“Those who cannot remember the past are condemned
to repeat it”
George Santayana
(1)
Yesterday, I
was having a conversation with my son.
We were listening to NPR and a discussion about taking Alexander Hamilton from the ten dollar bill and
replacing his visage with that of a famous American woman. I mentioned that we had an ancestor who
fought for the South as a Colonel during the Civil War with the given name
Alexander Hamilton. Considering the
events of June 17, 2015 and the horrific murder of nine parishioners by a white
supremacist in Emanuel Church, Charleston, I asked my son if he was ashamed of
our heritage. He is always outspoken in
his disgust with the display of the Confederate Flag whenever we see it. He believes there is no place for the loyalty
to such a symbol of hatred and oppression.
He sees the legacy of the Old South as no less than barbaric and often,
because of this, dislikes living in the South.
He said, to a degree, he is ashamed.
I am a son
of the antebellum South. Ancestors from
both my Mother and Father’s side of the family were property
owners and slaveholders prior to the civil war. I am not ashamed of my heritage nor am I
puzzled by it. The status quo in the
antebellum South was financially vested in an economic system that has existed
since the beginning of human culture.
This is not a justification for ancestral oppression, but an
acknowledgement of human behavior that exists to this day. My ancestry is that of Western European
privilege that lived by a caste view of human society justified through
biblical and monarchical manifestation.
Many of us see the antebellum worldview as abhorrent in
human terms and inefficient in economic practice today. It is important that we see such a cultural
epiphany as good. However, to continue
our communal evolution away from economic oppression, it is also important that
we remember slavery, the justification for economic oppression along with the
inevitable horrific consequences.
Human
behavior is human behavior. We have done
many deplorable acts in the name of conquest and oppression. We continue to justify the status quo in
economic terms and resist change due to a fear of material loss. I told my son that we should not be ashamed
of our family history, but that does not mean we endorse their actions. We should make a conscious effort to remember
the antebellum South just for the purpose of preventing the development of
oppressive economic systems. Our
knowledge of southern slavery, as well as the de facto oppression of the Jim
Crow South, should act as the example that debunks the justification of
oppressive economic systems throughout the world. At first blush, our rejection of slavery should give us
the moral high ground. However, our
contemporary practice toward global labor calls our sincerity and our perceived
exceptionalism into question.
In spite of the documented horrors of slavery
in the U.S., the practice is very much alive.
It is estimated that there are 27 million enslaved individuals
throughout the world today (2). This
represents over 7 times the number of black slaves prior to the civil war
(3). A 1999 United Nations report
estimated that there are up to 10 million bonded laborers in India alone. (4) No, 21st century United States
does not directly participate in such practices, but India is an important
democratic and trade ally. India, the
contemporary model of a caste economy, a democratic republic and the home of
Mahatma Gandhi enslaves its citizens for the economic gain of industrialists.
While U.S.
corporations may not endorse slavery, they do perpetuate the preponderance of
low wages and poverty throughout the world.
A recent article in Bloomberg
Business paraphrased Samuel Palmisano,
the chief executive of IBM (IBM) when he said that “Many prominent corporate
executives, politicians, and academics have argued that we have no choice, that
with globalization it’s critical to tap the lower costs and unique skills of
labor abroad to remain competitive.” (5). I can hear my ancestors justify their
addiction to slavery in much the same way.
Although many would argue that sending jobs for low labor costs overseas
does not equal slavery, many laborers might argue that their perpetual economic condition is pretty close. Even though many in American industry may see
these practices as problematic, they feel helpless to change this due to its perceived
threat to material wealth.
Before we
sanctimoniously judge our ancestors and their decisions to enslave human
beings, it is important that we use their experience as a reason for us to look
in the mirror. The consequences of dominance
justified by economic circumstances leaves a trail of human suffering and
decimation throughout history. Reason
should tell us that all economic systems invariably fail due to inevitable
imbalance in the human condition. We
have been willing to fight many wars to sustain illegitimate and oppressive
economies. It is not necessary to
reject our ancestry, but it should be a requirement to remember their actions
and the results.
I would like to say
to my son’s generation that the behavior of ancestors should not produce shame,
but determination. Nor should previous human behavior be an excuse for
economic behavior. We should see the
example of our predecessors as reason to do better by our contemporaries.
(3) www.pptpalooza.net/PPTs/AHAP/AntebellumSouth
(4)http://newint.org/features/2001/08/05/facts/
(5)http://www.businessweek.com/debateroom/archives/2007/02/outsourcing_wheres_uncle_sam.html
(4)http://newint.org/features/2001/08/05/facts/
(5)http://www.businessweek.com/debateroom/archives/2007/02/outsourcing_wheres_uncle_sam.html
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