Mississippi Official: Black People 'Dependent' Since Slavery

[Judi Lynn]

Source: Huffington Post

06/17/2020 09:21 am ET

Harry Sanders’ remarks followed him voting against removing a Confederate monument from outside a Lowndes County courthouse.


JACKSON, Miss. (AP) — After rejecting a proposal to move a Confederate monument, a white elected official in Mississippi said this week that African Americans “became dependent” during slavery and as a result, have had a harder time “assimilating” into American life than other mistreated groups. Critics said his remarks were outrageous and called on him to resign.

Confederate symbols are being debated in many states amid widespread protests across the U.S. against racism and police violence. Monuments that have stood for more than a century outside courthouses and on other public property have been removed or relocated in other Southern states in recent days, and supervisors in several Mississippi counties are discussing the matter.

In northeastern Mississippi’s Lowndes County, supervisors voted along racial lines Monday against moving a Confederate monument that has stood outside the county courthouse in Columbus since 1912. The monument depicts a Confederate soldier and says the South fought for a “noble cause.” Three white supervisors voted against the proposal and two black supervisors voted for it.

At one point during the meeting, a white supervisor, Harry Sanders, said moving the monument would solve nothing and would be an attempt to erase history.


Read more: https://www.huffpost.com/entry/lowndes-county-harry-sanders-confederate-monument_n_5eea11e1c5b69465b1630aa0

[Proud liberal 80]

1. I am so tired of the erasing history arguments

We don’t have statues of Adolph Hitler or king George but still know the history....that is such a stupid and tired argument

[Evolve Dammit]

2. Tell it to Oprah and the millions of AA who have excelled. What BS. Move On America.

[raging moderate]

3. It was the Confederate WHITE people who were dependent on BLACK people.

Last edited Wed Jun 17, 2020, 10:40 AM - Edit history (1)

And that dependency remained widespread for generations. Many white people there had Black slaves, and even later they had Black servants, paid starvation wages to do almost everything that my ancestors did for themselves. By their own description, those white people were dependent on Black people to build and maintain their houses, to grow, harvest, cook, and serve their food, and to wash their dishes, floors, and laundry. They couldn't even bathe or feed their own children; they couldn't even wipe their own babies' butts!

[Croney]

4. And handed over their infants to slave wet-nurses.

In Islam, I believe the law is that a wet-nurse is related to the baby she feeds, so their families cannot inter-marry. I'm OK with that, although I really don't care who marries whom.

[raging moderate]

5. They knew the terrible things they said about Black people were lies!

Last edited Wed Jun 17, 2020, 11:31 AM - Edit history (1)

The racist whites had to have known that the terrible things they said about Black people were lies! Or they would never have entrusted their precious helpless innocent babies to them!

[Croney]

6. Yes, the hypocrisy is staggering.

[jaysunb]

7. He also cited the Democratic Party as part of the problem, except

Until a few years ago, Mississippi was a reliable democratic State and the dixiecrats were instrumental in blocking or negating any positive solution to the problems of the recently freed slaves.
Mr. Sanders should immediately go Fuck himself.

[keithbvadu2]

8. That "noble cause" they fought for was slavery.

That “noble cause” they fought for was slavery.

[raging moderate]

14. Yes, and the poor whites were played for patsies by the rich slave-owners.

Somehow, the rich whites kept the poor whites from noticing that slave-"ownership" (never truly legitimate) gave the slave-"owners" all the wealth, which they then used to keep everybody else miserable! The poor whites were tricked into fighting to defend the illegitimate power which was being used to keep them and their families poor!

[marie999]

9. I have a neighbor who is a racist,

but he said something one day that surprised me coming from a racist. He said that at the end of The Civil War if Blacks had been treated as equals things would be entirely different now.

[Igel]

10. He's right. Mostly.

If you treat somebody like an enemy, you'll make an enemy.

Thing is, that mindset won't change even if you stop treating them like an enemy. You have to prove it. Sounds simple. It's not.


Because having been told we're enemies and adopting the posture of enemies, we'll continue to err on the side of caution. That enemy who wanted to hurt us last month says he's okay now? Well, if he's okay, then distrust won't hurt. If he's not okay, trust could hurt us. So cautious says to continue to think of him as an enemy.


But what's "proof" like? Well, lack of evidence is really weak proof. It takes a long time for "he didn't do anything bad ... this decade" to equate to "he won't do anything bad next week."


Making that kind of weak proof harder is confirmation bias. We sit back and think, "He's lying, he's still an enemy." And since we have a view and we know we're always right--if we were wrong, we'd be the first to know--anything he does that can be construed as evidence of being an enemy is taken as nothing but evidence that he's an enemy. Ambiguity dies in that environment. Moreover, we won't notice background events: He does something unpleasant to us like collects a debt (and he does the same to everybody else) and all we see is what he did to us, not why, not that it wasn't us per se.

Most Northerners haven't treated Southerners like inferior dog food for decades, but you still find shoulders with chips stacked high. The perception of the slightest sleight, of the merest mocking and those chips swarm and multiply.

Had blacks not been treated as enemies but as equals in 1865 it would have taken generations to convince them they weren't being treated as equals. That's just how it works being human. Of course, treating the Southerners like scum just bred resentment--Southerners were scum because of the easiest scapegoat. When you demote somebody they require special treatment, just ask any boss, just ask any teacher who's failed a kid--both often are taken as things done by an enemy.

Complicated. Assuming we think everybody involved is people.

[Yo_Mama_Been_Loggin]

11. Kick

[Hip2bSquare]

12. Mississippi's been dependent since slavery ended

I seriously beg to differ. Mississippi has been dependent since slavery ended. Haven't been able to take care of itself since it had to figure how to do the work themselves.

Nice try Harry. Next time thank the blue states that you have a state to be racist in.

[Demsrule86]

13. Lots of 'dependent' white folks in Mississippi...very poor state.