built on exploitation,
discrimination and inequality
diminishes all its citizens.
Many Americans may be
unaware of the full horrors of
slavery, but it has been one of
the major unresolved problems
in US history. Although some
form of slavery had existed from
the beginning of human history,
with the rise of European
powers and the need for cheap
labor in the New World, slavery
assumed industrial proportions,
involving millions of people
being grabbed and uprooted
from their homes and shipped
across the world to work in
inhumane conditions on plantations.
Before it was over, millions
of Africans would be killed for
the profit of white colonialists.
Armed with superior weapons,
slave merchants would invade
some African countries, pull
young men, women and even
children out of the embrace of
their loved ones, put them in
chains and transport them to
the other side of the world to be
sold as slaves. The “voyages of
discovery” were not as benign
as they have been made out, but
were money-making enterprises
with the natives and black
slaves paying the biggest cost.
The infamous Zong massacre
provided just one example of the
cruelty involved in the transportation
of African slaves. The killing
of more than 130 enslaved
Africans by the crew of the British
slave ship on Nov. 29, 1781
became notorious as it involved
claims of insurance payment for
the slaves that perished. According
to the crew, when the ship
ran low on drinking water following
navigational mistakes,
the crew threw enslaved people
overboard into the sea, starting
with women and children
because they fetched less money
in the slave markets.
According to official UN
estimate, the number of black
people killed during the slave
trade exceeded 17 million but,
according to other estimates,
the number was as high as 60
and 150 million.
Even the lowest figure is too
awful to contemplate. A main
reason for the high death toll
among the slaves was the tidal
wave of war and desolation that
the slave trade unleashed in
the heart of Africa. While both
Europe’s and Asia’s populations
nearly doubled between 1600
and 1800, Africa’s population
dropped from 114 million in
1600 to 107 million in 1800.
Out of those captured Africans,
between 12,000,000-
15,000,000 survived the ordeal
of forced migration to become
plantation laborers in North and
South America and the Caribbean.
But after having survived
the ordeal, life on plantations
was far from ideal.
In order to get an idea of
the way the slaves were treated
on plantations one has to
read Charles Dickens’s “American
Notes” which provides the
details of what he saw with his
own eyes during his trip to the
United States. Charles Dickens
visited North America from January
to June 1842. In his book,
he quotes some advertisements
published in some US newspapers
for recapturing the slaves
who had fled. Here are just a few
examples:
‘Ran away, a negro man
named Henry; his left eye out,
some scars from a dirk on and
under his left arm, and much
scarred with the whip.’
‘One hundred dollars reward,
for a negro fellow, Pompey, 40
years old. He is branded on the
left jaw.’
‘Ran away, a negro woman
named Rachel. Has lost all her
toes except the large one.’
‘Ran away, my negro man
Dennis. Said negro has been
shot in the left arm between the
shoulder and elbow, which has
paralyzed the left hand.’
‘Ran away, my negro man
named Simon. He has been shot
badly, in his back and right
arm.’
‘Detained at the police jail,
the negro wench, Myra. Has
several marks of lashing, and
has irons on her feet.’
‘Ran away, a negro girl called
Mary. Has a small scar over her
eye, a good many teeth missing,
the letter A is branded on her
cheek and forehead.’
While many other nations
have admitted their guilt and
apologized for past atrocities,
the dreadful evil of slavery has
not yet been properly admitted
or compensated. On the contrary,
discrimination against
the children of the slaves still
continues.
In the United States the laws
generally favor policemen over
black people. All a policeman
has to say is that the victim
had threatened him, so he or
she had to be shot, and the law
protects the policeman. They
can even say that the victim had
resisted arrest, and again they
are covered by law.
To provide just a simple
example of the grotesque disparity
between the behavior
of police forces in the United
States and in other democracies,
it is enough to point out
that on average every year US
police forces kill between 1,000
and 1,400 people, nearly half of
them black, although black people
constitute only around 13%
of the population. There is a
similar disparity in the number
of people jailed in the United
States.
In comparison, in the United
Kingdom the average number
of people killed as the result of
police shootings is three. The
figures for the rest of Europe
are also similar to those in Britain.
In all European states and
Japan the figures are in single
digits or the low teens.
In other words, the US police
shoot dead more people on a
single day than the police in different
European countries kill
in a whole year.
Of course, a part of this huge
disparity is due to the fact that
most Americans have access to
firearms while in Europe and
other democracies the possession
of firearms is strictly controlled.
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“Intensifying the racial divide has been another negative
legacy of the Trump presidency, which will take a long time
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