
I try to avoid comparing contemporary racism to slavery in order to make a point, but American slavery is literally the only thing white people seem to agree is racist aside from B.E.T. And even slavery gets romanticized and downplayed with startling frequency. Recently, NPR and the Washington Post published horrendous headlines describing Thomas Jefferson as being in a “40-year relationship” with his slave, Sally Hemings. Leslie Mac, founder of the Ferguson National Response Network, rightfully countered that “This ‘relationship’ […] consisted of repeated rapes during which Sally Hemings birthed MORE PROPERTY for Jefferson.”