Slavery by Another Name

I borrowed this photo from Mr. Blackmon's website. If you click on it it will take you to his site.

I watched Bill Moyer's Journal last night. It was conversations about racism and slavery and it was an awesome program. Each of the three segments was rich in information and profound discussion. The segment that blew me away, though, was a conversation with a writer from the Wall Street Journal named Douglas Blackmon who has written a book called Slavery by Another Name. What he documents is mind boggling and explains much of why this nation has had such difficulty healing the scars of racism.

What he discovered is that although immediately after the Civil War, freed slaves actually did have a fair measure of freedom, that over the course of the next 20 or 30 years, a series of laws were put into effect in the south that effectively forced blacks back into a form of slavery that was simply not acknowledged as what it was. The scale and the shamelessness of it is stunning. And equally stunning is that in a free country we have allowed ourselved to not know.

I don't know why this surprises me really. I remember being shocked by my own willing ignorance before I went to college and took some black lit classes. I had always know that there were lynchings... I wasn't that ignorant - but it wasn't until I was in my 20s that I understood just what lynchings were. My idea of a lynching came from cowboy movies. It was evil and ugly, but it was quick and clean. I had no idea - and I don't think I was alone in this - that lynching in the South often involved torture and castration... and that crowds of onlookers cheered these murderers on. That stunned me. Both that it happened and that in a free country with a free press, we could allow ourselves to remain ignorant of it. This wasn't ancient history, either. These lynchings were happening while I grew up.

Bad as they were, though, I am stunned to learn that laws were used to erroneously arrest black men and women and quite literally sell them into servitude. It wasn't called slavery. But that's what it was. And this began in the 1930s. It explains so much about why black anger is still so raw and fresh.

I couldn't figure out how to imbed the Bill Moyer's clip here, but I can provide a link to it. PLEASE take the time to watch it. I highly recommend the video of the other two segments too. A profound program.

Blackmon has his own website for the book also called Slaverybyanothername.com

Memorial Day Weekend: Bill Moyers on Veterans and the War

I love Bill Moyers. I first fell in love with him years ago during the wonderful series of interviews he did with Joseph Campbell. Anyone who hasn't seen those interviews should run right out to the video store or netflix (if they have them) and make it a point to watch them. They are life-changing.

But back to Bill Moyers. He is such a gift in a news and media world barren of content and thoughtfulness. His shows are actually a source of genuine information. His commentaries reflect his decency and wisdom. I admire him, I adore him, I am grateful that he is out there doing the work he does and doing it so well. So, anyway, I really had to control myself to post just these few video clips.

While I was retrieving the first two videos I ran across this one. It's not about the war or veterans, but it is deeply disturbing and I thought I'd share it.



Ok.... I had to add one more, Jon Stewart being serious and brilliant ....

The Alphabet Backwards: "Q" is for Questions

Well, it's alphabet backwards day, one of my worst ever ideas but I'm sticking with it anyway. I guess there were a lot of other things I could have done with the letter Q, but I'm think this is an important one. Here's my question:

Why don't people question things more?

When did we become a society that just swallowed any pap the media handed out to us as though it were truth, without thinking about it? Why don't we question the motives behind incendiary and hate-mongering talk? Why don't we question whether "no new taxes" actually serves our highest good? Why don't we question whether our President is lying about things? Why don't we question those stupid emails that come into our mailboxes that make absolutely no sense if you stop and think for even 20 seconds. If the world was really coming to an end, if there was some new virus destroying every computer in America, if X detergent was really killing babies, don't you think you'd have heard about it in the news? Why don't people stop and think?

My primary vote was cast a long time ago for Dennis Kucinich. It bothers me that people didn't question the media's motives for silencing a great man. One reason, I think is because Dennis K asks questions about important issues. He asked questions (and offered answers) about universal health care, about peace, about impeachment... all things that the forces currently running this country into the ground don't want asked. Questions move the world forward. They are the foundation for all scientific advancement. We know that. But they are also the basis for intellectual, social and spiritual growth.

I've never understood the idea of "unquestioning faith." To me that isn't faith at all. How can one have a true relationship with the Divine if you have never questioned the who and what and how of what you profess to believe? How can one understand the tenets of one's faith if one doesn't question them? I find that mind boggling. But I digress

Questions are important, whether they are trivial or deep. Children know this. They question everything. It's how they figure out who they are and how the world works. When we stop asking questions, stop looking beneath the surface, we rob ourselves and our lives of a richness that is what makes it worth living. We rob ourselves of the opportunity to find the truth and we put ourselves at the mercy of those who would control us.

I've been saddened by the whole Rev. Wright debacle that is playing out in the media right now. I don't agree with all this man says, but I'm not black and I haven't lived my life with the shadow of racism hanging over me. Still, when I heard the clips being played over and over in the news, I wondered why nobody was asking about the context in which these sentences were offered? What was really being said? What was their intent? When I asked those questions, I came to a very different conclusion than what the media was implying. I also asked the question? Do I agree with everything every pastor I ever listened to has said? Did I leave the church when they said something I didn't like? Is it possible to love someone and disagree with what they preach? Aren't people profoundly complex and multi-faceted?

I'm going to stop here and let Bill Moyers - one of my favorite people on earth - ask some questions and suggest some answers on the subject of the Rev. Wright.

That's it for the letter "Q." I'm sick with a touch of the flu today. If I am even less coherent than usual, I apologize. Hopefully, Bill Moyers will make up for my failings.