A. “Systematic Racism” is quite often defined differently person to person. But, nevertheless, a good video –
B. There is a chapter within our history [on the topic of slavery] that is never discussed – there were a notable number of free black people in New Orleans and across the United States that owned slaves. For instance, there is a famous plantation called the “Melrose Plantation” in Louisiana. The plantation owner, Claude Thomas Pierre Metoyer, had a relationship with a free black woman by the name of “Marie Therese dite Coincoin” aka “Marie Therese Metoyer” that resulted in over ten children. They would eventually separate and she kept the plantation and the slaves – she died a wealthy woman. Notable free black people who owned slaves in Louisiana include Antoine Dubuclet, Andrew Durnford, C. Richards, Antoine Decuire, Verret Polen, Madame Ciprien Ricard and Leandre Severin. There are many others. In other parts of the United States some notable free black people who owned slaves were William Ellison and John Carruthers Stanly. According to available surviving records, it’s estimated that in 1830 (30 years before the Civil War), roughly 3,500 free blacks (both men and women) owned over 13,000 slaves.
[See: Pressly, Thomas J.; The Known World of Free Black Slaveholders: A Research Note on the Scholarship of Carter G. Woodson].
Every ethnicity has been mistreated. Egyptians had forced labor. There was the Sub-Saharan / Islamic slave trade from the 7th century on. Some historians approximate that roughly 17 million people were traded as slaves from between the 7th and 19th century. The Barbary Pirates – the Algerians – enslaved Christians and Europeans. The Pre-Columbian Mesoamericans had slaves. The Native Americans had slaves. The list is long.
Whenever reparations are discussed there are inherent problems:
- Do the descendants of union soldiers have to pay?
- If a black American is of mixed heritage [i.e. has an ancestor that was a Caucasian slave owner] do they have to pay? A large section of the modern black American community is ancestrally mixed.
- Does a black American who is a descendant of a free black slave owner have to pay?
- Do the countries who sold slaves to America have to pay? Do their citizens have to pay?
“Reparations” will only create more animosity. I believe those supporting reparations on the national level ultimately share the same goal as those advocating the Green New Deal – it’s a strategy to further Neo-Marxism. We see this ideology within the tenets of BLM.
C. Police and race.
- Police shootings and race –
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/volokh-conspiracy/wp/2016/07/18/police-shootings-and-race/
- Academic research on police shootings and race –
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news...ademic-research-on-police-shootings-and-race/