I was vaguely aware that things like what it showed were happening in the post-Civil-War South, but this program really brought it home! It demonstrated clearly why the civil rights movement was so badly needed.

As a white woman from the north, I had no idea how bad it had actually been, I can't help but imagine all those people stuck in a Kafkaesque nightmare with no way out. Generation after generation. I am not a cry-er but I was in tears during certain segments.

Cool-hand Luke is one of my all time favorite movies, but for African Americans caught in the chain gang system, there was no happy ending.

All because business needed bodies. I believe that the portrayal of African American men as inherent criminals was purposeful - I think it was intentional and I believe it still goes on today.

At least today, there are some positive portrayals of African American men in media and it isn't as bad as it used to be. Not every black face shown on television today is criminal, but the media is still pretty bad.

One look at our prison statistics is quite telling about our racism, even today. I don't understand how people can't see the inequality of our justice system.

face America shows us...

(North, Midwest, West) COMBINED. Black political, economic and educational power in the south dwarfs the other regions as well.

So I find this comment interesting: It's also why the south has a reputation (and reality) of racism worse than the north. No matter how bad the north is with racism, nothing can compare to the stealing of lives the south did on a cultural and an institutional, mass level.

Great link, though. Thanks for posting that.

blacks governing, where they are the majority - and have been for a hundred or more years.

i remember learning that the klan grew most fierce in Savannah because it would have been the first black-majority governed u.s. city after the civil war ended.

it just finally became black-majority governed. and wouldn't you know that a lot of white people there suddenly grasp and whine about the concept of tryanny of the majority - as if they've ever cared about the tyranny of white-minority rule all through the South; or the tyranny of white majorities all over the rest of this country.

as if they've ever cared about the tyranny of white-minority rule all through the South; or the tyranny of white majorities all over the rest of this country.

Unfortunately for a lot of whites, tyranny is synonymous with "we're not running the show and that scares the crap out of us." This mindset certainly does explain alot of the fear and loathing towards Obama (and I would say Michelle, Eric Holder and a few others as well).

and your words clear it up, thank you so much, Number23!

i ought to have said, if i may borrow your words:

and wouldn't you know that a lot of white people there suddenly whine about the concept of tryanny of the majority - which, for them, really means "we're not running the show and that scares the crap out of us" ...
and as if they've ever cared about the real tyranny of white-minority rule all through the South; or the real tyranny of white majorities all over the rest of this country.

thank you for the clarification, and the words, dear Number23.

"This mindset certainly does explain alot of the fear and loathing towards Obama (and I would say Michelle, Eric Holder and a few others as well)." absolutely!!

the "I expect you to do this to me because I'm used to it being done to you..." mindset. That is the only thing that explains this "I'm scared" crap they always want to reach for first when faced with a minority becoming the majority. Why are you scared? Because of what you know that has been done for centuries, you're now afraid of the same being dished out at you? But the minorities all had to take it and keep their mouths shut about it because, from your view "it was their lot in life to take it". That is what explains the mentality.

discussion had caused me to think of yesterday, about that very question!!

thank you so much!!

"Why are you scared? Because of what you know that has been done for centuries, you're now afraid of the same being dished out at you?"

while posting about that comment yesterday, "we're not running the show and that scares the crap out of us," i was sticken by a memory of hearing a white farmer in South Africa trying to inform others of exactly what you just said. he was literally pleading with other whites to realize that they were not being treated with ANY aggressiveness, much less anything NEAR the same obscenely unspeakably brutal violence and hatred they had tortured, terrorized and genocided blacks with throughout their entire centuries of history.

"Why are you scared? Because of what you know that has been done for centuries, you're now afraid of the same being dished out at you?" yes. exactly.

but then, we are talking about people who kill a person for looking into their eyes, for a scale example of their own response to any agression - no, to any simple rightful ASSERTION at all, such as the right to exist, to vote, to walk on a public street ....

sigh ....

thank you, again, SemperEadem.

how I wished I lived in a world where this thought would have no reason to cross my mind, but alas! I do.

it is such atrocity, and such an important discussion!!

(i hope to add more once i've seen it .... )

I watched it I *think* in February. There's a caucasian woman near the end who had the heartbreak and ache of knowing her I *think* either grandfather or great grandfather rose to prominence in Alabama as a result of being one of the business owners who used these 'slaves'. Terribly sad legacy he left behind . . . even sadder for those descendents of the men and women railroaded by men like him for the thrill of 'cheap labor'.

The book is a good read, heart-wrenching and informative. I still need to check out the film.

TO: Conservativeblackchick
After watching you proudly brag of your support for the man from Georgia whom you think has the political, moral and ethical right to occupy the most contested office in the land, I decided to voice my opinion reg...arding your choice for president.
I recognize your constitutional right to support the candidate of your choice. After all, I spent more than 22 years of my life as a proud member of the United States Army helping to insure you had, and have the right to do just that. However, that right as I can personally attest has not always been guaranteed, and I hope your view of the history of this nation will attest to that fact as relating to the rights of people of color especially in the south.
I am by no means a politician, nor do I have access to mass media with the opportunity to espouse the views of those who have not been shy in spewing racial epithets in the name of freedom of expression, overtly or covertly in an obvious effort to win the covet support of those who would relegate any progress made by people of color to the dark ages.
Of course only those who were alive at that time and experienced those dreadful days and years of the past racial injustices can appreciate the gains made by so many and recognize the obvious indications that those days are very apt to return if left to the schemes of certain political parties.
I have heard some people of color, and I stress, “color, seem to believe that because of their education, social status or job description racial biases is below them and belittle the efforts of Rev. Al Sharpton and others as race baiters or poverty merchants. As opposed to doing or saying nothing while hopefully allowing the capitalistic market place to trickle down to those at the lower end of the spectrum.
One of the most dreaded enemies in any camp is the existence of an enemy within the camp. It is very hard to understand the plight of anyone whose shoes one has not walked in and I am afraid that is the enigma of many of the younger people of color today who secretly or openly state that the injustices of the past ether never happened or are over exaggerated.

W. Ralph Mangum
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