Tuesday, April 24, 2012

Blog # 6 :The Fall

In class we have been discussing and researching slavery during the 18th century. Along with our research we have also been discussing the book Kindred by Octavia Butler. We were given the option to choose out of three quotes that we want to discuss. I choose option # 2 :


“I never realized how easily people could be trained to accept slavery,” says Dana to Kevin (Butler 101). Discuss some of the situations or methods that make people accept oppression in the antebellum South. Do some of these situations and methods to oppress people still exist today? Explain with examples.


In the book, Kindred Dana is transported through time and arrives in the antebellum South. During her time there with Kevin, Dana overhears children playing. When they get closer to make out what they children are saying, Dana notices how the little slave children are playing the slave owners and they are selling a little girl for $200. Dana is stricken by this because she can see how just by imitating their owners they are mentally preparing themselves for their own roles in the future to come. This is the training that Dana is talking about since the little kids think it is a game but it is a reality they will have to face later on in their life.


Another form of oppression in the book, is how the slave owners make the whippings very public. The reason why they do it in public is to show the other slaves that it could be them, if they refuse to do what they are told, and if they try to escape. This is a form of mental and physical oppression because the fear the slaves have of being beaten or whipped will make them stay and do as they are told without questioning or defying their slave masters. Other forms of oppression exist in the book, the fact that all of Sarah's children were sold  except for one who is mute is another way slave owners oppressed slaves. The method was to make the slave feel the pain of loosing her children, and then use the only one left to manipulate the mother to do whatever the slave owner wanted her to do. Slave owners didn't care if they broke up homes or relationships of the black slaves. They never treated them as humans with rights. Women were used to make babies and then sell them for more profit. They would rape their slaves and then sell the kids without any form of remorse or attachment to they children because they were never seen as equal.


These forms of punishment, and the mistreatment created an environment where the slaves would acquiesce into slavery without fighting. The slaves were beaten down by the abuse and by the emotional loss of family ties and love that they gave up completely. Even if they wanted to fight back their fear of being killed or sold to other owners which could be worse stopped them in their tracks.


Slavery in the 18th Century was awful and inhumane. People now in the 21st Century may not witness slavery in the public eye, but it does in fact still exist. People in different parts of the world still experience the mistreatment that the African slaves would endure. It's just not limited to only blacks. There are Asian, Hispanic, and many other kinds of people that are slaves today. People that work in toxic areas manufacturing products sold overseas, with less than minimum wage and work in hazerdous conditions because their economical status may drive them to do that line of work just to make a living and support their families. There is also the racial profiling which exist today with hispanic immigrants that must provide their legal papers in order to stay in the country, if not they are deported. It's another form of the black slave's written pass. Without it they could be sold to someone else and sent to another land.


To sum it up, slavery along with racism does in fact still exist today. The methods of keeping people oppressed may have changed slightly, but unfortunatley we all should be aware that it is a system that still continues to have its roots in the world today.  So the next time you buy clothes, or regular household products think of the people who have been oppressed and mistreated in order to make the items accessible to you.

1 comment:

  1. Someone else pointed out that we call it "human trafficking" now instead of "slavery," but the situations are pretty much the same... We still have a long way to go as a species.

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