Several folks are saying "assume that most White people owned slaves at the time." But that's not true.

What *is* true, however, is many White people were complicit BEYOND being slaveowners. There were slave traders, slave patrols, and plantation overseers.

Here's Du Bois...

Here’s a rough diagram of White society in the American South according to Du Bois. There were relatively few large plantation owners. There were larger numbers of White overseers, slave traders, small plantation owners, and an entire White population who could be used as police.

Understanding how poor White people were complicit in slavery is important. As Du Bois said, many poor White WANTED to be slaveowners even if they didn’t own enslaved people. And they were able to serve in slave patrols to put down Black uprisings. So they aligned w/ slaveowners.

Why is this distinction important? Of course, slave trading and slavery were primary systems devastating Black Lives.

But look at policing! I think this shows that policing is not just a function of police departments, but its embedded in White culture OVERALL.

Even if White people weren’t slaveowners, they could be and often were deputized as slave patrols and overseers. This is why we get all the _____ While Black phenomenon today. This is why Karens and Beckys do what they do. Because policing Black people is embedded in the culture.