Nathan Whiteside
Jul 28, 2017 · 3 min read

You’re right, the tone of the conversation was set by SOB, not the person I was responding to. But the effect is the same — the conversation is about generalities regarding race, so that is the frame that I was responding to.

The Homestead Act I am referring to is the one from 1862. In addition to the racist maneuverings that you mentioned which came later on, the Act required you to be a US citizen or to file your intention to become a citizen. Black people were legally barred from either until 1866, and it was still a couple more years before the 14th Amendment cut through the bullshit that denied them the right to Homestead, and in the meantime a LOT of the best land got taken up. The theft analogy has to do with the fact that these lands were considered part of the commons, and every bit that was taken by a white person while black people, even free black people, were forced to sit out, represents a theft of opportunity to participate in and benefit from the commons.

And I bring it up not because I want to belabor the sins of the past, but because as a nation we never went through a true process of reconciliation over these abuses, and the echoes of those abuses continue to this day. After black people became technically free, in many areas they were forced and manipulated into sharecropping that was designed to keep them perpetually in debt, and therefore free in name only. Many cities used redlining to keep black people from owning homes except in certain, less desirable neighborhoods and under loan agreements that more often forced them into foreclosure than not. This echoes to just 10 years ago when black families were targeted for sub prime loans even though they qualified for better loans, which made them default more often than they would have with more favorable terms. The list goes on and on, and if you’re a black person who knows your history, it’s impossible not to see these echoes and how they affect your life and livelihood on a daily basis.

You ask, “So why the need to continually reproach white people in America as if they had something to do with it?” The answer is that it’s all connected. Each strategy to undermine the economic advancement of black Americans has roots in the previous era, going back to slavery. This includes not just policy but also finger pointing. Black people during slavery were depicted as lazy, stupid, and deserving of their status. Today we have variations on that same theme, always making it black people’s fault for the poverty that plain history shows was the aim of countless written and unwritten policies.

When there is a conflict between two people, an apology only means something if the behavior fundamentally changes for the better. On a group level, these echoes that continue to today prove that there isn’t enough will on a societal level from the white community to reconcile with the black community to fundamentally change the underlying behavior. Getting defensive about it doesn’t show the harmed party that you are really seeing the pain they are in, so there’s no reason to believe the behavior will change. What that change looks like and how amends are made is negotiable, but first everyone has to come to the table in good faith. So far, it looks like we’re a long way off from that critical step.

Nathan Whiteside

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