Learning From History

A few years back when I was auditing a class I was told the term Sankofa means go back and get it.  It was further explained that we are to learn from this history and how to apply it today.  Yesterday I got a new alert on my phone that read “The internet might be starting to splinter due to rising nationalism, trade disputes and concerns about some tech giants’ dominance.”  What struck me was the power struggle.  In reading the headline alone I felt reactions, are we being tempted with fear that nationalism could splinter the internet?  What does that mean?  Are they setting up a case for white power (the way I have heard nationalism explained) to be massaged and accepted?  I read the article and it was not about white power nationalism, but instead about other countries being upset when certain platforms stopped showing links from news outlets so citizens of a country received splintered information.  

However, I still want to talk about white power.  Because history is important in deconstructing racism, I want to go back and get it and discuss how this works.  (Some of you might be feeling reactions to that phrase, I want you to pause and take some deep breaths; explore what your reactions are, identify feelings, stories, and experiences, and take time to journal if you need to.)  This phrase implies and conjures up so many memories and ideas.  For this blog I want to define “white power” as the desire of European descendant individuals to seek and posses power and control.  In my knowledge of white supremacy there is a base of fear and entitlement. The fear is specifically of losing power and being mistreated or killed, and the entitlement is the idea that white people are superior and therefore are deserving of this power and control.   

Let’s look at a couple times in history to see how this is carried out.   Let’s step back in time to 1865, when the 13th amendment was ratified/signed into the constitution and abolished slavery.  Up until this point slave owners were able to profit off of slavery and slave labor.  They had control over the individuals (predominantly African/Black) and power of the country, the constitution – the formation of our country’s governance.  So, the 13th amendment was viewed as a loss of power, it was a loss of control of individuals, slaves/blacks, and that was not pleasing to a majority of whites.  The response then was to fight to regain control and fear.  

There was one catch to the 13th Amendment though. Slavery was abolished EXCEPT when used as punishment of a crime. Thus, black codes and convict leasing were introduced.  Black Codes were laws created to find black people at fault for something that was not necessarily illegal and then force them back into manual labor.  Thus, slavery was continued under a different name.  Around that same time convict leasing arose.  This worked where blacks would be arrested and found guilty of a crime (not through a fair trial or because oflegit charges), then leased out for labor while under custody. This meant a company like the railroad would lease (pay the prison system) to use them for labor.  Does this sound like slavery to anyone?  They captured them under often false or petty charges, and then imprisoned them then sold them for profit (labor work).   

Simultaneously, to move forward from the Civil War we entered the Reconstruction Era.  This was supposed to be an era of reestablishing the country where all were equal.  As part of this they started the Freedman’s Bureau, an agency of the government with the purpose of providing the newly freed slaves and refugees provisions, basic needs, clothing and shelter.  Unfortunately, this ended up being hindered by the black codes and then-president Andrew Johnson who opposed it under the premise that it provided too much assistance and would not help former slaves become independent.  How can you argue this point when you stole people from another country and stripped them of their communication and refused to teach them language of the new country they were forced to live in? It reminds me of Martin Luther King Jr.’s quote, “its a cruel jest to say to a bootless man that he ought to lift himself by his bootstraps.”

We can keep going as there are plenty more examples, but I want to encourage you to do some more research.  Keep reading, keep learning, keep listening.  Do you see slavery upheld in different forms?  Did you learn something new that you hadn’t learned before?  Was there something that resonated with you?   How did reading this make you feel?