Well, one of the least known, and little regarded, bits of American history is that 1) there were a lot of whites who wound up as slaves here (down south Irish used to be called "**ggers turned inside out"...hmmm, I somehow doubt the people saying that meant it as a compliment,nor does it point to those poor bastards being treated very well -- because, well, we all know); 2) there was a great deal of race mixing to the point that the one drop rule meant you could have slaves who were whiter looking than their masters -- oh the irony there; 3) the good ol' Confederacy and Tara were pretty much myths (it wasn't that popular with a lot of southerners -- being the descendants of group #1 -- who really didn't have any love lost for the plantation owners, who, did quite the divide and conquer game on their servants/possessions.
Race and class are a convoluted thing here in the U.S. -- I truly believe we are all closer to each other (in all ways) than we are sometimes led to believe or want to admit: and a painful past is something families have difficulty with for a long, long time -- white looking people do have that advantage over blacks (they can "forget about it and move on"), but it's still there; it still hurts like a wound scabbed over too quickly and the pus is in there deep...we just haven't found a way to come to terms with it yet perhaps. I think we should. It will be very hard; there's a lot of cognitive dissonance on all sides on this one, but we need to.
And then there's the Indians...LOL!
I personally would like people to finally wake up and realize that we are our ancestors' stories; there isn't one way we can get away from them -- but we don't have to relive them over and over again either ;)
(except for those idiots who overly romanticize the Confederacy as some sort of Tara crap -- it was a myth; it was no damn good for the vast majority of people who had to live with it and it would have been pure awful for everyone if it had succeeded. I suppose it was just peachy keen for the small number of folks on top, but few in reality were Rhett and Scarlet...most were poor sons of bitches with whip marked backs, shacled ankles, kids with their bones poking through their skin, and some with their guts shot out in some Pennsylvania field as an end payment for all of this -- how freaking romantic! We're still paying for that -- we're still paying for Gone With the Wind nonsense. It wasn't a game, not for most.
Well, one of the least known, and little regarded, bits of American history is that 1) there were a lot of whites who wound up as slaves here (down south Irish used to be called "**ggers turned inside out"...hmmm, I somehow doubt the people saying that meant it as a compliment,nor does it point to those poor bastards being treated very well -- because, well, we all know); 2) there was a great deal of race mixing to the point that the one drop rule meant you could have slaves who were whiter looking than their masters -- oh the irony there; 3) the good ol' Confederacy and Tara were pretty much myths (it wasn't that popular with a lot of southerners -- being the descendants of group #1 -- who really didn't have any love lost for the plantation owners, who, did quite the divide and conquer game on their servants/possessions.
ReplyDeleteRace and class are a convoluted thing here in the U.S. -- I truly believe we are all closer to each other (in all ways) than we are sometimes led to believe or want to admit: and a painful past is something families have difficulty with for a long, long time -- white looking people do have that advantage over blacks (they can "forget about it and move on"), but it's still there; it still hurts like a wound scabbed over too quickly and the pus is in there deep...we just haven't found a way to come to terms with it yet perhaps. I think we should.
It will be very hard; there's a lot of cognitive dissonance on all sides on this one, but we need to.
And then there's the Indians...LOL!
I personally would like people to finally wake up and realize that we are our ancestors' stories; there isn't one way we can get away from them -- but we don't have to relive them over and over again either ;)
(except for those idiots who overly romanticize the Confederacy as some sort of Tara crap -- it was a myth; it was no damn good for the vast majority of people who had to live with it and it would have been pure awful for everyone if it had succeeded. I suppose it was just peachy keen for the small number of folks on top, but few in reality were Rhett and Scarlet...most were poor sons of bitches with whip marked backs, shacled ankles, kids with their bones poking through their skin, and some with their guts shot out in some Pennsylvania field as an end payment for all of this -- how freaking romantic!
We're still paying for that -- we're still paying for Gone With the Wind nonsense.
It wasn't a game, not for most.
PW
Applause!
ReplyDelete