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Today is Juneteenth, the day in which the last of the Black slaves was released in Texas after the end of the civil war.
The national black caucus of the Green Party has been hosting some events to learn more. https://www.gp.org/2020_juneteenth_celebration
The national black caucus of the Green Party has been hosting some events to learn more. https://www.gp.org/2020_juneteenth_celebration
Slavery didn't fully end that year however. The 13th amendment made an exception -- slavery was banned *except* as punishment for crime, and that exception is being used today to put folks who committed even minor crimes into labor camps for private profits.
Statistics show jails and prisons are disproportionately filled with Black men, which shows how slavery never truly was abolished -- the state can still get free labor just by accusing someone of a simple non-violent "crime", like using marijuana.
Segregation and Jim Crow laws continued for decades, and even after the civil rights movement, racism still drives a lot of the injustice & police brutality we see today. The legacy of a racist system is what is keeping people in the streets protesting & demanding system change.
The Green Party platform calls for a number of important changes to our economic and justice systems, but perhaps most important for today is the party's support for reparations -- not just for slavery, but for the decades of segregation, Jim Crow, and today, police brutality.
You can read about reparations and other aspects of the Green Party platform in the social justice section of the platform: https://www.gp.org/social_justice_2016/#sjCivilRights
. @HowieHawkins also has a good essay on the relationship between racism and capitalism: https://howiehawkins.us/juneteenth-2020-racism-and-capitalism-joined-at-the-hip-from-birth/
