Cal Thomas

I thought Obama was about "Yes We Can"

Shortly before reading this,
I watched an interview by Moyers of Douglas A. Blackmon, the author of Slavery by Another Name. This picture was shown of a man almost certainly convicted of the crime of being black waiting for a train, or walking down the road. Then sold into slavery, and as punishment for not working hard enough for his corporate master, punished for his laziness.

I'm not sure when this picture was taken, but it was in the 20th century. This slavery didn't end until the depression drastically slowed industry, and then WWII followed by Truman integrating the services. The author documents this enslavement of blacks into 1932.

For an exerpt and more on the book: Slavery By Another Name | Douglas A. Blackmon | Excerpt

In any case, those older now retired blacks who grew up in the south, or whose parents lived in the south, very likely had a member of their family or a friend with parents who was enslaved by the police for no reason than for enslavement. Maybe they grew up with no father, or an absentee father, because they had been enslaved for being black.

How does on overcome being enslaved for being black by the government serving the interests of corporations.

In the 50s and 60s when I attended grade school through high school, there was a odd undefinable tension between whites and blacks that I never understood, but that I assume had to do with a history I, as a newcomer to the area, didn't know of. It was a few years after I left the town I lived the longest in that I learned of the lynching of three black men in 1930; well one wasn't hung for some reason by the lynch mob. James Cameron (February 23, 1914 in La Crosse, Wisconsin - June 11, 2006 in Milwaukee, Wisconsin) was a civil rights activist. He founded America's Black Holocaust Museum in Milwaukee. At the time of his death, he was America's only known survivor of a lynching. The photo of this lynching inspired "Strange Fruit" sung famously by Billie Holiday.

Only now are the last of the blacks enslaved and lynched and their children passing out of the present into the past. Malcolm X said the South was anything south of the Canadian line. Still, most all the blacks, Condi Rice, Justice Thomas, Colin Powell, in public office today were influenced by the this history that is all too near. Obama was, more than most blacks of his generation, isolated from this by growing up outside the 48 States. But Rev Wright, Condi Rice, Justice Thomas, and millions of others, weren't isolated in either time nor place. And I'm sure that Rev Wright ministered to many people who carried the burden of state sponsored slavery, terrorism, and lynchings. And that brings new meaning to Cal Thomas's "It's all about relying on government as our keeper." Slave keeper. Prison keeper.