Celebrating Slave Owners on Currency Helps Racism
By: Walter Rhein
Tags: Justice, Racial Justice, BlackLivesMatter, Racism, History

Celebrating Slave Owners on Currency Helps Racism

Hard facts are the most important, and difficult, to face

Photo by Alicia Razuri on Unsplash

I knew the kind of repugnant counter arguments I would have to endure when I wrote the article, but I wrote it anyway. I went to bed aware of what would confront me in the morning and sure enough, as I perused the comment section the next day I found multiple pockets of insanity nestled in among the agreement, congratulation, and overall approval.

The article I’m referring to is one where I made reference to the fact that founding father Thomas Jefferson likely fathered six children with a slave he met when she was only 14. It’s telling that this story has been largely omitted from our history books. Our society hasn’t progressed to the point where people can engage the true facts of history with maturity or responsibility.

Words have power, and when you cast doubt upon the legitimacy of ingrained belief you will be met with open hostility. People are simply unwilling to face the unvarnished truth. They prefer an interpretation where the heroes and villains are easy to distinguish. It’s amazing to witness the complex contortions that intelligent people will subject themselves to in order to disregard a valid position they find threatening. Our continued celebration of slave owners on currency is a prominent example.

The danger of dismissal

I have discussed the topic of Jefferson’s transgressions and the repugnance of celebrating slave owners in many different forums. It doesn’t matter that slave owners were Founding Fathers, these behaviors were reprehensible and need to be declared as such. It’s important to recognize that when you broach this subject, you will naturally come up against a lifetime of cultural conditioning.

We are commanded as very young children to stand for the anthem, respect the flag, and feel gratitude that we were born in this country. These lessons are repeated with such insistence that any intelligent person should eventually find themselves compelled to try and separate the truth from the propaganda.

Patriotism

An honest recognition of the transgressions against marginalized groups is incompatible with the cultivation of national pride. The tactic of minimizing these transgressions in the name of patriotism results in a tacit endorsement.

It is not an attack to ask for evidence to justify an intellectual position. Anything that’s untrue can be dismissed with factual, clear-headed, and respectful arguments. Therefore, whenever an opponent resorts to righteous anger, or outright dismissal in response to an honest question, you can assume that their emotional reaction indicates they have no valid reason to refute your position.

Why can’t people denounce slavery?

It can be quite revealing to listen to the tone, arguments, and word choice of individuals that feel a need to justify Jefferson’s behavior and that of other slave owners. Sometimes an internal struggle is obvious within the syntax of their statements, but eventually and through their own volition, you often see people settle on a position of dismissing or denying unforgivable transgressions.

You’ll find that many people you interact with have a mental barrier against making a blanket denouncement of slavery. Why is that difficult? Why are people ingrained with a set of arguments that compel them to insist slavery is acceptable under some circumstances?

In defense of oppressive classes

In many ways, the impulse to defend slave owners mirrors how impoverished people will instinctively regurgitate arguments in support of the oppressive rich. They’ll insist the rich “earned it” and fail to recognize most family fortunes were stolen or inherited. In fact, if you make a true assessment of US history, particularly in regard to the evolving tax code, there is a clear thread of privileged families exerting their influence and power to maintain their position in perpetuity.

One of the great achievements of the Founding Fathers was to disguise a system of prolonged servitude as an experiment in freedom. Words like freedom are nice to read, but the Founding Fathers never intended that sentiment to apply to everyone. They owned slaves! This is indisputable.

A modern comparison of this kind of nefarious cultural programming is witnessing minimum wage earners cheer at Republican demands to cut programs like Social Security. It’s a special form of brainwashing that keeps an oppressed class from rightfully demanding they are treated with the same dignity to which all people are entitled. How is it that so many people fail to recognize Social Security is made up from funds taken from their pay checks? Any proposed cut to Social Security amounts to overt theft. Yet the people that are hurt most by the proposition often cheer the loudest.

Defending slavery in any form causes psychological angst

Once an individual makes a choice to adopt a contextual view of slavery, their subsequent arguments become more and more tenuous and unhinged. Their sense of personal morality is made uncomfortable by the decision to show tolerance for such a heinous institution, but they push on, stubbornly refusing to recognize their error. They grasp for defensive mechanisms, and will even try to project wrongdoing upon anyone who dares to honestly tackle the subject.

It’s important to understand that this impulse is a manifestation of the mechanism that keeps racism alive and well in our society. Any reluctance you feel to denounce any slaveholder throughout history is inappropriate. There can be no justification because of the era. The inherent evil of the institution of slavery must be acknowledged and denounced in all instances.

Consider a better society

We all want a better world, but sometimes people are unwilling to recognize the fundamental facts we must embrace in order to get there. Striving for a superior society is not easy, and in many ways it requires sacrifice. Sometimes pursuing that objective forces us to reevaluate long standing perceptions that have provided pride and comfort in the past.

Adopting any kind of healthy change is always difficult. It’s easier to reach for a drink than it is to embrace sobriety, but in the long run, sobriety provides more control over your life.

We will not be a post-racial society until we stop celebrating slave owners on our currency. Failing to recognize the repugnant actions of the men we insist are heroes creates a cognitive breakdown that affects every other component of our mutual interactions. A united nation cannot perpetuate divided narratives.

Our beliefs do not fit the facts

There are many things that citizens of the United States of America believe which are incompatible with observable truths. Any time a person is forced to accept something that is clearly incorrect, it diminishes their capacity to continue their own personal pursuit of happiness.

Perhaps it’s time to recognize that there is not such a large distinction between the heroes and villains of our past. The human race consists of a mass of deeply flawed individuals capable of both good and bad. Somewhere along the line, an impulse emerged to place certain figures upon pedestals of greatness, but that action also served to erase much of the truth about those people.

How are we supposed to take lessons from history when we aren’t provided with a full accounting of what actually transpired? In a free nation, people are largely allowed to choose what they believe, but there is no way to escape the consequences of that choice. Be honest when you consider the ramifications of your beliefs both for yourself and the people around you, and choose wisely.