False times
False Times Frederick Douglass once said “ America is false to the past, false to the present, and solemnly binds herself to be false to the future.” In my opinion I feel that Douglass is saying that America only chooses to accept the glorious past, ignores the mistakes made both in the past and present, and thus chooses to work toward the future with the same blinders it has used to understand the past. In the past we have had the long-lasting injustices of slavery, Jim Crow, and if we are to believe Michelle Alexander, we now have an unjust system of mass incarnation that we have not yet come to grips with. Many of us believe the criminal justice system to be black and white with no gray area. “That is the made-for-TV version of the criminal justice system. It perpetuates the myth that the primary function of the system is to keep our streets safe and our homes secure by rooting out dangerous criminal and punishing them.” (Alexander 59) Tobacco and cotton farming boomed causing a high demand for land and labor. In the beginning blacks were not slave and “many were treated as indentured servants.” (Alexander 23) The demand for free labor was meet through enslavement. American Indians were deemed unsuitable because “native tribes were clearly in a position to fight back.” (Alexander 23) European immigrants were also poor candidates because there was a short supply and plantation owners don’t want to “interfere with voluntary immigration to the new colonies.” (Alexander 23)
Thus leading farmers to find an alternate source for free labor. Black slaves were imported. Many of them captured and sold to slave traders, they were far from home and in a totally new environment. Thus rendering blacks into the perfect slaves, powerless, easy to control, and maintaing dominance over. As slavery cease the idea of white supremacy continued “...the notion of white supremacy-proved far more durable than the institution that gave birth to it.” (Alexander 26)
Thus leading farmers to find an alternate source for free labor. Black slaves were imported. Many of them captured and sold to slave traders, they were far from home and in a totally new environment. Thus rendering blacks into the perfect slaves, powerless, easy to control, and maintaing dominance over. As slavery cease the idea of white supremacy continued “...the notion of white supremacy-proved far more durable than the institution that gave birth to it.” (Alexander 26)