Wednesday, April 13, 2022

EMAIL FROM AMERICA (6): Slavery and History, by Paddington

Tracking the chaos...

The United States has had a tortured history with slavery and its legacy, beginning long before the Revolutionary War and lasting into today.

For one tiny example, the Texas Board of Education ordered History textbooks for the entire state a couple of years ago, which explained that millions of Africans came to the country 'to work'. Technically true, I suppose, but missing the point.

The current culture war over Critical Race Theory appears to mostly be an effort by certain conservatives, especially in states of the former Confederacy, to ban discussions of racism and slavery.

Today's editorial in the Washington Post provides a lovely vignette in this area.

Montpelier is the Virginia home of James Madison, the 4th President, and was built by hundreds of slaves who lived and died there. While the historic site and museum are owned by the National Trust for Historic Preservation, it has been governed by Montpelier Foundation for over two decades. In that time, the governing board of 25 people has had either zero or one African-American member.

Last year, they announced that the board would balance the majority white membership with descendants of slaves. The latter were to be picked by a committee, recognized by the foundation, consisting of leaders in the Black community from academia, business and elsewhere.

Last month, the governing board re-wrote their bylaws, and declared that they would be the ones to select their members, totally rejecting the 10 people recommended by the committee.

This has resulted in an uproar from all directions and a mass exodus of employees, leading to the situation of a former slave plantation now having exactly one African-American employee.

Some people just have to be dragged kicking and screaming into the modern world.

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