742 Search results for "slave"

We can’t ignore Marrianne Williamson’s fatphobia and ableism just because she supports reparations for slavery
Marianne Williamson makes me physically ill, and seeing people support her compounds my nausea. The Democratic candidate made waves last week when she delivered an impressive answer about reparations to Don Lemon post-debate: “[T]here were 250 years of slavery followed by another 100 years of domestic terrorism… given that there were 4 to 5 million […]
Comic: Tired of hearing about slavery? There is plenty more to discuss.
by JeCorey Holder I’m sure you’ve seen white people get their trust funds in a bunch and moan about how ”All you Black people do is talk about slavery” whenever one of us breathes funny or something. White people do know that slavery isn’t all we have on them, right? There’s plenty we can talk […]
Reflecting on Patrick Chamoiseau’s ‘Slave Old Man’ and physical memories of the enslaved
by Donnie Moreland This essay contains spoilers for Patrick Chamoiseau’s 1997 novel, Slave Old Man The final words of Patrick Chamoiseau’s Slave Old Man read, “Brother, I shouldn’t have, but I touched those bones.” Those bones being, “The clavicles. Some vertebrae. A few formless bits. Porous things. And a broken tibia…” Those bones, as are […]
Georgetown’s student vote on slave reparation fund signals a needed change in higher education
by Cobretti Williams Students of Georgetown University recently voted in overwhelming favor to increase tuition fees for all undergraduate students. Compared to most cases when student fees are assessed for the operation costs of the university, this circumstance was different. The impetus for this student body vote was to create a reparation fund for the […]
Theon never betrayed the Starks: How ‘Game of Thrones’ minimizes forced captivity & slavery
This essay contains spoilers for HBO’s Game of Thrones and mentions rape. We have finally reached the moment when the war between the Night King’s army of the dead and the Westerosi resistance begins, the cataclysmic event to which 8 seasons of one of the most groundbreaking television series have been leading up. Along the […]
Hungary is in revolt over a draconian overtime bill workers are calling a “slave law”
According to Jacobin, protests have erupted in Hungary against the recent passage of a law allowing employers to demand up to 400 hours of overtime work, with payment delayed for up to three years. Hungary’s far-right Prime Minister Viktor Orban pushed for the law aggressively, and has sparked massive protests that have not been seen […]
Inmates in at least 17 states begin massive labor strike, calling conditions modern-day slavery
According to the Guardian, August 21st marks the beginning of a nineteen-day protest and labor stoppage across the prison populations of American prisons in at least 17 states. The protest, which has largely been organized by the prisoners themselves, is designed to disrupt the system of unpaid labor many prisons in America rely upon to stay […]
95 bodies—how sanitizing slavery keeps America’s hands clean
The remains of ninety-five Black people were recently found buried at a construction site in Sugar Land, Texas. The vast majority of reports about this discovery neglect to call these dead Black people what they really were: enslaved. This essay contains discussions of racialized state violence, slavery, and lynching. “African-American forced laborers” have […]
Remains of 95 Black “convict lease laborers” who were basically post-Civil War slaves found in Texas
Note: Many articles covering this event note that the men and a few women who are the subjects of this piece were identified as contract laborers, but in this historical and sociological context, these people were enslaved, still doing hard plantation labor with no compensation and not out of their own free will. According to […]
Review Roundup: Zora Neale Hurston’s book on one of the last Africans in the Atlantic slave trade
Nearly 90 years after it was first written, Zora Neale Hurston’s series of interviews with one of the last Africans brought to America from the Atlantic slave trade has arrived in bookstores across the country. Barracoon is introduced rather fittingly by Alice Walker, the woman whom we can thank for a revitalized interest and scholarship […]
Black people were held in slavery in the Deep South as late as the 1960’s
According to a series of interviews published by Vice, historian and genealogist Antionette Harrell has uncovered long-hidden cases of Black people who were still living as slaves a century past the signing of the Emancipation Proclamation. Harrell’s groundbreaking work has exposed cases in her home state of Louisiana, Mississippi, Arkansas, and Florida. Harrell first began […]
Comic: We know why y’all keep trying to distance yourselves from slavery
by JeCorey Holder Look. I get it. The enslavement of Africans happened a HELLA LONG time ago from our contemporary perspective. It would be nice if we could all reasonably agree that it was a generally unpleasant time, but some people still wanna argue that U.S. chattel slavery is/was “good history.” Those who aren’t trying […]