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Slavery By Another Name
Posted to: <Ned> Front Porch by John Powers (119), Tue, 15 Jul 2008 13:49:43 PDT
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A few years ago I was hosting some nieces and nephews from out of town. For an excursion we visited the Warhol. One of the touring shows at the museum then was Without Sanctuary which was composed of post card photographs of lynchings. I had read about the exhibit, even seen a few pictures in print. But I was unprepared for my reaction to seeing the exhibit. I started to look and got so queasy and light headed I thought I would pass out. I left to another room which had blown up newspaper clippings from the era. The Pittsburgh Courier was a prominent national black newspaper and had lead a decades-long campaign against lynching, so clippings from The Courier were prominent. There were also tables with notebooks for people to write their reactions. Reading a few entries, clearly school groups had come through, the rest of my party found me sitting there with my eyes red from crying.
In this week's Newsweek the section alerting readers about Newsweek.com content has a shocking photo taken in the 1930's of a man tied in fetal position around a pick axe. Here's a link to an interview with Douglas A. Blackmon author of a new book Slavery By Another Name. I recommend both sites. The Newsweek interview has an accompanying gallery which begins with the shocking photo with commentary narrated by Blackmon. The slideshow is important. I mentioned my reaction to the lynching photos, to say why I watched this one with trepidation. This presentation is not a jumble of gruesome torture pictures. (Note that the picture of the man tied around a pick axe is unforgettable.) Rather the images document the reality of they system of slavery he describes in his book and the efforts of people trying to do something about it.
Blackmon is The Wall Street Journal Bureau Chief in Atlanta. From his biography at his book site:
In 2000, the National Association of Black Journalists recognized Blackmon’s stories revealing the secret role of J.P. Morgan & Co. during the 1960s in funneling funds between a wealthy northern white supremacist and segregationists fighting the Civil Rights Movement in the South. A year later, he revealed in the Journal how U.S. Steel Corp. relied on forced black laborers in Alabama coal mines in the early 20th century, an article which led to his first book, Slavery By Another Name, which broadly examines how a form of neoslavery thrived in the U.S. long after legal abolition.
In the same edition of Newsweek is an essasy by conservative legal affairs writer Stuart Taylor The Truth About Torture promoting the view that President Bush "ought to pardon any official from cabinet secretary on down who might plausibly face prosecution for interrogation methods approved by administration lawyers."
Taylor suggests that what the country need most is some accounting about what went on, and then, perhaps, apologies. I'm not sure about the argument. But it's discouraging to think that there will be no public conversations about our descent towards torture and reversion to the powers that be and their "dark side" habits. It seems to me that no accounting, contrary to Taylor's plan to protect those who pay him in his role as "opinion leader," will simply foster the view that torture under our flag is no account. Forgetting first doesn't lead to forgiving later.
By John Powers (119), Thu, 17 Jul 2008 14:21:25 PDT
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Linda, perhaps by living abroad as you have, you can understand how I can love the good ole USA so much and at the same time be deeply cynical and and sad. The USA has an idea about government by the people and for the people. In some deep sense the USA is an idea. I find in talking with people from other countries that this idea of the USA as the USA seems strange. At the same time "You Americans!" is pretty commonly heard too.
As far as my voting goes, it sure looks to me like I've voted in pretty conventional ways. If anything I've taken politics too lightly, as a rule I don't much like conflict. The accusation of "American hater!" really hurts because it seems so at odds with my deep feelings.
A connection that Blackmon's book made that I didn't know before was that after Pearl Harbor the government was concerned about how the Japanese might use the facts of American life against us. That's when at the highest levels of government lynching laws were enacted. The anti-lynching laws then lead to enacting laws against slavery, while slavery was unconstitutional most places had never gotten around to making statutes against it.
Violence is truly abhorrent to me. War just seems crazy. Looking back at WWII there's a really mixed bag of good and horrible. It seems to me that in many ways people in the USA were forced to look deeply at our ideas and ideals as a nation. When we did we came up pretty much on the good side of things. Lots of things took a long time to play out, for example the whole destructuring of laws that enforced racial segregation.
Of course as a nation the USA has done lots of really terrible things. The whole subject of torture which has come up recently troubles me very much. It's not just that torture is utterly wrong, which I believe it is. It's also that countenancing torture is abhorrent to the very ideas and ideals at the root of my love of country. That there is so little outcry about it makes me feel as if we have abandoned all that is good.
Investigative journalist Jane Mayer has a new book out about torture, The Dark Side: The Inside Story of How The War on Terror Turned into a War on American Ideals. I haven't read it yet, but have been following reviews of it and its publicity. Ken Silverstein interviewed Mayer, and this observation as to why there have been no legal charges filed put my heart in my throat:
Sources suggested to me that, as you imply, it is highly uncomfortable for top Bush Justice officials to prosecute these cases because, inevitably, it means shining a light on what those same officials sanctioned.
Ah yes, of course, top Democratic party leaders are implicated as well. In truth all of us as Americans have a lot to answer for.
The upshot is that I'm more sympathetic to Stuart Taylor's point about pardons than I let on. The essential thing really is as Taylor suggest that Americans have a serious "conversation" about torture and our fundamental ideas. The problem with pardons is that my sense is granting them before the facts will push the needed serious conversations down the road. Maybe it's as well that prominent Democrats, even Nancy Pelosi who I admire, will be implicated. The conversation isn't about "them" it's about "us."
topBy Ceris Dien (32), Sat, 19 Jul 2008 03:11:14 PDT
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Does accepting a Pardon mean that Guilt is acknowledged? If so then it may have some merit, though I agree that it might well prevent those necessary conversations. One thing I am pretty sure of is that American decisions are the responsibility of the American people, just as UK ones are ours. If things have gone wrong at the "top" then the system isn't working and there's something amiss with the democratic process.
So it cheeses me off to hear just about everyone around me I mean friends and acquaintances) blaming all the sins of the world on the USA, enthusiastically tarring every single one of you with the same brush - you guys are fast becoming the universal scapegoat that everyone wants to cast out into the desert (but I'm sure you know that!). Actually I used to be one of those American-bashers, it only took a few transatlantic conversations to change that.
These days whenever someone begins an anti-USA tirade I use the very phrase you used above :
The conversation isn't about "them", it's about "us".
By Linda Nowakowski (185), Thu, 17 Jul 2008 05:48:13 PDT
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John,
As odd as this sounds, even to me, thank you for sharing this information.
The historical images and reports were sobering. However, the Taylor piece made me sick. Does anyone think that the people who are responsible for this will stand up and speak and document what happened just because they are pardoned?
Maybe I have a distorted view of people, but I don't think that these people want others to know what I truly hope they believe is morally reprehensible. If they were agreeable to standing in public and admit to this behavior (as the people in the Warhol Exhibit pictures), I fear I would be physically ill that there was no shame.
This afternoon I watched The USA vs John Lennon. That is my history. What happened in my life and and formed my view of the US before that time that built in my mind that the US was a good place and better than other nations? It certainly doesn't look like that from the outside.
Several years ago I watched Bangkok police arrest a suspect of an attempted robbery and beat him and treat him cruelly...how could I have looked at that and thought it wouldn't happen in the US? It did and it still does. These remembrances have helped remove my phony air of superiority. Thank you.