Sorry, but we haven't out grown the "plantation" or "reservation" mentality.
By ParaTed2k
@ParaTed2k (22940)
Sheboygan, Wisconsin
April 22, 2011 2:55am CST
The terms "Plantation" and "Reservation" have specific, and not so friendly meanings when used in the connotation of US history. They are two different words, but the implication is the same for both. They were where people were kept "in their place".
Plantations were just farms. Nothing sinister or scary about them... but there was. Reservations were even worse. The Plantation was where slaves were forced to work, the owners had a (in)vested interest in keeping the slaves fed and healthy. Reservations were just the opposite. The tribes weren't put on them to work, or to fend for themselves. They were put there to be out of the way, and "taken care of" by the government.
Well, today we have plantations and we have reservations. Plantations are where the government puts the "working poor", while reservations are where they put people to keep them out of the way, and taken care of.
In the "plantations", the working poor sleep, eat and take care of daily needs... mostly at night though, because they are working pretty much "sun to sun". They barely make enough to keep food on the table, clothes on their backs and the lights on. Like the plantation owners of yesteryear, they are kept in their place. Unlike yesteryear, it isn't by force, it's by convincing them that there isn't anything better for them.
On the "reservations", the people aren't expected to work. In fact, working is discouraged. Like the tribes way back when, the government promises to keep them fed, clothed and pays their electricity bills.
Back in the day, it was illegal to teach a slave or tribal member how to read and write. Today, it isn't illegal, but (worse yet), the people are taught that there is no reason to bother learning.
The difference between then and now? Not much, in both cases "White Man's Burdon" was the justification for keeping minorities "in their place"... but today we call it "welfare".
4 people like this
6 responses
@knoodleknight18 (917)
• United States
22 Apr 11
You bring up a lot of good points. You might also look at the concept of wage slavery that basically says slavery still exists in the form of low wage jobs.
Today you might call the "White Man's burden" the middle classes burden. Though there is still a great racial inequality it is more class based. There are actually more white people on welfare than black, but the percentage of blacks on welfare is disproportionally larger. It is explained pretty well in this first post http://www.topix.com/forum/afam/TS6CBT754MKNC4E90
If you look at companies like fast food restaurants, Wal-Mart, and a lot of other big corporations you pretty much find that they are the modern day model of a plantation, in that they put a minimal amount of resources into the people doing the work and the owners are some of the wealthiest people in the country. The only difference today is that instead of minimum wage workers living in sheds behind the buildings they work at, they are subsidized by welfare to live in slightly less deplorable conditions out of sight of the drive through window.
Whips and shackles have been replaces with a series of laws and low wages and cotton fields with deep friers and cash registers. The racial boundaries have become less significant but end the end your right, little, if anything has changed.
I should probably take my white, college educated self to the McPlantation and apply for a job so I can pay my student loan bill this month.
1 person likes this
@Taskr36 (13963)
• United States
22 Apr 11
Any one of those people working at McDonald's, Wal-Mart, or any other low wage job has the power to EARN money instead of begging the government for handouts. If you have a job you have the power to better yourself. An unskilled 16 year old may not be worth more than minimum wage when he starts his first job, but if he works hard, he can become manager. When I was 16 I worked at Taco Bell for a hefty $4.40 an hour. Within 8 months I was a shift manager. There were people who worked there for years without a promotion because they didn't have the drive and never even ASKED what they had to do to get a promotion.
For some it's just easier to "slave" away, doing dull work and never bettering themselves while asking for handouts. Sadly, many poor people are taught by their parents that they can NOT be more than that. The government reinforces it by giving them free money, basically telling them they are too stupid or inept to earn it so it must be given to them.
@Taskr36 (13963)
• United States
23 Apr 11
I don't work at Taco Bell anymore because that's not where I wanted my adult career to be. I left when I got a job at Universal Studios make $5.85 an hour. I worked there for 5 years while going to school full time. I got a 401k, opened a traditional and ROTH IRA, and took advantage of tuition reimbursement to PAY my way through college while renting a room in a house in a bad area for $350 a month. Either way I'm not there because I chose to better myself and do what I wanted instead of staying in a job that was merely a paycheck to me.
"your 4.40 could have bought a lot more back then than $8 does now."
Depends on what you're buying. I don't know how much currency has inflated since 1996.
Welfare is a (not the only) CAUSE of the problem. Failing education systems, poor wealth distribution, and racial inequalities are symptoms. Failing schools aren't failing due to a lack of funds or incompetent teachers. They are failing because the kids begin with less education due to parents that don't spend enough time educating them at home. There are highschool graduates that can't read and write. My parents made sure I could read and write before I entered kindergarten. Poor wealth distribution is because people mooching off the government don't STOP mooching off the government unless they are cut off.
Racial inequalities are because black people were the ones most targeted by welfare and powerful black people like Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton work hard to make sure black people keep their hands out begging for that money because it gives poverty pimps like them more power and loyal ignorant followers.
@knoodleknight18 (917)
• United States
23 Apr 11
Yeah, and you probably don't work at Taco Bell any more because even shift manager pay was probably pretty sub par for living on. But someone has to fill all those jobs for taco bell to function.
If you look at wealth distribution there's about 2-3 people scraping by or living in poverty for every 1 living a middle class lifestyle. Even with todays figures the average was is maybe 40k. That means there's a lot making a lot less than that. Unless the average income goes up without insane amounts of inflation like in the past 10 years it's not going to get better. Heck your 4.40 could have bought a lot more back then than $8 does now.
I'm just tired of everyone acting like welfare is the problem when things like a failing education system, poor wealth distribution, and racial inequalities that have always been around are a much bigger problem. There's always been poor and rich and probably always will. Taking away welfare won't fix it, it will just make the other problems much more notable.
What people should be doing is asking if they want to live in Mexico's economy or Canada's because America is heading towards the first.
@debrakcarey (19887)
• United States
22 Apr 11
You forgot the reservation schools. Where you were beaten for speaking your own language. Where your hair was chopped off and you were made to wear the white man's clothes and shoes. Where you were not allowed to go home to your parents and had to listen to lectures about how evil they were.
http://www.pbs.org/indiancountry/history/boarding2.html
Now look at our Progressive modern schools, where kids are told to 'snitch' on their parents. Ask yourself why the government just had to 'reeducate' those Indian boys and girls and why their doing the same to your children today.
I'm glad you did this discussion. Most modern Democrats do not know their party's history.
http://www.tysknews.com/Depts/pcism/sad_history.htm
I encourage everyone to take a look at this link and see that the Democrats who started the KKK, and have even had a Congressman in Congress in this modern age who is a high ranking member of this awful organization. It has been the Democratic Party who wrote the Jim Crow laws of the south. Pres. Wilson the Progressive who segregated Washington DC and Repbulican Harding who scrapped the segregation rules Wilson enacted. Go on, take a long hard look and then ask yourself why the Democrats are calling Republicans...racist.
1 person likes this
@knoodleknight18 (917)
• United States
22 Apr 11
Neither party has really ever favored minorities. You also should take into account the two parties have had almost complete role reversal throughout history.
Whether or not there is a KKK member who is an elected Democrat right now doesn't make the Republican party any better. The democrats are lot more supportive of welfare and other systems which help the poor and elderly middle class. When you consider about 90% of minorities are poor, the democrats are lot more helpful to them. Welfare isn't the problem for minorities, its the continual racism and the gross under funding of their education. Read or at least look at Savage Inequalities by Jonathan Kozol. It explains in great detail a some of the many reasons why minorities are so poor.
1 person likes this
@Taskr36 (13963)
• United States
22 Apr 11
"Neither party has really ever favored minorities."
You're right. One party has treated them as equals while the other has treated them as slaves. Favoring them would mean that one party treats them better than non-minorities, and neither party does that.
"democrats are lot more supportive of welfare and other systems..."
Yes...
"...which help the poor and elderly middle class."
No. Welfare and government handouts do nothing but HURT the people who receive them. They teach people a culture of entitlement that discourages work and accomplishment. If welfare "helps" black people, then show me how. Tell me when this "help" will make them self-sufficient. Why, after 70 years of this "help" is the average black person earning so much less than the average white person? Why do black people have less social mobility if welfare is helping them? Entitlements do nothing but create a culture of entitlement and dependence. Sometimes it's sink or swim and you have to stop treating an entire race like babies that need a nanny-state.
No, the entitlements have NOT helped people. They've only helped people to become dependent on them and the party that provides them. In other words, poor people, and black people have become SLAVES to these entitlements and those that provide them.
Proverbs 22:7, "The rich rule over the poor, and the borrower is slave of the lender"
@ParaTed2k (22940)
• Sheboygan, Wisconsin
23 Apr 11
Debra, thanks for the addition of the reservation mentality being taught in our public schools! That a perfect example of my point!
@laglen (19759)
• United States
22 Apr 11
You are exactly right. We just changed the name. Rather than teach people that they can take care of themselves, our government tells them they NEED government to survive. Thats why it floors me that minorities fall for this time and again. You talk about the man keeping you down, that is Welfare.
@Taskr36 (13963)
• United States
22 Apr 11
It's even more sinister than that because they use the people on these reservations and plantations to attack anyone of the same skin color that refuses to be a slave to the government. Back in the days of slavery slaves and natives WANTED to be free and the ones that weren't envied those that were. Now it's the exact opposite. Those that are slaves to the system are content with their lot and despise those that are free.
1 person likes this
@bestboy19 (5478)
• United States
22 Apr 11
A very good comparison. One tries to put government in a generous light. The other shows that it isn't so.
