Selling SlaveryArea business people finding money in long-shrouded history By Kyle Stock
The Post and Courier
Sunday, July 27, 2008
Alan Hawes Alphonso Brown, owner of Gullah Tours, points out aspects of Charleston's African-American history. 
KYLE STOCK The Old Slave Mart Museum on Chalmers Street includes information about both the trans-Atlantic slave trade and the domestic slave trade. By the numbers--$45 billion — Size of the African-American business and leisure travel market in the U.S. --3 million to 4 million — Estimated number of slaves who were quarantined on Sullivan's Island --$600,000: Amount Magnolia Plantation will spend to refurbish its five slave cabins --1,907: Average monthly visitation at the city's new Old Slave Mart Museum --600: Number of slaves and free African-Americans buried under the C of C library --40: Percentage of slaves shipped to North America who disembarked in Charleston --19: Number of years that the city kept dormant the Old Slave Mart building Charleston has long made its fortune by bringing people here. Centuries ago, it was slaves. Today, it's tourists. Both have been thriving industries, though Charleston promoters have long dressed up or covered up the legacy of human bondage in the Lowcountry. Two centuries since the importing of human cargo was banned in this country, the long-neglected history is a source of new interest for visitors searching for the antebellum South. The carefully preserved plantations are sprucing up their slave cabins and hosting family reunions that include the descendants of the owners and the slaves. Charleston's sole art museum has produced an ambitious and wide-ranging exhibit focusing on slavery and plantation life. And the city has restored and opened to the public one of 40 or so markets where people were once sold. Charleston business people are realizing that slavery — at least the examination and discussion of it — can be lucrative once again. 'Pro-history' John C. Calhoun. His name graces one of Charleston's busiest thoroughfares and his visage gazes down from a statue in Marion Square, the hub of the city. Calhoun, a U.S. senator and vice president, is one of South Carolina's most celebrated sons. Alphonso Brown, a former schoolteacher who weaves his Gullah Tours bus through downtown Charleston two or three times a day, offers a different perspective on the statesman: "Kill-houn!" he booms into the public address system of his super-cooled coach. "Black people called him 'Kill-houn' for the brutal way that he treated his slaves." Brown's two-hour repertoire is full of information that was seldom heard from any other guides in Charleston's uber-competitive tour industry. He points out 67 Alexander St., the former home of the DeReefs, a black family that owned a wharf, a business and 16 slaves. As the bus passes the College of Charleston library, Brown notes that it is built on the graves of 600 black people, including some of the country's first free blacks. He points out 91 Broad St., site of the country's first black-owned law firm. Just down the block, at 56 Broad, slaves could go after the Civil War to claim their 40 acres and a mule. "It's an art gallery now and it must have looked like an art gallery then, cause most people never got that mule and 40 acres," Brown said. He said other tour companies have slowly incorporated some of his material and the way that they present black history. "I never used to hear 'slaves' or 'blacks' or anything like that," Brown said. "I would always say, 'What are you hiding? What are you ashamed of?' ... Now, it's completely different." Jack Bass, a professor at the College of Charleston who has written several books about the civil rights movement in the South, said the difference in the dialogues between the guides today and 10 years ago is vast. He credits the National Park Service and Mayor Joe Riley with changing the tone. "Let's just say it's been updated," Bass said. "It's not the old version of the Civil War that they talk about. It's not moonlight and magnolia. I'd call it more 'pro-history.'" Unbound The changes are most evident where slavery was first cultivated, at the host of area plantations. Magnolia Plantation is in the midst of a $600,000 project to restore its five slave cabins. Next year, it will build an interpretive center nearby to tell the story of its enslaved workers. Craig Hadley, who is leading the project, said that the work was started by Taylor Drayton Nelson, who took over the attraction when his grandfather died a few years ago. "It hadn't really changed in 50 years," Hadley said. "Taylor wanted to make the site not just a garden but historically relevant. ... The whole idea was, 'Here's a story that's not being told at any other historic site.'" Hadley expects that the restored cabins and nearby exhibition space will lure an additional 15,000 to 20,000 visitors a year. In September, Drayton Hall, an unrestored but preserved plantation just down the road, will add an interpretive panel to the cemetery where many of its slaves are buried. And the adjacent Middleton Plantation this month will release a book chronicling an exhibit that it produced about two years ago: "Beyond the Fields: Slavery at Middleton Place." The book includes a powerful part of the exhibit, a list of the almost 2,800 people who were enslaved on Middleton plantations between 1738 and 1865. "It's almost like the Vietnam Memorial," said Tracey Todd, vice president of museums for the nonprofit site "It's one of those things that really affects people, probably more than anything here." Across the Ashley and Cooper rivers, in Mount Pleasant, Boone Hall Plantation added separate tours of its remarkably intact slave cabins about two and a half years ago, buildings that long sat in the shadow of the property's much younger main house. Boone Hall also offers a one-woman performance three times a day portraying and explaining slavery and Gullah culture. The story of slavery is being sung downtown as well. On Oct. 31, the city opened The Old Slave Mart Museum, a former human auction house that had been locked up since the city bought the property in 1988. When asked why the site was not opened sooner, several city officials said that planners took their time producing the exhibit, because they wanted to get it right. "We didn't know what to expect. There was no track record with it," said Cam Patterson, the city's director of special facilities. "But it has been very, very well-accepted. The figures have been phenomenal." The site welcomed almost 3,200 visitors in April and has averaged about 1,900 guests every month since its opening. Just down the street, the Gibbes Museum of Art opened a new exhibit May 9 titled "Landscape of Slavery: the Plantation in American Art." Angela Mack, executive director and longtime curator, said the show was four years in the making. It has drawn critical acclaim and diverse crowds. Toni Morrison, a novelist who has written extensively about slavery, is stretching the story of slavery to Sullivan's Island. On Saturday, Morrison dedicated a memorial bench at Fort Moultrie, where an estimated 3 million to 4 million slaves were quarantined upon entering the country. While many African-Americans call Sullivan's their Ellis Island, the differences are stark. Ellis Island has been converted to an immigration museum that welcomed 1.7 million people last year. Morrison's bench will be one of the first reminders of the slave trade on the tony barrier island that last year was ranked the 70th priciest ZIP code in the country by Forbes magazine. Suffering sells Revisiting the darkest chapters of human history is not only a cathartic exercise, but a lucrative one. Some of the most trafficked attractions in Germany are carefully preserved concentration camps, where vacationers line up at once-dreaded barbed-wire gates to walk past chilling remnants of the Holocaust, such as gas chambers and stacks of shoes. Further across the globe, the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Museum, which chronicles the World War II atomic bombing, welcomes 1.4 million people every year. The United States is dotted with sites documenting the slaughter of native tribes. For example, the National Museum of the American Indian, which opened in 2004, welcomes over 1 million visitors a year. In short, suffering sells. The curtain began to rise on the local history when Charlestonian Edward Ball wrote his ground-breaking book "Slaves in the Family" in 1998. Ball's 17th-century ancestors owned 25 plantations and 4,000 slaves, and revelation of sins of the past was controversial for black and white alike. "There were times in our history where people didn't want to hear the slaves story," said Todd, the Middleton Plantation museum executive. "I think, basically, we've gotten to the point now where the market demands it." Black Meetings & Tourism magazine, a California-based trade publication, estimates that African-American business and leisure travelers represent a $45 billion market in the U.S. Philadelphia resident Kyle Timbers is part of that pie. Timbers was recently in Charleston for the first time, looking for attractions that addressed slavery. "There's shame, but it's so old now," he said. "It's history. It should be told." Still chained Charleston, however, may still be missing out on some visitors like Timbers. Since January 2000, the NAACP has urged African-American travelers and business groups to boycott South Carolina because its government still flies the Confederate flag on the grounds of the Statehouse in Columbia. Its leaders argue that the flag is a symbol of racism and a rallying banner for the culture of slavery. Earlier this month, NAACP officials speaking at the group's national convention in Cincinnati said there are plans to strengthen the boycott. Supporters of the flag vehemently disagree on the symbols. They say the flag is a hallmark of Southern independence and pride, and has little to do with slavery. As the debate goes on, the flag and the boycott still hang over the state, the latter costing local hotels, restaurants and attractions an untold amount of revenue. Solomon Herbert, publisher of Black Meetings & Tourism, said the boycott cost the state a lot of business during the peak of the flag debate, though he acknowledged that many African-American meeting planners and tourists don't know about or no longer honor the embargo. "Our position was that the people most being hurt by the boycott were these entry-level hospitality workers, who, in a large part, were people of color," Herbert said. "The issue is still important ... but it's not productive from my point of view." Herbert said he has not seen Charleston planners and promoters at black tourism conferences since NAACP called for the boycott. While these efforts proceed to take advantage of and explain Charleston's role in slavery and African-American culture, the city's main effort has shown little progress. The International African-American Museum has been in the planning stages for years, yet has little to show for it except for an ever escalating estimated price tag. The museum, planned for a vacant city-owned lot at the foot of Calhoun Street near the South Carolina Aquarium, now has an estimated cost of $70 million and $80 million, about double the estimated cost in 2001, shortly after the project was proposed by Mayor Joe Riley. Little private money has been raised, despite former President Bill Clinton's early support on the board, and $1.3 million in state, local and federal money. The Rev. Joe Darby, pastor of Charleston's Morris Brown AME Church and vice president of the Charleston branch of the NAACP, is not impressed by the increased attention that the history of slavery is getting from some tour companies. Cities like Cincinnati and Birmingham, Ala., are more honest with their pasts, he said. Darby said most companies that cater to visitors in Charleston still gloss over the dark legacy of human trade, or dress it up. "It's almost like history books used to be in South Carolina," he said. Darby, like many, blames shame and discomfort with the past. "It's not so much overt racism, it's more a matter of failure to deal with things that might be culturally painful," he said. "It's history that might offend some sensibilities, but dealing with that history is part of the healing that's still very much needed in the South." |
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Comments
This article has 39 comment(s)
Posted by lillycollette on July 27, 2008 at 4:54 a.m. (Suggest removal)
Slavery is a human issue that affects all races, genders and ages. No matter how many times the label is changed (slavery / human-trafficking / etc.) it is still with us—and it is escalating.
People of conscience should feel a duty to speak out against slavery wherever it rears its ugly head. Point it out for what it is, refuse to condone it through silence and refuse to participate in it.
One place that it has shown itself to me is under the cloak of Family Law. The slave market has not been closed—it has just moved behind the closed and locked doors of family court. Constitutional rights and due process of law can be snuffed out on the whim of one person under the popular mantra of “In the best interest of the children”.
I understand how annoying it is for some who get their bread & butter at this trough to hear me continually preach this sermon.
It is far more than annoying for the victims they leave in their wake—it is utterly destructive.
Posted by dustym59 on July 27, 2008 at 7:11 a.m. (Suggest removal)
naw it was a confederate flag on the boat, and we said ...Go get that flag Boy, and then we catched dem.
Posted by 10216340 on July 27, 2008 at 8:16 a.m. (Suggest removal)
eyfigueroa, thanks for your thoughtful post.
Posted by moonpie on July 27, 2008 at 8:27 a.m. (Suggest removal)
eyfigueroa, good post sounds like you watched the CNN special. I was very suprised the blame was put where it should have been, back on individuals.
NOW WE, ALL OF US, HAVE LURED THE ILLEGALS HERE WITH JOBS FOR LOW PAY (AND TELL EVERYONE THESE ARE JOBS NO ONE ELES WILLDO) BUT A BETTER LIFE THAN WHERE THEY CAME FROM I'M SURE. SOME BUSINESSES EVEN HOUSE THEM JUST LIKE THE SLAVE DAYS. A LARGE LANDSCAPE CO JUST LOST THEIR CONTRACT FOR TRYING TO SNEAK THEM IN TO A GOV FACILITY TO WORK!
Posted by I_Love_d_Peninsula on July 27, 2008 at 9:27 a.m. (Suggest removal)
I'm still waiting for my ancestors 40 acres a mule.
Posted by Mon_Kie on July 27, 2008 at 10:01 a.m. (Suggest removal)
This is what I love about Charleston.
Every month is Black History Month.
Posted by amylrod on July 27, 2008 at 10:26 a.m. (Suggest removal)
Good article. I am glad this history is being told - it needed to be told.
Posted by csason on July 27, 2008 at 10:29 a.m. (Suggest removal)
Well maybe now, we'll be able to go to New Hampshire and Massachusetts and they will tell stories of the Nightengale
and other northern owned slave ships and the infamous molasses
connection to U.S. wealth.
Why is it that the institution of slavery was promoted and
proliferated by northern states for over one hundred years..yet it is Dixie that is demonized..???
Not only that..Why, when the Dixie States were de-segregated in the military, and only the Union troops were segregated, do they try to re-write history to absolve themselves..
I've worked in the field with my black/African-American/colored or whatever the pc term is today for non-white/no-hispanic Americans, for 8 bucks a day, cropping tobacco..so I don't get where this reparations
business is coming from anyway..
The history of the real South has been re-written so many times..they just keep 'improving' as the years go by.
Slave ownership per capita was NOT what it is being purported to be..Dang, the way it is told now..ALL people from the south had a few slaves to do all their work for them.. NOTHING could be further form the truth.
It has gotten way out of hand..
My lily white southern daughter's get death and rape threats
on the internet..just because they are white and born in the south, and are proud of their heritage.
Posted by Smart_Enough_2_Know_Better on July 27, 2008 at 11:02 a.m. (Suggest removal)
"They say the flag is a hallmark of Southern independence and pride, and has little to do with slavery."
Right… just like my anus has little to do with my ass.
Much like the swastika, the Confederate flag has also become a symbol of ignorance and intolerance. I'm sure there are Germans that would make the argument that the swastika represented German independence and pride. But at the end of the day, what matters is how the world sees that symbol. And I don’t think I need to point out how closely BOTH swastikas and Confederate flags are revered by neo-Nazis and white supremacists here in the US.
To follow the theme of this article, the confederate flag DOES have its place- in museums as historical fact. Otherwise, face it folks- the war is over (the South lost), the “Lost Cause” is the fabrication of a bunch of sore losers and the Confederate flag is dead.
But I do appreciate you morons keeping the Confederate flag on your bumper stickers. It’s always good to be able to identify the lowest IQ drivers on the road.
Posted by STREETLAW on July 27, 2008 at 11:28 a.m. (Suggest removal)
I'm fail to see any rational basis for the statement Charleston is "bringing slaves and tourist" to the city.
Slave were not "brought" here. They were kidnapped, brutalized and forced to come. No one "brings" tourist here. The come because they want to.
And slavery still exist today. Large segments of our population are slaves to ignorance, greed, drugs, alcohol, jealousy, gluttony, and self indulgence in general. This will never change.
At least 25 cent of every dollar made from the continuing exploitation of the human misery called slavery should go to help improve the lives of minority children in Charlestons "Ghetto projects".
Posted by DenmarkVesey1822 on July 27, 2008 at 11:50 a.m. (Suggest removal)
I knew it wouldn't take long for some imbecile to say "Africans sold other Africans..." without mentioning who paid for the human cargo and leaving out the fact that those Africans who sold those other Africans had no idea what the Europeans would do to the enslaved Africans. In most African societies & nations a slave could actually work their way out of servitude and become a leader in that society. They also got to keep their names, religion and weren't split from their families. Western slavery did something else altogether. I don't certain people reading this to understand because they know NOTHING about African history and can't see past their own prejudices.
Posted by jk_newhard on July 27, 2008 at 12:17 p.m. (Suggest removal)
Good call about the swastika and the Confederate flag. The swastika is a very old Christian symbol but it was perverted and the meaning changed by the Nazis. The Confederate flag did stand for the south standing up for its version of how government should work but the white supremacists perverted the symbolism and it now stands for racial hatred.
I am unsure that either symbol can be redeemed from its baggage.
Posted by spyderco on July 27, 2008 at 1:20 p.m. (Suggest removal)
"I don't certain people reading this to understand because they know NOTHING about African history and can't see past their own prejudices."
"I don't certain people" Maybe you should work on having some knowledge of English before you start to broadening your horizons of African History?
Posted by jeff61 on July 27, 2008 at 1:20 p.m. (Suggest removal)
DeReefs, a black family that owned a wharf, a business and 16 slaves.
I did not know this. Not sure what to say.
Posted by candygirl on July 27, 2008 at 1:49 p.m. (Suggest removal)
Great comments made by:
exfigueroa :-)
smart_enough_2_ know_better :-)
Posted by ClemsonTi9er on July 27, 2008 at 2 p.m. (Suggest removal)
To all:
See what a former leader of the Asheville NAACP is doing with his time now.
http://www.southernheritage411.com/
Oh, and I would like to respond to this comment: "But I do appreciate you morons keeping the Confederate flag on your bumper stickers. It’s always good to be able to identify the lowest IQ drivers on the road."
Many people who proudly display the flag probably have a much higher IQ than maybe you do, but then again I do not know you so I could not really say.
Posted by DenmarkVesey1822 on July 27, 2008 at 3:09 p.m. (Suggest removal)
spyderco ...I accidentally left out the word EXPECT. Are you so simple that you couldn't understand what I was saying through context? Oh wait, we're talking about the issue of slavery and as usual one of the tactics is diversion to avoid the actual subject.
Posted by roseb on July 27, 2008 at 3:27 p.m. (Suggest removal)
eyfigueroa,
Liked your comment.
Posted by Gluttony on July 27, 2008 at 3:30 p.m. (Suggest removal)
I guess in such words we are still profiting off of slaves.
Sons Of Sam
http://www.sonsofsam-gluttony.blogspot.c...
Making America Better Since 1622
Posted by Melek on July 27, 2008 at 5:49 p.m. (Suggest removal)
IMHO, it would have been a better and more accurate choice for the Post and Courier to use the headline "Selling History" instead of "Selling Slavery".
I wish you well :) Melek
"I have learnt silence from the talkative, toleration from the intolerant, and kindness from the unkind; yet strange, I am ungrateful to these teachers." ~ K. Gibran
Posted by jammer on July 27, 2008 at 6:19 p.m. (Suggest removal)
this was hundreds of years ago people, it's over so get over it
there is nothing to argue about anymore, no one alive to remember how it really was... the only consistent thing is that the history books keep changing the story of what happened
what we all know:
Africans sold Africans to the Dutch and other Euro's, from there they were sold all around the world...
two centuries later the black population has it better in America than anywhere else in the world, they are still being enslaved, raped and slaughtered in their own countries by their own people everyday as we sit here arguing this petty BS
the confederate flag in NOT seen as a sign of slavery by the world, only by black Americans and others who make millions of dollars from the ongoing arguments
the Civil War was about money, tax money the north wanted from the south's farms and was willing to take by force... source, Abe Lincoln himself
the Confederate flag and the Swastika have absolutely no tie or similarity to each other yet people constantly try to pretend they do for some ridiculous ongoing argument that will never be solved
we should all just be grateful we live in the great USA and go on with OUR lives instead of trying to argue about something NONE of us where there for and that history books have consistently lied about changing their stories with the wind
the ONLY African Americans are those that themselves came from Africa, as with any other nationality you are no longer a two nation people after the first generation of immigration... so learn to be part of this nation instead of being apart from and you'll get treated better because you will show your dedication to THIS country - OUR country
if you don't like this country or don't wish to identify yourself as an American first and foremost before another nationality unless you are yourself an immigrant please feel free to leave
Posted by Brutus1 on July 27, 2008 at 6:39 p.m. (Suggest removal)
Dang Jammer, you are 100% correct.
Posted by DenmarkVesey1822 on July 27, 2008 at 7:05 p.m. (Suggest removal)
Jammer, you're cherrypicking when it comes to facts (but I'm sure you know that already). The Civil War was indeed based on money....and how did southern states make money? Who was their labor force? I've read the SC Ordinance Of Secession, so trying to gloss it over with me is BS! And thousands of enslaved Africans showed dedication to this country (WWI...WW2...VIETNAM etc) and were still treated as second class citizens when they came home. I have a grand-uncle who served in WW2 who had to sit BEHIND Nazi prisoners on trains and allow them to eat first (because of course they were White). This country has yet to live up to its promise. Slavery's impact was huge (not just in the USA). That whole "get over it" attitude will never allow people to move on because you've done a CRAPPY job of addressing it in the first place!
Posted by CedarPosts on July 27, 2008 at 8:26 p.m. (Suggest removal)
Equate the Confederate flag to the Swastika and you insult the six million who died at the hands of the Nazis.
You also insult the 260,000 southerners who died during the civil war.
The confederate battle flag was hi-jacked by the clan, skin heads and neo Nazis long after the civil war ended. But prior to that it was only a symbol of the South, used first by the Army of Northern Virginia, then after the civil war southern units used the battle flag during the Second World War. The battle flag was raised on Okinawa and adorned countless B-17's flying over Germany.
Later units in Vietnam adopted the confederate battle flag.
The never ending discussion of slavery, the south and the confederate battle flag with endure long after we are all gone. Perhaps generations from now the residents of this state will have not only the wisdom and perspective to understand the true relationship of slavery and the south but also have respect for the value of having a "southern flag".
Then again maybe the south will be overrun with yankees and and the confederate battle flag shown only in the context of slavery in some tourist trap like south of the border.
Posted by spyderco on July 27, 2008 at 9:12 p.m. (Suggest removal)
"Oh wait, we're talking about the issue of slavery and as usual one of the tactics is diversion to avoid the actual subject."
Well preach on there Nostrodumbass, tell us about your vast knowledge in African History so we can stay on topic. Don't forget to check your facts first before you start to enlighten us.
Posted by jammer on July 27, 2008 at 9:33 p.m. (Suggest removal)
Denmark you are doing the exact thing that is hurting your people, as hard as you might try you can't keep an anchor to your great great grandfathers azzz
let it go, it wasn't yours to hold on to... it rusted apart way before you were born
what happened way back when has absolutely nothing to do with you and your opportunities today other than it's provided you MORE opportunities than any other race in this nation today... if you decide to seize them of course
now if you can do something that's actually useful and get the young black generation to stop shooting each other...
Posted by jammer on July 27, 2008 at 9:40 p.m. (Suggest removal)
and yes everyone knows the blacks contributed to this nation, being so presumptuous as to think no one knows that is an insult to everyone from all races that built and died for this country... get over yourselves already
Posted by ClemsonTi9er on July 27, 2008 at 10:22 p.m. (Suggest removal)
I really hate to harp on a single person but DenmarkVesey1822 who are you trying to fool?
To those who do not know, this person's tag name is quite scary. It goes back to the attempted slave revolt in 1822 led by Denmark Vesey.
Granted, slavery is undoubtedly wrong and immoral among other things, but killing people is not the way to bring about true change which is exactly what Mr. Vesey was plotting to do before a loyal slave ratted him out and saved others' lives.
You want a lesson on how true change is brought about, then read up on Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. He knew that nonviolence was the only way.
Denmark, your tag name is disturbing to say the least. I pray you are not plotting a massive revolt and try to go around killing folks.
Posted by seneca264 on July 27, 2008 at 10:49 p.m. (Suggest removal)
Just like the black people. Totally ignore the mass murder of "their people" in the Sudan and Dafur at the hands of blacks. Yes, I fully understand, the black people need to continue to be stuck on stupid and keep beating the slavery issue to death. Why don't you people get foucused and do something productive for your race.....really?
Posted by Cid95 on July 28, 2008 at 12:18 a.m. (Suggest removal)
Educating yourself about history = good
Learning lessons from history = better
Applying lessons from history = best
Slavery was a disaster for this country from both ethical and practical standpoints. Look at the situation with illegal labor in the US today - lessons anyone?
Posted by DenmarkVesey1822 on July 28, 2008 at 9:12 a.m. (Suggest removal)
I see that the National Front is in full swing.You troglodytes should be thankful for Denmark Vesey, otherwise you wouldn't have the Citadel. Jammer, your eurocentric point of view makes you say really ignorant things like what happened with my ancestors has nothing to do with me. I don't have the space or time to educate you...I only debate with my equals, all others I teach. God bless Nat Turner, Denmark Vesey and John Brown!
Posted by Lovely_One on July 28, 2008 at 2:53 p.m. (Suggest removal)
Eyfig,
Give 'em hell! You are too much. It's funny how some of the same people that say "no, it does not take a village to raise a child" will turn around and from the other side of their mouths ask "what is the black community doing to solve its ills?" They want all black people to be responsible for every other black person, but don't think that all neighbors should be responsible for each other's children.
Posted by Lovely_One on July 28, 2008 at 3:44 p.m. (Suggest removal)
Of course it's only black people that need to do something. We are the only ones that any of these issues are affecting. We are the only race with any problems whatsoever.
Posted by Girleygirl on July 28, 2008 at 4:22 p.m. (Suggest removal)
Ey- I love you!
Thank you for your post.
Posted by jammer on July 28, 2008 at 4:30 p.m. (Suggest removal)
eyf most would probably say it isn't my place but I do help "police our children" when I deem it necessary, black or white... as well as pat them on the back when they've done something above and beyond
once they reach a certain age and learn racism then it's another story, you have to judge what/if you say by who's around to hear it in case they decide to pull out a gun or curse you out for something as simple as asking them to turn that explicit hate music down
I agree it's up to whoever is in the right place at the right time as long as you think you have a reasonable chance of being heard and successful as opposed to just creating more hate or possibly endangering yourself or others
and as far as helping any other nation I think we need to clean our own house first before we clean someone else's, there's millions in need right here and should be attended too first and foremost IMHO
Denmark you are delusional, a near hopeless case but they do say that there's hope for everyone so hang in there n hold that anchor a little longer
Posted by DenmarkVesey1822 on July 28, 2008 at 6:32 p.m. (Suggest removal)
Jammer, I'm delusional? You're projecting and you need a history lesson. I suggest visiting The Avery Research Center...oh yeah, Denmark Vesey's house is right up the street.
Posted by usna04 on July 28, 2008 at 7:44 p.m. (Suggest removal)
Did someone really compare the Confederate flag to the Nazi symbol? REALLY????
Posted by DenmarkVesey1822 on July 29, 2008 at 12:40 a.m. (Suggest removal)
usna04...well, Nazis terrorized and killed people waving their swastika...and the ghosts of the confederacy (KKK) terrorized and killed people waving their confederate battle flags.... Both backward thinking groups who hate minorities & Jews...Neo-Nazis and the KKK have common "enemies". It is what it is.
Posted by mcdian on July 30, 2008 at 12:33 p.m. (Suggest removal)
You have all got to be kidding. The flag should stay. NEVER should we forget what happened. Those who forget are destined to repeat.
This is also a reminder that we must stop the current influx of illegal aliens. "the new slavery" It is a dis-service to all involved to let it go on.
Criminals now have the upper hand, because if you prosicute a criminal of any minority, you are "racist". People need to take responsibility for what they do.
Does anyone remember Asberry Wilder? While intoxicated by cocane the "mentaly impared" individual who was competent enough to deal cocane did not know it was wrong to steal meat from a Piggly Wiggly, and wave a knife and screwdriver at Police. Now his family and the NAACP want millions from the Police department, (around 5 million).
Where was his family when he walked into the Piggly Wiggly since he was so mentally impared he neede looking after?
Where was the NAACP when the family needed $200 to get him in to treatment?
Where is the person who signed him out of jail, who was supposed to be taking responsibility for him just two weeks before his death?
Why was it a racist outrage when the NAACP was not successful in sueing the Police Department?
These are the kinds of questions I whant to know about.
Why are we up in arms about a flag, when we are allowing the human trafficing to continue?
Wy are we allowing companies to continue to hire criminals instead of ensuring that they take the consequences for their actions?