~ AFL ~

generalbriefing:

jadedbard:

I figured I’d collect the most important links and quotes into one post, which I will forever refer to, or even copy-and-paste in a response, whenever I see someone spew forth the misguided belief that the Civil War was about anything more than it was about slavery and that the Confederacy is not inherently racist (and the flag not a symbol of anything racist).

This is as much for my own archives and convenience in rebuttal as it is anything else, but feel free to use it for your own edification, too.

Constitution of the Confederate States of America, the major differences from the U.S. Constitution having explicitly everything to do with slavery. Key ones include:

Article I, Section 9, Clause 4: 

No bill of attainder, ex post facto law, or law denying or impairing the right of property in negro slaves shall be passed.

Article IV, Section 2, Clause 1 (note the explicit language):

The citizens of each State shall be entitled to all the privileges and immunities of citizens in the several States; and shall have the right of transit and sojourn in any State of this Confederacy, with their slaves and other property; and the right of property in said slaves shall not be thereby impaired.

Funny how they felt the need to specifically set off slaves from “other property.”

Article IV, Section 3, Clause 3:

The Confederate States may acquire new territory; and Congress shall have power to legislate and provide governments for the inhabitants of all territory belonging to the Confederate States, lying without the limits of the several States; and may permit them, at such times, and in such manner as it may by law provide, to form States to be admitted into the Confederacy. In all such territory the institution of negro slavery, as it now exists in the Confederate States, shall be recognized and protected be Congress and by the Territorial government; and the inhabitants of the several Confederate States and Territories shall have the right to take to such Territory any slaves lawfully held by them in any of the States or Territories of the Confederate States.

Declarations of Secession from four states:

Georgia, the SECOND SENTENCE IN THE WHOLE THING:

For the last ten years we have had numerous and serious causes of complaint against our non-slave-holding confederate States with reference to the subject of African slavery.

Mississippi, SECOND PARAGRAPH:

Our position is thoroughly identified with the institution of slavery— the greatest material interest of the world. Its labor supplies the product which constitutes by far the largest and most important portions of commerce of the earth. These products are peculiar to the climate verging on the tropical regions, and by an imperious law of nature, none but the black race can bear exposure to the tropical sun. These products have become necessities of the world, and a blow at slavery is a blow at commerce and civilization. That blow has been long aimed at the institution, and was at the point of reaching its consummation. There was no choice left us but submission to the mandates of abolition, or a dissolution of the Union, whose principles had been subverted to work out our ruin.

South Carolina, the first state to secede. This one is particularly egregious. FIRST SENTENCE in the declaration:

The people of the State of South Carolina, in Convention assembled, on the 26th day of April, A.D., 1852, declared that the frequent violations of the Constitution of the United States, by the Federal Government, and its encroachments upon the reserved rights of the States, fully justified this State in then withdrawing from the Federal Union; but in deference to the opinions and wishes of the other slaveholding States, she forbore at that time to exercise this right. 

And further on down, a flat-out admission that the protection of its right to slavery was the main reason South Carolina ever ratified the U.S. Constitution in the first place:

The Constitution of the United States, in its fourth Article, provides as follows: “No person held to service or labor in one State, under the laws thereof, escaping into another, shall, in consequence of any law or regulation therein, be discharged from such service or labor, but shall be delivered up, on claim of the party to whom such service or labor may be due.”

This stipulation was so material to the compact, that without it that compact would not have been made.

Texas, explicitly stating that being a slave state was one of its strongest ties to the states east of the Mississippi:

Texas abandoned her separate national existence and consented to become one of the Confederated Union to promote her welfare, insure domestic tranquility and secure more substantially the blessings of peace and liberty to her people. She was received into the confederacy with her own constitution, under the guarantee of the federal constitution and the compact of annexation, that she should enjoy these blessings. She was received as a commonwealth holding, maintaining and protecting the institution known as negro slavery— the servitude of the African to the white race within her limits— a relation that had existed from the first settlement of her wilderness by the white race, and which her people intended should exist in all future time. Her institutions and geographical position established the strongest ties between her and other slave-holding States of the confederacy. Those ties have been strengthened by association. But what has been the course of the government of the United States, and of the people and authorities of the non-slave-holding States, since our connection with them?

And because I live in Tennessee, I think it’s appropriate to throw in some of my state’s stuff. Like the speech from Gov. Isham Harris (who very soon after sent Confederate troops to storm strongly pro-Union East Tennessee to prevent it from becoming its own state within the Union, as West Virginia would do successfully).

Shortly into his speech:

The systematic, wanton, and long continued agitation of the slavery question, with the actual and threatened aggressions of the Northern States and a portion of their people, upon the well-defined constitutional rights of the Southern citizen; the rapid growth and increase, in all the elements of power, of a purely sectional party, whose bond of union is uncompromising hostility to the rights and institutions of the fifteen Southern States, have produced a crisis in the affairs of the country, unparalleled in the history of the past, resulting already in the withdrawal from the Confederacy of one of the sovereignties which composed it, while others are rapidly preparing to move in the same direction.

And, finally, the Cornerstone Speech of CSA Vice President Alexander Stephens:

The new constitution has put at rest, forever, all the agitating questions relating to our peculiar institution African slavery as it exists amongst us the proper status of the negro in our form of civilization. This was the immediate cause of the late rupture and present revolution.

And then:

Our new government is founded upon exactly the opposite idea; its foundations are laid, its corner- stone rests, upon the great truth that the negro is not equal to the white man; that slavery subordination to the superior race is his natural and normal condition. This, our new government, is the first, in the history of the world, based upon this great physical, philosophical, and moral truth.

And then this, perhaps even the most offensive (and saying it in the name of what I assume is the Christian God):

With us, all of the white race, however high or low, rich or poor, are equal in the eye of the law. Not so with the negro. Subordination is his place. He, by nature, or by the curse against Canaan, is fitted for that condition which he occupies in our system. The architect, in the construction of buildings, lays the foundation with the proper material-the granite; then comes the brick or the marble. The substratum of our society is made of the material fitted by nature for it, and by experience we know that it is best, not only for the superior, but for the inferior race, that it should be so. It is, indeed, in conformity with the ordinance of the Creator.

So beautifully compiled!  

(Source: righteousblasphemy)

stfuconfederates:

maccyp submitted:

Though this might interest you. These are quotes from the 1910 Encyclopaedia Britannica; as an encyclopaedia you would expect it’s content to be truthful and based on fact, preferably scientific rather than theoretical fact.

The quotes are from the entry for “Negro” (a bad start if there ever was one):

• “the negro would appear to stand on a lower evolutionary plane than the white man, and to be more closely related to the highest anthropoids” Anthropoids are larger monkeys or apes. 
• “Mentally the negro in inferior to the white.”
• “the arrest or even deterioration in mental development is no doubt very largely due to the fact that after puberty sexual matters take the first place in the negro’s life and thoughts.”
• “the mental constitution of the negro is very similar to that of a child, normally good-natured and cheerful, but subject to sudden fits of emotion and passion during which he is capable of performing acts of singular atrocity”

It goes on to say how ‘negros’ can be trained in skills such as metalwork and carvery but once the all knowing white people leave and can no longer guide the ‘negros’, the ‘negros’ immediately forget any skill they have ‘learnt’ from the white man.

To think this was published only 100 years ago is terrifying. But even more so is that this was published as ‘fact’ with ‘scientific evidence’ to back it up. This edition wasn’t fully replaced till 1929 either, and with the cost of buying a new set, some people alive today probably had contact with it in school.

I keep going back to that video of MLK I just saw this year and ‘they couched it in language’ just keeps playing over and over. I keep hearing it. That’s a terrifying realization, that the way I’ve been taught to think goes so deep that it’s practically inseparable from the English language itself.

I think this is just the thing to bring up when racists cry, “but that’s not how the DICTIONARY defines racism.” etc..

And yet I’ve talked to PoC who turned theirs off specifically because they received a lot of racial slurs in their askbox. And that is just… Depressing. It’s depressing that we live in a society like that. People like to say we live in a post-racial world, like this is just an internet phenomena, no big deal, they’re overreacting… But what happens on the internet does not happen in a vacuum. No matter what we call them, those are not actually fictional, mythical trolls sitting at a keyboard pounding out nonsense. That is a person so entrenched in the white supremacist brainwashing of Western society that their hatred of anything non-white makes them feel the need to send horrible messages to total strangers, to “put them in their place”. How can you tell someone else to brush that off? You can’t tell someone how to feel about something you’ve never experienced. That’s for them to decide. And the fact that someone even has to consider brushing that off or turning off anonymous… Wow. I’ve never once had someone leave a message in my box calling me a derogatory name for a woman or a queer or anything like that, and I can’t even imagine. I just. Dang, I don’t even know, man. It just blows my mind. Post-racism. Right.

People of color are incarcerated at a higher rate with greater sentences for the same charges faced by white people.
“…”

Unemployment is higher for POC than it is for white people.
“Well, they should find jobs, then.”

A disproportionate amount of people of color are living in poverty in the United States.
“They should work harder.”

POC are paid less than white people for the same work.
“What was that, I can’t hear you.”

Whiteness is viewed as the norm and POC representation is seriously lacking.
“… What does that even mean?”

POC are disproportionately less likely to go to college because of socioeconomic hardships imposed upon them by an unfair system and the long lasting effects of a history of oppression.
“AMERIKUN DREEM.”

Affirmative action was created to -
“OMGGGGGG RACISSMMMMMMMMM”

So I know this white girl, we went to college together, and she was never one of my favorite people. Some time later I found out she majored in Arab studies and was learning Arabic which I found surprising because she was most definitely racist. A “not racist but” kind of racist, but a racist nonetheless. People like her are sort of why I side eye Harry Potter fans that like Slytherin so much. I think it’s possible to like Slytherin and not be a douchecock, but the chances seem to be greater for so many reasons.

Anyway, she’s studying in Egypt now, and for some reason I decided to check my Facebook feeds.

This is why I typically don’t.

She posted a link to an article about Egyptian women morality police, and wrote:

Ha! When I heard of the creation of said “morality police”, I said that I would personally beat any of them who might try to harass me with their own canes. lmao. Women in Egypt: Please take the behavior of these women as an example to be modeled

…

Because if there’s anything this world needs more of, it’s white people going to other countries to tell them how to behave.

so-treu:

zaftiggles:

duhdoydorothy:

jamaican-supremacist:

ambrosaur:

I really don’t think this is a big deal. I think it’s great that they are even going out there and doing something in nature, but if they are saying shit like that, they probably wouldn’t be upset if they saw this page. They’d honestly probably think it’s funny. They aren’t mentally challenged people. They aren’t spilling their secrets to this guy. They don’t have psychological problems like depression or anything else. He isn’t even making fun of them, he probably just thinks it’s silly, or he wouldn’t be doing that for a living.They’re obviously having fun exploring nature and learning things that they wouldn’t be learning in the city, so why is this so horrible? Like this quote for example, “Hey, Imma leave this cologne out for the animals. Help a brotha get some pussy for the matin seasons.”

Seriously? You think the guy who said this will have his little innocent, child feelings hurt by someone quoting him? Fuck no! He’s going to think it’s funny. The guy isn’t being mean to those people, and they are probably honestly having a lot of fun. 

If i’m missing something, someone please explain this to me. I don’t want to seem arrogant or whatever, I just don’t see how this is “betrayal”. I really think some people are just over sensitive and don’t understand how the world works sometimes. If you think people don’t want to be seen as “ghetto”, just look at twitter or talk to high schoolers. Actually TALK to these people. It’s just who they are, it’s how they were raised, and it’s the culture they live in that make them say things like that. It has nothing to do with the guy leading them through a forest. Unless that guy says, “these kids are so stupid. I am doing them a huge favor,” then I don’t see what the fucking problem is. I’m also sure that there are plenty of people who don’t say anything funny and are there simply to have fun and go for a walk through the forest. I kind of feel like the person that posted this has never been to a high school that has ghetto kids, or at least thought of them as actual people.

I understand the urge to think that ghetto people are really stupid, but they love who they are just as much as anyone else does. If you feel the need to get defensive about them and the silly things they say, you’re probably being just as offensive to them in the same sense that handicapped people get offended by being treated differently.

My main thesis for this argument, is that the person posting this is getting more offended than the actual people quoted on that page.

you know this isn’t real, right?  i can’t

white people: i am done with this.

there is so much wrong in this post.

let me sum it up: DON’T SPEAK FOR ANYONE WHO ISN’T YOU

THEY WOULDN’T BE OFFENDED?

THEY DON’T (NOT EVEN ONE) HAVE MENTAL ILLNESSES OR PSYCHOLOGICAL PROBLEMS?

THEY AREN’T (NOT EVEN ONE) DISABLED?

THEY AREN’T SMART ENOUGH TO KNOW WHEN SOMEONE IS LAUGHING AT THEM AND NOT WITH THEM?

STOP USING YOUR INSANE CONSTRUCT OF “GHETTO PEOPLE” LIKE IT’S SOME SORT OF ETHNICITY THAT IS CULTURALLY INBORN

I WANT TO EXPLODE

@nobloodinrescuemode here is the critique of GhettoHikes i was waiting for.

**WHITE OPINION WARNING**

statements or commentary youth make about sex, sexuality, health, anatomy, condoms, their friends, their lives, their families, movies, music… everything can range from genius to hilarious to disgusting and all those intersecting areas in between.  i have thought about documenting their astute and often comical observations but have not done so because i could not conceptualize a platform that was not exploitative, breaching their confidentiality or that would do justice to their words and emotions.  oh, and it is not my place to share their stories!

youth deserve to have their voices heard.  they also deserve not to be judged or belittled or patronized for it.  it is not my place to document or comment on their experiences. as some one who has dedicated their life to working with youth i recognize the importance stepping back and listening. i can share the tools i have access to as a privileged, educated, white, able bodied, cisgendered woman with youth so that they might amplify their own voices and experiences but that is all.

using the word “ghetto” to degrade urban youth who exploring various aspects of nature for the first time is deplorable.  it shows lack of willingness to empathize with the life experiences of those who have not benefited from the inherent privilege granted to white, (often) cis males in this country.  it associates youth of color with negative characteristics.  ghetto is being used here as a synonym for cheap, poor or dangerous and if the author of ghettohikes can so flippantly dismiss the youth they work with then they should probably just fuck off!

for those who had trouble figuring out why Racism is Bad.

what what is why is what

This is not defensible! At all! This is exploitation, this is condescending, this is a lot of bad, bad things. Taking urban youth out into an environment they may not have the privilege to see on a regular basis and then posting what they say online is absolutely reprehensible. It’s like saying, “oh, man, look at these savages, they are so funny, they sure aren’t like us, are they, white people????” Because I looked through those archives. Way too often it wasn’t that the kid was saying something clever, but it was rather how they said it. These silly ghetto kids with their strange, uncultured ways! They sure are lucky to have us white people to save them from themselves!!”

I live in the San Francisco bay area, home of the hyphy movement, where urban culture is predominant and everybody says ghetto in a negative manner. But I try not to, I actively try not to, because as a white person, it has an entirely different meaning coming from my mouth, and I fully recognize that. We should really honestly retire that word from our vocabulary forever.

And wow so glad they have you to talk for them, ambrosaur. And exactly how long have you been an urban youth of color? How do you know their life or how they’ll react? Oh, right, you’re white, and we’re entitled to everything ever. We know everything ever. Therefore we can speak for everyone ever.

(Source: isitscary, via velocicrafter)