Why Do Racists Always Bring Up African Slavery?
We still do more of it here in the good ol' US of A
Why do racists always bring up African slavery?
This is something you hear constantly from white supremacists.
I’m Tao Joannes, coming to you straight from the Dog Shack deep in the heart of Texas.
First, let’s acknowledge that criminals engage in human trafficking all over the world.
Forced labor and sex slavery are common pretty much everywhere.
Human trafficking in Europe is rampant, and it includes both domestic trafficking victims and victims from many regions outside of Europe.
Yes, even in the Caucasus, that region where bad science told us that the white Caucasian person came from.
It’s so common here in Texas that certain businesses and facilities considered high-risk are required to put up signs reminding people that it is illegal.
So why do racists keep bringing up Africa?
Africa is a continent of 54 internationally recognized UN member states.
They imagine, for some reason, that it’s one homogenous mass filled with mud huts and starving children, with a bone in their nose and a plate in their lip.
And for some reason, they think that Black Americans have to answer for everything they think is wrong with it.
This is insanity.
What is legal in some African countries is compulsory civil and military service.
Citizens are required to spend time serving that country, just like they do in Israel, and just like many American politicians, particularly those on the right, are fond of advocating right here.
This does not count as slavery or forced labor.
Legal forced labor in some African countries is that which is forced on prisoners.
If you are convicted of a crime, you can expect to do labor while incarcerated, just like in the United States.
If you haven’t watched the documentary 13th, then after this video, go find it and watch it.
It’s on Netflix and available free on YouTube with no ads.
The documentary breaks down exactly how the 13th Amendment enshrined slavery and forced labor into law as punishment for convicted criminals and covers some of the many very profitable ways that prisoners are still exploited.
It opens with President Obama sharing the statistic that the United States has 5% of the world population and 25% of the world’s prisoners.
Chew on that for a second.
At the time, one in four prisoners in the world was American.
The land of the free.
Eight states have added language to their state constitutions to prohibit forced labor by prisoners: Colorado, Utah, Nebraska, Nevada, Oregon, Tennessee, Vermont, and Alabama.
So good for them.
But let’s talk about Alabama.
Alabama dresses forced labor in a fast-food uniform and tells us that prisoners have a choice.
To quote JusticeCatalyst.org, which represents plaintiffs suing Alabama:
“The way Alabama’s forced labor scheme operates is ruthlessly simple. Incarcerated people must work or suffer violent consequences. A discriminatory parole system keeps them incarcerated not for public safety but so the state can exploit their labor for the financial benefit of public agencies and private businesses.”
One video is not enough space to get into all the ways that Black Americans are targeted to keep the prisons full.
But just imagine.
You get caught in the system on unjust charges, like the Scottsboro Boys—nine Black teenagers who were falsely accused of raping two white women and collectively spent 130 years in Alabama jails and prisons for crimes they did not commit.
In fact, over half of all exonerations in the United States are Black men.
They are 10 times more likely per capita to be falsely convicted and exonerated.
Stay woke.
Imagine your choice is: go to work or get beaten or isolated.
And so they bus you to a McDonald’s, where you make minimum wage, and the state takes 40% of your gross wages plus additional fees, generating millions in revenue.
And then they just send you home on the weekends with your pockets practically empty.
This is America:
The land where nothing’s free and the home of the slave.