Slavery

By Marilyn M. Barnewall

News With Views

Aug 27, 2017

The first recorded sale of Irish slaves in 1612 was to a settlement in South America.

The little white girl on the cover of an ACLU Tweet last Thursday looked Irish… blonde and beautiful, carrying a toy in one hand and an American flag in the other.   That Tweet was quickly replaced by another of Kermit the Frog and an apology and note of thanks to those who had complained about the ACLU using the picture of a white child. The ACLU explained that the complainers were right…. white supremacy is everywhere they said and we all need to be reminded of that.

In the interest of letting readers know part of my history that could “color” my views on race and slavery, I need to disclose some personal information.  My granddaughters are half black.  One has an undergraduate and a Masters Degree from Stanford, the other an undergraduate degree from the University of Southern California (USC) and is a very successful young woman (happily married) in New York City.  Their parents were not rich… they worked at what can only be called middle class occupations.

My granddaughters went to university on full scholarships having to do with their grades, not their race or skin color.   My oldest granddaughter was #2 in her state’s PSAT scores.  The younger was offered a full scholarship to NYU as well as USC.  She is a whiz in mathematics.

I also have a daughter-in-law who is Korean… her last name used to be Lee.  I guess it’s a good thing she isn’t a sports announcer who was scheduled to cover the UVA game on Saturday after the Charlottesville tragedy.

Now let me continue with my story about Irish slavery.

King James the 1^st ruled in England early in the 17^th century and the English had a problem:  The Irish people against whom Britain had been practicing genocide since the reign of Elizabeth I (who took off the head of Mary, Queen of Scots) just wouldn’t give up their “Irishness.”  The English couldn’t kill all of us, though.

Genocide is defined as “intentional action to destroy a people in whole or in part.”

According to Ancestry.com’s DNA program, I am 52 percent Scot-Irish .My people were sold into slavery by the English; Africans were mostly sold into slavery by their own people but both groups were largely sold for the same reason:  they disagreed with those who presided over their 16^th and 17^th century government swamps.

Swamps in power centers have been around forever.  The politicians in Washington, D.C.’s swamp have done a better job of using psych games to hide their “swampness” than TPTB (the powers that be) of olden days.  But the objectives of modern human slave traffickers appear to have similar objectives:  Get rid of people who disagree with you.

We think of those called “human traffickers” as being inhuman trash who sell young women or children of both genders and all races into criminal sex rings.  The women and children are slaves to those who sell sexual services of children to pedophiles and sexual services of women to those who buy sex rather than find it in meaningful relationships.  If the slaves do not provide the services for which payment is made, the women and children are severely punished – or, they are killed.  Nothing is more deplorable than those who partake as either providers for or buyers of human flesh.  It is the inhumane – and non-human – behavior of sick people.

Queen Elizabeth and King James couldn’t kill all of the Irish who were too committed to their status as citizens of Ireland.  The Irish and the Scots wanted nothing to do with the British (which made them a huge political problem).  So the King and Queen either killed my people or sold them into slavery.

As News With Views Kelleigh Nelson pointed out in one of the best articles I’ve read on the broad subject of slavery and the South, from 1500 to 1870, close to 600,000 slaves were brought to America’s shores.  Of the 600,000 slaves sold to Americans, about 1/3 of them were Irish.  It is difficult to estimate how many blacks and how many Irish, but there are some documented examples of what the numbers might be.

For example, at the beginning of one 12-year revolt by the Irish known as the Confederation War, the Irish population was 1,466,000.  It fell to 616,000 by the end of the war.  Over 550,000 Irishmen were killed and a minimum of 300,000 men were sold as slaves, a majority were sold in New York, Rhode Island, Massachusetts… on America’s Northeast coast.  Irish men were sold into slavery by the English and their servitude was for life.  Women and children were sold for a certain period of years after which they were to be set free (if they survived).

Irishmen sold into slavery had women and children dependent on them for support.  The dependents were particularly vulnerable.  With their husbands and fathers sold into slavery, children were kidnapped by slavers who took them to local prisons or to workhouses where they were charged with “crimes” such as “vagrancy.”  When mothers, grandparents or concerned others discovered the children had been taken and tried to get them back, the children’s captors and jailers demanded that food the children had eaten be paid for and the war weary citizenry could seldom pay the ridiculous prices charged.  These children were sold into slavery and were brought to America.

The average Irish slave ship carried 300 people, but shipmasters might carry as many as 600.  A Mr. Mittelberger witnessed 32 children thrown into the ocean during one voyage.  A man by the name of David Sellick was to supply New England with 250 women (females above 12 years of age and under 45) and 300 men (over age 12 and no older than 45).  Mr. Sellick’s firm (one of many) was responsible for shipping over 6,400 girls and boys.  Only God knows how many Irish men, women and children Mr. Sellick sent to the New World as slaves.  (See The Irish Slaves by Rhetta Akumatsu.)  

Before black people ever heard of slavery, the Vikings captured the Irish to serve as their slaves — from the 8th to the 12th century.

Being familiar with my Irish history, I get a bit tired of hearing elected black officials talk about their history of victimhood because their ancestors were brought to America as slaves.  The sale of the Irish as slaves in America ended at the same time the sale of African slave sales did – though the signs in windows in from Boston to New York saying “Irish Need Not Apply” for jobs lasted far longer.

“Hypocrite” is, I believe, the appropriate term for those living on our East Coast who so like to portray themselves as too civilized to participate in something as deplorable as owning a black slave (like Southerners did).  Buying Irishmen to be their slaves, however, was okay.

My Irish ancestors were still being rejected for jobs in the North long after the War Between the States was over and many blacks in the South were given land to farm.  I do not suggest that this in any ways justifies what was done to blacks sold into slavery.  I do suggest that history proves an effort of reparations was made to that group.  None has ever been made to the Irish people stolen from their homes by royal English decree and given to human traffickers in England.

I have heard no apologies from New Englanders, New Yorkers, Rhode Islanders and other East Coast residents who enslaved over 300,000 Irish men, women and children.  Yet I have seen no Irish people running to Boston to tear down statues of early American founders whose roots were English or who owned Irish slaves.  I see no Irish people demanding restitution for the misery their ancestors suffered because they were sold by the English into slavery in America.  I see no Irish last names of men elected to Congress demanding advantage over other people because their ancestors were sent to America as slaves.

“Well,” will say Representatives like John Lewis (D-GA) or Sheila Jackson Lee (D-TX), “Irish people are white.  The children of Irish slaves could integrate into the white-dominated society more easily.  Blacks will forever be identified as former slaves because of the color of their skin.”

That’s a good excuse, but it’s not a reason.  An excuse and a reason are two totally different things.

People who use excuses rather than reasons to explain themselves are usually lying – mostly to themselves… or, in the case of politicians, to voters who need an excuse for the choices voters have made in life. 

If Blacks still identify themselves as offspring of former slaves 150 years after slavery ended, they need to take a lesson from other minorities.  The Irish did the same thing the Italians, Hispanic, Asian, Japanese, Chinese and all other immigrant Americans did:  They created their own communities, their own businesses which they supported, and as these new businesses succeeded, their children moved into society on an equal financial footing.  Color had nothing to do with it.  

Black people have not supported their own communities.

There have been no slaves in America since 1870… that’s almost 150 years.  If you calculate 30 years as representative of a generation, that’s five generations since any white, red, yellow, brown,  or black person was sold as a slave in America… at least if “slave” is defined as one who is bought by one person and is sold to another.

In reality, those on welfare today are “bought and sold.”  I don’t care what color you are, without your monthly government dole you would be on the street.  People on Social Security (which is not welfare… Social Security is money people paid into a retirement fund which was stolen rather than invested by the United States Government) have been (unlawfully) “bought and sold.”  Politicians who run for office are bought by those who contribute the largest amounts of money to their campaigns.

Perhaps someone will one day explain to all citizens – black, white, red, brown, yellow – that when you tell society that to achieve success in life – as a family, as a worker, as a business owner, as a student – you need advantages unavailable to others, you will never consider yourself or be considered by others as “equal.”

If you need an advantage over others to be equal to them, you are admitting you do not consider yourself equal.  That’s simple logic.  That is not to say blacks did not need civil rights legislation to gain equal access to good schools and universities.  They did.  They needed equal opportunity in the workplace.  All minorities did.  But black leaders quickly turned equal rights needs into advantage over whites.

The truth is, all disadvantaged people have benefited by the civil rights mostly fought for by Martin Luther King, black legislators and community leaders.  The truth is, once the law forced those who for one reason or another did not want to grant education and employment equality to blacks, other minorities, women, the disabled and others, all that was needed was effort by those needing the protection and enforcement of the law.

Sure.  There are a few thousand white supremacists in America – former Senator Robert Byrd, a Democrat of West Virginia, is a good example.  He was a lifelong member of the Ku Klux Klan until it became politically disadvantageous for him.  But a few thousand white supremacists are not enough to make a dent in a national election for the Presidency of this nation.  Neither can a few thousand people withhold access to being a successful, productive member of society from an entire race of people who do what is necessary to help themselves.

It’s interesting, isn’t it?  We call ourselves Americans, not Irish-Americans.  We do not separate ourselves from other people by hyphenating our national origin.  There are a lot of Irish people whose ancestors were brought here as slaves but are now proud Americans.  They love this country.  It doesn’t matter how they got here.

In truth, the current “let’s tear down all of the historic figures who owned slaves” is nothing more than an attempt to tear down America’s history… to destroy us as a nation just like having open borders removes our status as a nation.  It is part of the plot to establish world government.

You would think that black leaders of people who are killing one another at record rates and whose out-of-marriage birth rate is 70% might want to take a page out of the book of other people whose ancestors were brought to America against their will but who succeeded, regardless.  That applies to white as well as minorities (whose out-of-wedlock birth rate is lower than whites), but not to blacks.

That concept, however, does not fill the needs of black politicians and community leaders and organizers who are leaders in the black community.  They are leading people, many of whom I dearly love, over a cliff.

© 2017 Marilyn Barnewall – All Rights Reserved

Tribalism Explained

By Marilyn M. Barnewall

News With Views

Jul 23, 2017

Words have meaning. How we interpret the words we hear and the words we use have consequences. Yet, few people spend time analyzing the real meaning of words we all say and hear.

What does the word fair mean? In the world of liberal progressives, “fair” means pitting one group of people against another group, demanding that one side deserves more “fairness” than the other because of… you name it (it can be any excuse).  Liberals think in terms of divide and conquer class warfare.  They create “victims” within the groups they attack. Which groups?

·      Rich vs. poor (or haves vs. have-nots)

·      Productive vs. non-productive

·      Taxpayers vs. non-taxpayers

·      Seniors vs. youth

·      Victims vs. criminals

·      Healthy vs. unhealthy

·      Race vs. race (white vs. black, brown vs. black, white vs. brown, brown vs. yellow, black vs. everyone to protect victim status, etc.)

·      Male vs. female

·      Female vs. male

·      Gay and lesbian vs. straight

·      People of faith vs. non-believers and members of other faiths:

·      Catholics vs. Protestants

·      Mormons vs. all traditional Christian religions

·      Christians vs. Jews

·      Christian vs. Muslims

·      Muslims vs. Jews

·      Muslims vs.Christians

·      Pro-life vs. pro-choice

·      Pro-Second Amendment vs. Opposition to Gun Ownership

·      And on and on and on…

It is a very long list.  When you hear members of various media outlets say the words “identity politics,” that is what the words mean:  Identifying people with a group or gang – or, tribe rather than as individuals.   The media usually does not use these words.

Regardless, they accurately define the tribal wars that liberal progressives use to gain and keep power.

The objective is to throw as many daily crises on your plate as possible so that intellectual chaos results.  That is a major purpose of identity politics.

Why do liberals want your intellect to be chaotic?  Because it is hard for the mind to reason in the midst of chaos.  When you aren’t reasoning, you  miss what’s going on behind the curtain the Wiz tries so hard to keep closed.  The best way to cover up major events and unspeakable objectives (from the overthrow of the American government to world government to being nuked by North Korea) is to prevent you from viewing your world and what is really happening in it through a logical lens.  In short, it’s the way they hide what they’re really doing.  If they can make you fearful, they win the game.  That’s why the Russia thing will remain at the top of the media’s chaos list for as long as they can milk it.

If having the above as the platform for one of your two political parties doesn’t frighten you, it should.

What “they” are doing is strongly motivating people to become part of a group… or, better said, a tribe.  This is how you achieve tribalism.  It is the most dangerous psychological ops game the Deep Statists have played thus far.

Tribalism was well-explained by Ayn Rand in numerous publications and you can find good overviews of it at the Atlas Society web site.  I encourage you to familiarize yourself with the information they provide.  The Rand philosophy says “To live, man must hold three things as the supreme and ruling values of his life:  Reason—Purpose – Self-esteem.”  Reason and self-esteem rely on your ability to think logically.

The Merriam Webster Dictionary defines tribalism as:  “Tribal consciousness and loyalty; especially exaltation of the tribe above other groups.”

That describes perfectly what is going on at the University of California Berkeley (and everywhere else in America) when they reject speakers who bring logical and well documented arguments to stimulate thought about solving problems.

After UC Berkeley students succeed at rejecting speakers, they suffer terrible tension placed on them by the thought of having someone say something with which they disagree.  To east the stress, they protest – if you call protest breaking the windows of small, independent businesses belonging to people who have worked hard most of their lives to succeed and build that shop.  So much for the value of what the University of California teaches.

The same is true of the increased hostility between races, especially during the eight year term of Barack Obama.  When Attorney General Eric Holder ignored the threats made outside of a polling place when white voters were threatened by black militants carrying signs and slapping batons in their hands outside of the place the people were going to vote was a very dangerous form of tribalism.

“These men are part of my tribe and I, an elected official who took an Oath to uphold the Constitution and to represent all people when enforcing the law, place my tribe’s importance above your tribe and hereby tell you that any Oath I take is worthless.  Thus, don’t trust me because my tribe comes before honor. ”

Tribalism is what Barack Obama did when he took sides with black Harvard Professor Henry Louis Gates in Cambridge, Massachusetts in a dispute with a police officer (whose behavior was proven right).  Ferguson, MO was tribalism.  The riots in the streets of Ferguson and Baltimore were declarations of tribal power.  These are all perfect examples of tribalism.

These examples prove tribalism is a very dangerous thing and is not a toy for idiot politicians to use to engender emotional responses that gain votes.  Idiots?  Anyone who plays with fire is an idiot.

President Trump is absolutely correct in placing America First to restore sanity and social order.  From the crime waves caused by Chicago gangs (gangs are tribes) to American youth deciding they want to join ISIS, most of the violence we see around the world today represents some form of tribalism.

Tribalism is widespread and if President Trump can survive the Deep State and Swamp attacks against him and his policies which are designed to destroy tribalism in this nation, we will be fortunate, indeed, because it is the fastest way to return all of us to the cave and a social order based on survival of the fittest.

Whether it’s the Crypts or the Bloods or the more recent MS-13 being diligently pursued by the Department of Justice, all of it screams “My tribe is bigger, better and stronger than yours!”  Like dogs pee on trees to establish their territory, so, too, do gangs pee on (or shoot or knife) their opponents for what?  The same reasons: perceived territory, superiority and proof of the power of the tribe.

Most wars are an example of tribalism… e.g., in the Middle East, most of the fighting is between Sunni and Shia Muslim tribes.  The Czechs have pulled apart from Slovakia and the Kurds want independence from Iraq.  Many Scots want sovereignty… they no longer want to be part of the United Kingdom.  Great Britain had its Brexit moment last year and currently prepares to return to the British tribe and depart the European Union.

As Bill Clinton’s Secretary of Labor, liberal progressive Robert Reich who is currently the Chancellor’s Professor of Public Policy at the University of California, Berkeley, says on his blog, “Before the rise of the nation-state, between the eighteenth and twentieth centuries, the world was mostly tribal.  Tribes were united by language, religion, blood and belief.”

Reich correctly points out that “Nations are becoming less relevant in a world where everyone and everything is interconnected.  The connections that matter most are again becoming more personal.  Religious beliefs and affiliations, the nuances of one’s own language and culture, the daily realities of class, and the extensions of one’s family and its values – all are providing people with even greater senses of identity.”

The first sentence of the above quote explains why liberal progressives want open borders and believe a wall to keep America a safe, sovereign nation is evil.  They want everything interconnected… how else can you have a world government?  It is why the liberal progressive tribe is so filled with hatred for President Donald J. Trump who opposes tribalism and supports individualism… and a fence at our border.

Note how the sentence beginning with “Religious beliefs…” views each person as part of a group rather than as an individual… another major part of the liberal progressive philosophy.  People thinking as individuals cannot be controlled; group think can be controlled.  Thus, people as individuals are dangerous to the liberal progressive cause.

If “they” can divide us into small groups rather than Americans standing shoulder- to-shoulder regardless of race or religion, demanding our Constitutional rights and freedoms, they can beat us down (as they have the Europeans) and remove our national pride, our sense of sovereignty as Americans, and all of the other things that make us unique in the world – at least once the swamp is cleaned we will once again be unique.

Reich made a couple of interesting comments on his blog.

“Each tribe is headed by rival warlord whose fighting has almost brought the national government in Washington to a halt.  Increasingly, the two tribes live separately in their own regions – blue or red state, coastal or mid-section, urban or rural – with state or local governments reflecting their contrasting values.”

“I’m not making a claim of moral equivalence.  Personally, I think the Republican right has gone off the deep end, and if polls are to be believed, a majority of Americans agree with me.”  … Robert Reich

Well, Professor Reich, the polls – and you – were not to be believed.  Otherwise, we’d be calling our President “Clinton” rather than “Trump.”

I have to ask this question:  How honest is a man who will make this statement after the Republicans control both chambers in 32 states, including 17 with veto-proof majorities. Those 32 states cover 61 percent of the U.S. population.

Democrats, meanwhile, control legislatures in 13 states, amounting to 28 percent of the country’s population.  Republicans now control governor’s offices in 33 states — those states make up 60 percent of the population.  Democrats control 16 states that have 40 percent of the population.  This statistic is particularly important when viewed from the perspective that in 2009 the Democrats held two-thirds of the governorships… a 50 percent decrease in political power in just 7 years.  So how can an intellectually honest person say the Republicans are the ones who have gone off the deep end?  Answer:  An honest person cannot.

The Democrats also lost their majority in Congress over the past six years, both the House and the Senate.  Now they have lost the Presidency — and the Republicans are the ones who have gone off the deep end?  Please!

Keep your eyes open for examples of tribalism because wherever it is being implemented it is dangerous… you might particularly want to watch your public schools (including universities).

At no time has it ever been more important for Americans to stand shoulder-to-shoulder, united as citizens of this great nation.  After accepting that our country comes first and every citizen of this nation is important to me (if I want to remain free), we can, like any family, have our disagreements and still belong to any group or tribe we want.

© 2017 Marilyn M. Barnewall – All Rights Reserved