Repression Isn't "The Answer"
In 1822 the Denmark Vesey slave
insurrection was planned in Charleston but was thwarted. Nearly three dozen people were executed. Erskine informed us that “thirty-five Blacks
were hanged and more than forty sent to the Caribbean or to Africa.” (40) Historian Lacy K. Ford
added that the Vesey insurrection revitalized the “colonization movement” among
Southern whites, as a possible means of colonizing free Blacks and troublesome
slaves as a way to enhance white security.(41)
The net effect of the Vesey revolt changed many white Charlestonians views of
management of the enslaved. As Stampp
said “After the Vesey conspiracy, Charlestonians expressed disillusionment with
the idea that by generous treatment their enslaved ‘would become more satisfied
with their conditions and more attached to whites.”’(42) In other words, enslavers
ramped up greater repressive actions dropping the paternalistic pretense that
slaves were family. Berlin noted that “white
supremacy manifested itself in every aspect of antebellum society, from the
ballot box to the bedrooms.
MARSE: A Psychological Portrait of the
Southern Slavemaster and his Legacy of White Supremacy: H.D. Kirkpatrick, p.151-2
I see clear parallels as to how denials of and retaliation
against “socialists” and Black People are framed today with paternalistic moralism.
A more vivid parallel exists with the Israeli “Settlers”,
Government military, and police responding to actions related to Palestinian
People. Blowing up houses, indefinitely
holding people without charges, private roads and checkpoints slowing and
stopping movement in the West Bank and similar is recognition that the Palestinians
are Not accepting how they are being treated.
Collective punishments and actions far more extreme than actions - retaliating
for what Palestinans have done reflect the reality of “Jewish Supremacy” in
Israel. The United States Government
and lesser powers support what goes on, similar to how non-slaveowning white Southerners,
and Northern powerful interests supported slavery.
In all these situations, the fears of those with the
seeming power dictates systemic repression.
Repression works often in the moment, but is not a likely long term
successful strategy. In the end the repression
usually fails, absent a HUGE massacre that tries to eliminate “the problem”.
We white men don’t want to surrender our power today! Slaveowners didn’t surrender until the end
of the Civil War, paying a huge price for their resistance. The Israeli Jews - eventually are likely to
pay a terrible price. In our fears of
(another) Holocaust, we make another disaster for us - much more likely.
It is scary to believe in Peace - Lasting Peace! It is the only path, and its dangers are far
smaller than the (current) “realistic alternatives”. Keeping our heads in the sand - and not
proactively working for justice is destroying the United States. Hopefully
more of us worldwide, as well as locally, will learn and act upon the truths
before it is too late!
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