Properly Subversive/Sherman R. Frederick
You don’t have to be the sharpest pencil in the drawer to know that the concept of reaching back in time to fix injustices to benefit modern-day heirs is complicated and fraught with ironic twists.
The latest irony comes from Black Panther founder Angela Davis. She recently appeared on the PBS program “Finding Your Roots” with host Henry Louis Gates Jr.
Researchers found that Davis’ ancestors came to America on the Mayflower. Her fourth great-grandfather, Stephen Darden, was born in colonial Virginia and served in the Revolutionary War.
So, the militant Black activist Angela Davis descends from the whitest-of-white American privilege. The razzing heaped on her on social media piled deep with the chief observation being whether Ms. Davis will have to pay reparations to herself.
It’s a cheap shot, of course.
But it leads to a more intellectually honest inquiry into the topic.
No matter how righteous and good you might think the idea of reparations for slavery might be, how do you bring “equity” for victims whose individual stories span a thousand different outcomes over five generations?
And that’s just the start. Once you get beyond the basic question of should we or should we not pay up for slavery injustice, what of others who suffered through historical injustices? Internment of Japanese Americans during World War II, the taking of life and land from Native Americans and the systematic disenfranchisement of women, come to mind. And, if we want to add onions to the whole enchilada, why should California taxpayers have to pay when the Golden State came into the union as a free state. In California it was the Spanish “discoverers” who enslaved Native Americans. Yet the Miwok and other California indigenous people have been completely left out of the conversation. What’s that all about?
Also, why should only current U.S. taxpayers be on the hook? Shouldn’t African nations be held accountable for a large chunk of the bill? It was the ancestors of Africans who sold other Africans into slavery. Where is the culpability for them?
Look, Angela Davis’ story illustrates the difficulty of this woke theology, which is that America today must be divided between the oppressed and the oppressors and the oppressed are owed reparations, which in the case of slavery is determined by race.
The fly in the ointment, of course, is that using bloodlines makes no one – not one single person – exempt from the sins of history.
That’s the truth few speak.
AND THE WINNER IS …
Looking for something fun to do this month. Go to the Academy Awards shindig at the Lark Theater. It features Chad Carvey as the auctioneer. The deal includes dinner and the awards show. It’s Sunday, March 12. Tickets are $95 (hey, you can afford it) and can be had by calling 415-924-5111.
ONE MORE THING
— Dreaming in color is a pigment of your imagination.
– Stop complaining about your life. There are literally people living in FLORIDA and TEXAS!
– The most irritating thing about growing older is suddenly being unable to fall asleep when you want to, but also somehow powerless to stop yourself when you don’t.
Thanks for reading Marin’s favorite newspaper. Until next week, avoid soreheads, laugh a little and always question authority.
(“Properly Subversive” is a commentary written by Sherman R. Frederick for Marinscope Community Newspapers, the “mother ship” of the Novato Advance, San Rafael News-Pointer, Mill Valley Herald, Ross Valley Reporter, Twin City Times and the Sausalito Marin Scope. Mr. Frederick is an award-winning journalist and co-founder of Battle Born Media, a news organization dedicated to the preservation of community newspapers. You can reach him by email at shermfrederick@gmail.com.)
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