DiogenesTheWiser
Well-Known Member
Whether it's neo-Confederate Nazis like Dick Spencer leading a torchlit promenade in defense of pro-treason, white supremacy statues, or black majority counties in which African Americans possess no political power whatsoever, slavery's legacy still permeates every aspect of the American South.
This article from Fivethirtyeight documents the similarities between the 1860 Black Belt, in which most blacks were enslaved, and 2016 when no African Americans were enslaved, but still existed in slavery-like conditions. Public health is particularly bad in the Black Belt areas of the South--and this affects not just blacks, but white folks as well, as the article linked below explains.
https://fivethirtyeight.com/features/mortality-black-belt/
One thing this articles doesn't do quite so well is explain how conservative policies of minimal government and unfettered corporate power & influence that have gripped this region since the end of Reconstruction (1877) have contributed to high mortality rates and extreme abject poverty. The publication promises to follow up on this element of slavery's legacy in the South in another installment in the series.
This article from Fivethirtyeight documents the similarities between the 1860 Black Belt, in which most blacks were enslaved, and 2016 when no African Americans were enslaved, but still existed in slavery-like conditions. Public health is particularly bad in the Black Belt areas of the South--and this affects not just blacks, but white folks as well, as the article linked below explains.
https://fivethirtyeight.com/features/mortality-black-belt/
One thing this articles doesn't do quite so well is explain how conservative policies of minimal government and unfettered corporate power & influence that have gripped this region since the end of Reconstruction (1877) have contributed to high mortality rates and extreme abject poverty. The publication promises to follow up on this element of slavery's legacy in the South in another installment in the series.
