PBS' Slavery by Another Name - in case you missed it

[malaise]

http://video.pbs.org/video/2176766758

[malaise]

1. Prisoners could be a source of profit

Ask the owners of the private prisons.

[smaug]

2. That struck me as I watched it on PBS

That the profit making off of human misery in that era eerily parallels our current corporate race to the bottom. The true issue the the racist ideology of that time is exactly as ours is today. Making a profit off of prison labor (I think working on the prison farm here makes a prisoner about $15 per month) is an incredibly Anti-Christian offense.

Isn't it interesting that the ideology of American 'Christianity' is identical to that of the Romans that tortured Yeshua ben Yussuf to death all those centuries ago?

[flexnor]

3. whenever you put profit into the sentence equation

you will always end up with the moral equivelent of kidnapping, in some cases

always

[Javaman]

4. It's already happening.

many call centers or "help lines" for various companies are outsourced to prisons.

I'm sure other things go on as well, but that's one I know for sure.

[LuvNewcastle]

5. Slavery never really ended in America.

After the Civil War, they passed Jim Crow laws. After the Civil Rights movement, the War on Drugs began. Bondage is bondage is bondage.

[JustAnotherGen]

6. ITA

I've posted before - the South Won the Peace. They did. They simply did. And in doing so - many of the problems they face today (think about the poverty rates in places like MS, AL, LA) are from 100 years of railroading black people. Black folks in particular - because when you watch the documentary they show how prior to the post Civil War Era the prisons were filled with white people - but post Civil War the black prison population boomed. It also shows how in such a short time perioud white southerners went from believing us blacks were 'reliable, honest and trust worthy' to blood thirsty criminal savages.

But in terms of "they did it to themselves" . . . Why pay the white guy down the street an honest wage for an honest days work when I we can just "say this black man owes this white guy money so he needs to go to jail for a year and a half" and just 'rent the labor' to get your coal, your steel, etc. etc. made.

[malaise]

8. Did it end anywhere?

Sometimes I wonder

[JustAnotherGen]

9. I think the

Great Migration forced an end . . . but sharecropping still exists. I think in 1964 we had a hard sharp demarc. 16 years later Ron Reagan would 're-frame' it in welfare queen lingo. . . Now they frame it in 'entitlement' talk.


But - if you think about it - my brother could get a day in court. It would be a legitimate court, made up of a jury of his peers, he could have an attorney, etc. etc.

My great grandfather would have been railroaded - or - simply lynched.


Not ended and certainly NOT perfect - but better.

[joeybee12]

7. Thanks...that reminds me to catch it online...knr