Tag: slavery

PRISON LABOR: WHERE ‘DEAD-END’ JOBS MEET 21ST CENTURY SLAVERY

For more than 150 years, the U.S. Constitution has relegated prisoners to a distinct underclass that allows us to be exploited for our cheap, and in many cases unpaid, labor. Although the 13th Amendment was intended to protect citizens from being abused through slavery, it included a carveout stating that this right to protection did not apply to those convicted of crimes. Inside the towering walls and razor wire fences of U.S. prisons, slavery remains legal—and it is carried out with little oversight, often under horrific conditions.

As a society, we’re constantly told that people behind bars belong there and that they owe us a debt. It’s true that those of us who are incarcerated have a responsibility to do everything in our power to repair the harm we’ve caused. But forcing us to submit to exploitation and abuse for the benefit of corporations does not help victims of crime or make society safer.

A 2022 ACLU and Global Human Rights Clinic report found that people incarcerated in state and federal prisons produce approximately $11 billion in goods and services for the U.S. economy while being paid pennies for their labor. Often, this leaves prisoners unable to afford basic hygiene items or even phone calls or stationery to help us remain in contact with the outside world.

Unlike workers in the outside world, incarcerated workers “are under the complete control of their employers … stripped of even the most minimal protections against labor exploitation and abuse,” the report concluded.

Incarcerated workers in every state earn far less than minimum wage. The average minimum hourly wage for prisoners in non-industry jobs across the U.S. is 13 cents an hour, the ACLU and GHRC found. The average maximum hourly wage is 52 cents an hour. In seven states, incarcerated workers receive no compensation for most work assignments. Industry jobs, in which prisoners produce goods and services for private companies, pay only slightly better, but still ensure that the employer nets a huge profit.

Some states allow for the garnishing of these meager prison wages to pay for child support, court fees, restitution, institutional debt—incurred when prisoners cannot afford hygiene items or medical copays—and even room and board costs.

And while our wages are just a fraction of even the lowest-paying jobs on the outside, we are forced to pay highly inflated prices for basic necessities. At the prison in Washington State where I am incarcerated, many jobs pay only 42 cents an hour. A local 20-minute phone call costs $1.43, meaning a prisoner must work 3.5 hours to cover the cost of that call. A 3-ounce bag of freeze-dried coffee is $3.34, or 8 hours of work. A tube of Colgate Sensitive toothpaste is $6.10—more than 14.5 hours of work. The list goes on.

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Refuting the “Second Amendment Protected Slavery” Argument Part III: Ratifying the Bill of Rights

With the Constitution ratified by the necessary states in 1788, it officially became the supreme law of the land in the states so ratifying.  Up until this point in the story, there wasn’t a single piece of direct, or even indirect evidence, of a concerted effort to protect the right to keep and bear arms to the Constitution in order to maintain local militias for the purpose of enforcing slavery.

All that can be proven is that there were general concerns by some Southerners about a ban on the slave trade and potential meddling in slavery. But those apprehensions were generally within the context of a debate over whether there should be a stronger central government compared to the Articles of Confederation, not the regulation of the militia.

It’s also important to note that by this point, there was no need for federalists to adopt a Second Amendment in order to assure any Southern slave states and secure their approval of the Constitution since they had already ratified it. In fact, some Southern states, including South Carolina and Georgia, hadn’t even proposed such an amendment. Additionally, many states that had recommended an amendment to protect the “right to keep and bear arms” or to protect the local militia were either free states or states that didn’t rely on the militia to enforce slave laws.

Nevertheless, in The Hidden History of the Second Amendment, law professor Carl T. Bogus argued that James Madison’s motive for proposing the Second Amendment was to calm the fears of Southern slave states. He argued that they worried the Constitution would limit their use of militia for slave patrols and to quell revolts. The Second Amendment, he claims, was to ensure this role of the militia wouldn’t be infringed upon by the new federal government.

Bogus examines Madison’s initial draft of the Second Amendment, which was more descriptive than the final version and included a religious exemption clause for military service. Here, his analysis of the draft within the context of federalist and antifederalist debates and the new Constitution’s role at least uses proper context. At the same time, none of it had to do with slavery or affected Southern militia.

Bogus argues that Madison wasn’t trying to articulate an individual right to keep and bear arms, but “to set limits on congressional power. In a sense…Madison’s draft of the Second Amendment made the power to arm the militia concurrent rather than exclusive to the federal government.”

Several points need to be made on this.

The first is that this was a draft, not the final version. It’s doubtful Bogus would put much stock into it if the draft instead had said “the individual right to keep and bear private arms shall not be infringed.”

But since Bogus takes a close look at Madison’s draft language, it’s worth pointing out that the actual adopted language recognizes a “right of the people to keep and bear arms.” If you eliminate the prepositional phrase “a well-regulated militia, being necessary to the security of a free state,” the sentence is still complete due to the predicate (shall not be infringed). The prepositional phrase explains the purpose for the right, but is dependent on the other half of the sentence to make be complete. This means it is not the focus of the sentence.

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California reparations hearing descends into chaos as activist blares out James Brown, another tells absent reparations tsar to ‘stay in Africa’ with Kamala Harris – and a third screams ‘we’re not asking for money, it’s ours!’

California‘s reparations task force has descended into chaos as activists blasted music and aired wild accusations – a day after it was revealed they want $800billion.

Among the first people to speak was Reggie Romain who blared James Brown’s I’m Black & I’m Proud through his phone and down the microphone.

Romain, as well as members of the audience, danced to the 1968 track and after cutting the song short promoted his social media channels before sitting down.

Later, a San Francisco-based activist at the podium described the US as a country ‘born in the name of evil’ and said: ‘Evil cannot give justice.’ She went on scream at the committee members: ‘We ask you for nothing. It’s ours!’

The second-day began amid controversy over the absence of senior committee member Rev. Amos Brown, who is in West Africa, as part of Kamala Harris’ official trip to the continent. On Thursday, one activist demanded that Brown ‘should stay in Africa.’

Unlike at Wednesday’s meeting, Rev. Brown did not Zoom in to make remarks on the meeting. 

Brown Zoomed into Wednesday’s meeting in Sacramento in which he complained that the reports that $5 million would be given to black residents in reparations in the Bay Area were part of a ‘smear campaign.’ 

Brown, 82, said that the San Francisco Board of Supervisors, of which he is a member, gave ‘lip service’ to reparations and noted that the city is facing a massive deficit. 

A member of the public who called into the meeting to offer comment addressed Brown’s absence saying: ‘Shame on you.’ 

The reverend’s absence came on the same day that it emerged that the bill for California’s reparations bill has skyrocketed to at least $800 billion.

During the vice president’s historic visit to Africa, Harris promised billions of investment to the continent as she toured historic sites associated with slavery.

It later emerged that while in West Africa, Brown attended a lavish state banquet in Ghana this week as part of the VP’s delegation. 

‘Dr. Brown, shame on you… absolutely shame on you. You give us these fiery speeches only to turn around as Judas did Jesus and betray us…. Him being in Ghana with Kamala Harris, whose administration has done nothing to help black folks is a symbolic gesture,’ a member of the public said at Wednesday’s meeting.

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Reparations for Black Californians could top $800 billion

It could cost California more than $800 billion to compensate Black residents for generations of over-policing, disproportionate incarceration and housing discrimination, economists have told a state panel considering reparations.

The preliminary estimate is more than 2.5 times California’s $300 billion annual budget, and does not include a recommended $1 million per older Black resident for health disparities that have shortened their average life span. Nor does the figure count compensating people for property unjustly taken by the government or devaluing Black businesses, two other harms the task force says the state perpetuated.

Black residents may not receive cash payments anytime soon, if ever, because the state may never adopt the economists’ calculations. The reparations task force is scheduled to discuss the numbers Wednesday and can vote to adopt the suggestions or come up with its own figures. The proposed number comes from a consulting team of five economists and policy experts.

“We’ve got to go in with an open mind and come up with some creative ways to deal with this,” said Assembly member Reggie Jones-Sawyer, one of two lawmakers on the task force responsible for mustering support from state legislators and Gov. Gavin Newsom before any reparations could become reality.

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California Reparations Task Force member vows their ‘recommendations will be breathtaking’

A member of the California Reparations Task Force vowed the committee’s “recommendations will be breathtaking.”

Lisa Holder, a task force member and president of the far-left Equal Justice Society, published an opinion piece advocating for the reparations committee and writing that Californians “must be prepared for remedies on a scale approaching the Great Society programs of Medicare and Medicaid.”

“Reparations is a paradigm for understanding harm and repair as it relates to people who suffered a human rights injustice because of government action,” Holder wrote. “Harm and repair are the two sides of the spectrum.” She added that reparations will “likely” include “monetary compensation to Black people who are descendants of enslaved and persecuted Black Americans.” 

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San Francisco Board of Supervisors Expresses ‘Unanimous Support’ for $5M Reparation Payouts to Black People

San Francisco’s woke Board of Supervisors is strongly considering a draft proposal to gift black people in the uber-liberal city $5,000,000 as part of a reparations package.

Additionally, black people in the city could be entitled to homes, have all debts and tax burdens forgiven and receive a guaranteed income of at least $97,000 per year as part of the package.

The outrageous proposals were made by the city’s “African American Reparations Advisory Committee” as they deliberated various ways to atone for decades of slavery — never mind the fact slavery never existed in California.

“And the San Francisco Board of Supervisors hearing the report for the first time Tuesday voiced enthusiastic support for the ideas listed, with some saying money should not stop the city from doing the right thing,” the Associated Press reported.

The current proposal would cost non-black families “at least $600,000” according to numbers by the Stanford University’s Hoover Institution.

The AP reports “Fewer than 50,000 Black people still live in the city, and it’s not clear how many would be eligible,” but admits critics are worried the massive payout would exacerbate the city’s already “deep deficit,” which is projected to reach $728 million over the next two fiscal years.

Hoover Institution senior fellow Lee Ohanian said the plan could bankrupt the city.

“Many African Americans living in San Francisco face significant economic challenges,” Ohanian said. “But implementing the Reparations Committee’s recommendations is not the solution to these problems. Rather, it is a proposal that would result in massive business and household relocations, ultimately bankrupting the city.”

Meanwhile, reparations committee vice chair Tinisch Hollins said the package was necessary in order to set a precedent for the nation.

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Minnesota Dems Want $100 Million for Reparations, Apologies for George Floyd and Dred Scott

Not to be outdone by California, representatives of the Evil Party in Minnesota on Thursday introduced the “Minnesota Migration Act” in the state legislature “to study and provide reparation grants for American descendants of chattel slavery who reside in state.” This is a reparations bill that is designed to redress, according to one of its sponsors, the “structural institutionalized racism in Minnesota and all of American society,” which they claim “has led to overwhelming Black-white disparities in housing, business investment, economic prosperity, health and wellness, life expectancy, and infant mortality.” To end that structural racism, or at least make up for the damage it has done so far, white Minnesotans are going to have to pony up $100 million.

It’s noteworthy that the sponsors of this act are Minnesota Reps. Samakab Hussein, Hodan Hassan, Ruth Richardson, Mohamud Noor, Athena Hollins, and Cedrick Frazier. All appear to be black, but Hussein, Hassan, and Noor seem to be part of the wave of Somalis (which also included Ilhan Omar) who began immigrating to Minnesota in the 1980s and 1990s. The question thus inevitably arises: if this bill passes, which it very well could in woke Minnesota, will the Somali community be among those who receive the reparations cash, or will they have to line up with Whitey to pay out the money?

The bill calls for the establishment of an advisory council that will, among other things, “determine what form of compensation to African Americans who are descendants of persons enslaved in the United States can be achieved.” The Somalis certainly aren’t descendants of people enslaved in the United States, so apparently, they will be among those who are paying for the African Americans’ gravy train.

There are other problems as well. The act stipulates that all members of the advisory council “must be chosen with an emphasis on appointing members who are descendants of persons believed to have been enslaved in the United States, or members of the American descendants of chattel slavery with lived experience of racial discrimination and who were impacted by policies which have caused intergenerational trauma.” That means that at least three of the act’s five sponsors can’t be on this council. What’s more, staffing it is going to be hard to come by if every member has to be the descendant of a slave. You may recall, if you’ve studied American history at all, that Minnesota was admitted to the Union in 1858 as a free state.

Ah, but Hussein, Hassan, Richardson, Noor, Hollins, and Frazier are ready for that objection. Their bill claims that “although slavery was illegal in Minnesota, Dred Scott and Harriet Scott were held in military bondage at Fort Snelling, along with other African Americans who were used for enslaved labor by United States Army agents.” So the bill is going to have the state of Minnesota apologize not just for George Floyd, but for Dred Scott. According to the Minnesota Historical Society, “it is estimated that throughout the 1820s and 1830s anywhere from 15 to more than 30 enslaved African Americans lived and worked at Fort Snelling at any one time.”

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No Math Behind San Francisco’s $5M-per-Person Reparations Proposal

No mathematical calculations justify a San Francisco committee’s recent proposal to provide $5 million in reparations to long-term black residents of the city, according to a report by the Washington Post.

As Breitbart News reported last month, the committee, formed in 2020 amid the Black Lives Matter movement, “proposed that each long-term black resident of the city receive $5 million, though California entered the Union as a free state in 1850.”

The proposal came despite the fact that the city is facing a staggering budget deficit as businesses and residents have fled.

Now, the Washington Post reports, “conservatives” (among others) are questioning the price tag, which was largely invented out of thin air:

“There wasn’t a math formula,” said Eric McDonnell, chair of the reparations committee and the principal of Peacock Partnerships, a San Francisco-based consulting firm. “It was a journey for the committee towards what could represent a significant enough investment in families to put them on this path to economic well-being, growth and vitality that chattel slavery and all the policies that flowed from it destroyed.”

…

San Francisco’s $5 million proposal, magnitudes larger than amounts being discussed in other communities, has drawn intense backlash from conservatives who lambaste the idea as financially ruinous for a city with an annual budget of $14 billion that is still recovering economically from the pandemic. The proposal doesn’t explain who would qualify, but if even a fraction of the city’s 50,000 Black residents met the criteria, it would consume a huge amount of the city’s annual budget.

Separately, the State of California has its own reparations committee, which recently considered a more modest proposal to pay each black descendant of slavery up to $233,000 in reparations.

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The first legally recognized slaveholder in American History was a black man

When you hear or read the term ‘slavery’, the first thing that would readily pop into your mind is a black man being abused and used by white man. After all, this is the battle cry of the black community whenever they likened racism to slavery. While this may be true of most slave cases, do you know that the first legally recognized slaveholder in America was not a white but a black man?

A servant who became the master

Anthony Johnson was one of the first indentured servants who came to Virginia in 1619. The concept of ‘indentured servants’ was a concept introduced by the administrators of Virginia so that those without money can enter the New World by providing free labor to their benefactor who paid for their entry. Indentured servants will only work for a set period of time and they will be free afterward.

Anthony worked out his indenture period and together with his wife Mary, bought their way out of bondage. Anthony was fortunate enough to eventually acquire his own land. A former indentured servant having his own land was practically non-existent during that time. Since he and his wife were no strangers to hard work they were able to successfully grow their livestock and livelihood. By the 1650s their property had grown to 250 acres, a rare feat for an ex-servant.

Considering that Anthony owned his own plantation, he employed five Africans as indentured servants and one of them was John Casor. John completed his servant-period by laboring for seven years without pay. However, when John asked Anthony for his freedom, the ex-servant-turned-freeman (and then owner himself) refused.

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The History of Slavery You Probably Weren’t Taught in School

In “Recognizing Hard Truths About America’s History With Slavery,” published by FEE on February 11, 2023, I urged an assessment of slavery that includes its full “historical and cultural contexts” and that does not neglect “uncomfortable facts that too often are swept under the rug.”

The central notion of both that previous essay and this follow-up is that slavery was a global norm for centuries, not a peculiar American institution. America is not exceptional because of slavery in our past; we may, however, be exceptional because of the lengths to which we went to get rid of it. In any event, it is an age-old tragedy abolished in most places only recently (in the past two centuries or so). As British historian Dan Jones notes in Powers and Thrones: A New History of the Middle Ages,

Slavery was a fact of life throughout the ancient world. Slaves—people defined as property, forced to work, stripped of their rights, and socially ‘dead,’ could be found in every significant realm of the age. In China, the Qin, Han, and Xin dynasties enforced various forms of slavery; so too did ancient rulers of Egypt, Assyria, Babylonia, and India.

Milton Meltzer’s Slavery: A World History is both comprehensive and riveting in its presentation. He too recognizes the ubiquity of human bondage:

The institution of slavery was universal throughout much of history. It was a tradition everyone grew up with. It seemed essential to the social and economic life of the community, and man’s conscience was seldom troubled by it. Both master and slave looked upon it as inevitable…A slave might be of any color—white, black, brown, yellow. The physical differences did not matter. Warriors, pirates, and slave dealers were not concerned with the color of a man’s skin or the shape of his nose.

The indigenous populations of both North and South America, pre-European settlement, also practiced slavery. Meltzer writes,

The Aztecs also made certain crimes punishable by enslavement. An offender against the state—a traitor, say—was auctioned off into slavery, with the proceeds going into the state treasury…Among the Mayans, a man could sell himself or his children into slavery…The comparatively rich Nootkas of Cape Flattery (in what is now northwestern Washington state) were notorious promoters of slaving. They spurred Vancouver tribes to attack one another so that they could buy the survivors.

Perhaps because it conflicts with race-based political agendas, slavery of Africans by fellow Africans is one of those uncomfortable truths that often flies under the radar. Likewise, industrial-scale slavery of Africans by nearby Arabs as well as Arab slavery of Europeans are historical facts that are frequently ignored. Both subjects are explored in The Forgotten Slave Trade: The White European Slaves of Islam by Simon Webb and Slavery and Slaving in African History by Sean Stilwell.

Slavery cannot be justified or excused by enlightened people, but it can be studied, explained, put in context, and understood—if all the facts of it are in the equation. It’s a painful topic, to be sure, which is even more reason to leave nothing out and to prevent political agendas from getting in the way.

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