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via my best friend gayle by summer of sam on 1/14/10
One thing that really irks me about white supremacy is that it allows folks--mostly white men--to say really bigoted and racist things, and make lots of money doing it. Racism is not just the process of institutionalizing prejudice and methodically discriminating against black folks and other people of color, it's also a very lucrative business, a capitalistic endeavor that allows purveyors of the commodity to make mad dough. And, as always, the kids with melanin doing the hustlin' make the least amount of money. Sure, I suppose Flavor Flav got a nice stack per episode, but Pat Robertson is worth at least $200 million--and he gets to be a racist bigot in the name of God!Just in case you haven't seen it already:
I'm not good at math, but I think Pat has outlined the following equation:
Haitians + Deal with the Devil = Freedom
Thus:
Freedom (of blacks) = Evil and Enslavement (of blacks) = Good
Sure, it's a slight generalization, but I don't think I'm too far off.
What many black people dig about Haiti is the fact the fact that they straight ganked their sovereignty; the nation of Haiti is the progeny of a slave revolt. Yet they had to pay the French for all the "damage" they did in the process. Robertson is calling this rebellion, this uprising and its consequences the result of a contract with Lucifer. Rather than remain in heavenly enslavement, they chose to be free. So I guess what Pat is saying is that the freedom of blacks--or blacks fighting for it--is evil. Maybe the Haitians should've remained docile French master-lovin' slaves, all the while waiting for Robertson's God to manumit them. That's one way of looking at it.
Another view: Haiti did make a pact with the Devil. As this awesome blog points out, Haiti got loans from other countries, like the United States, to pay its "debt" to France. Just like banks do to homebuyers in the 'hood, those loans were predatory, with exorbitant interests rates. Haiti has been free of France's rule since 1804; it didn't pay off those loans until 1947. That's one devilish deal.
Or we could also look at it another way. If we assume that Pat's equation is true, that the Haitians did make a contract with evil in exchange for their freedom, then what does that say about the nature of slavery? Of colonialism? (Folks have made similar deals for lesser blessings.) What does it mean, what would it mean, to experience something so excrutiatingly terrible and inhumane that you are willing to sacrifice your soul--and that of your descendants--in exchange for something as simple as freedom? Can you envisage such a situation? I imagine it is not a story to pass on.
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