A couple transgressive thoughts on race
The thing about this flag is, it’s the symbol of an America that is not entirely white. Without the organized slave trade, there would be (virtually) zero black people in America, and this flag became emblematic of that. I’m not sure the right people are swinging it around.
You can thank my slave-owning, plantation-running, lazy-ass louche Southern ancestors for an America that doesn’t look like Scandihoovia. Let this flag be your reminder.
Although…did you know in the 300 years of the slave trade to the colonies, fewer than half a million were sent to the U.S.? Of the ten million that came over in chains, nearly all ended up in the Caribbean and Brazil.
I hate to send you to Slate, but they have a genuinely fascinating animated map that demonstrates the flow of peoples.
There. I don’t know why I ever post about race. Nothing good can come of it.
July 2, 2015 — 8:52 pm
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