Tag: slavery

Now even apple pie is being linked to slavery, as writer tries to cancel the all American dessert

A left-wing writer for the Guardian says apple pie tastes of genocide of indigenous people with an aftertaste of slavery.

Food writer and activist Raj Patel wrote an article for the Guardian called: “Food injustice has deep roots: let’s start with America’s apple pie.” Patel argues that apple pie is rooted in colonialism and slavery.

Patel wrote, “The apple pie is as American as stolen land, wealth, and labor. We live its consequences today.”

Patel then brings up that the apple pie and most of its ingredients are not from America, which is true. There have been only small, wild crabapples native to North America until apples (Malus domestica) were brought from England to the Jamestown settlement in 1607. Preceding that, the initial wild species of apples (Malus sieversii) was initially from Central Asia, in areas like modern-day Kazakhstan and China, and brought to Europe through the Silk Road trade routes. “Several societies were consuming apples in present-day Greece and Italy since 2000 BCE,” reported by the World Atlas.

Patel claimed that apples came to the western hemisphere with Spanish colonists in the 1500s in what was called the Columbian Exchange, but is now called a vast and ongoing genocide of indigenous people.

Patel says that he believes the planting of apple trees in Virginia “was used to demonstrate to the state that land had been improved.” He added, “John Chapman, better known as Johnny Appleseed, took these markers of colonized property to the frontiers of U.S. expansion where his trees stood as symbols that indigenous communities had been extirpated.’

Encyclopedia Britannica states that the “age of modern colonialism began about 1500, following the European discoveries of a sea route around Africa’s southern coast (1488) and of America (1492).”

However, the first recorded recipe for apple pie was written in 1381 in England, reported by Smithsonian Magazine, noting that the pie was made with apples, figs, raisins, pears, and saffron, and it is possible it did not include sugar.

The writer then links the sugar in the apple pie to slavery.

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California — a state that never practiced slavery — moves forward with slavery reparations plan

On Tuesday, a first-of-its-kind task force charged with studying the issue and developing proposals for redress convened for its inaugural meeting, the Los Angeles Times reported.

The task force is the result of a bill signed last year by Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom that required members to draft a formal apology to black Americans and come up with various financial remedies for the lingering effects of discriminatory practices in the country.

“As our country reckons with our painful legacy of racial injustice, California again is poised to lead the way towards a more equitable and inclusive future for all,” Newsom said at the meeting.

California Democratic Attorney General Rob Bonta added, “Although the horrors of slavery may have begun in the past, its harms are felt every single day by Black Americans in the present.”

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Are children ‘dying like dogs’ in effort to build better batteries?

“Our children are dying like dogs.”

That is the sorrowful statement of one Congolese mother whose son and cousin died while working the cobalt mines in the Democratic Republic of Congo.

She and other parents like her are part of a class-action lawsuit filed in U.S. federal court in Washington, D.C., in 2019 seeking to hold Apple, Alphabet (the parent company of Google), Dell Technologies, Microsoft and Tesla accountable for what they allege is profiting off the misery of child labor in their quest for cobalt.

“Cobalt is a key component of every rechargeable lithium-ion battery in all of the gadgets made by defendants and all other tech and electric car companies in the world that has brought on the latest wave of cruel exploitation fueled by greed, corruption and indifference to a population of powerless, starving Congolese people,” the suit reads.

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7 Apple suppliers in China have links to forced labor programs, including the use of Uyghur Muslims from Xinjiang, according to a new report

Seven of Apple’s suppliers were found to be linked to suspected forced labor of Uyghur Muslims and other persecuted groups sourced from the Xinjiang region, according to an investigation by The Information.

Apple has previously denied using suppliers that rely on the forced labor of Uyghurs, a Muslim minority group that has faced persecution in China. The Information’s investigation suggests the use of forced labor by some of Apple’s largest suppliers is more widespread than previously reported.

Apple did not immediately respond to Insider’s request for comment.

As the Information notes, just one of the suppliers is in Xinjiang, the western region of China that consists predominately of the Uyghur Muslim population, which is native to the area. Other workers were shipped from Xinjiang to companies like Luxshare, which is one of Apple’s biggest Chinese suppliers, according to records viewed by the outlet.

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