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Thanks for participating in my thought experiment. Some of you immediately guessed what I was getting at so I hid your replies from the others. (Sorry.
)...For the others... https://twitter.com/Eedwardsellis/status/1304820155403337734
)...For the others... https://twitter.com/Eedwardsellis/status/1304820155403337734
An explanation...
This was purely HYPOTHETICAL. This isn't actually happening to me. (BTW, thanx for all the advice. 
Now I know what to do if it DOES.) This was an analogy to US chattel slavery. My enslaved ancestors were required to perform tedious (often back-breaking) labor for no pay...
Now I know what to do if it DOES.) This was an analogy to US chattel slavery. My enslaved ancestors were required to perform tedious (often back-breaking) labor for no pay...
And they were subjected to extreme violence while doing so. They couldn't legally quit nor did they have any other recourse. After slavery ended, they either ended up sharecropping (under exploitative contracts) or they left with nothing...most of you seemed to grasp that the...
Abusive employer in the analogy still owed wages despite the fact that *I* was getting wages from a new job. However, I got the reply below from an irrationally angry white man...
Then this:
He went on to describe a situation where he himself had been cheated of wages: https://twitter.com/ntrylo/status/1304872147538472960?s=20
Let's talk about that $34,000 owed to The Sarcastic Slav, shall we? That $34,000 could have been used as down payment on a home, which would've increased TSS's wealth. It could have been used to purchase land--something else that would have increased his wealth. It could have...
Been used to pay down any debts The Sarcastic Slav owed which would have increased his net worth. It could've been invested in a business, something that could generate wealth. It could've been used to invest in higher education, something that would boost TSS's earning potential
It could've been invested in the stock market or it simply could have been stashed in a savings account where it simply accrued interest over the years. Regardless, that $34,000 would have been very useful to, not only The Sarcastic Slav, but any heirs who would inherit from...
his estate. In short, that money could have served as a jumping off point for The Sarcastic Slav's descendants to accumulate generational wealth.
And when my enslaved ancestors left plantations with nothing, they didn't have the foundation to build that wealth. Jim Crow and...
And when my enslaved ancestors left plantations with nothing, they didn't have the foundation to build that wealth. Jim Crow and...
pervasive job discrimination made it damn near impossible for most first generation freedmen and THEIR descendants to amass wealth, too. And, Sarcastic Slav, the slaveowners who "owned" my ancestors paid taxes on the wages they stole from their slaves. They used the money that...
wasn't being paid in wages to purchase land (which was taxed), build housing (which was taxed), purchases goods (which were taxed), and buy seeds, plows, and other agricultural equipment (taxed!) to raise crops (which were taxed). Who collects taxes? The government. And bc the...
The government used that tax revenue to build infrastructure, provide essential services, etc., the government directly benefited from slavery. For that reason alone, it is only fair for the descendants of enslaved Africans to expect THE GOVERNMENT to REIMBURSE us for a PORTION
of what is owed so that we finally begin to accrue the generational wealth that we were so long denied.
