Slavery has never really been abolished in the U.S. and the police murder of George Floyd shows that its principles and root beliefs are still very much in play, according to Prof. Jared A Ball, a professor of communication studies at Morgan State University.
Ball is the author of the recently published book, “The Myth and Propaganda of Black Buying Power.” He also wrote “I MiX What I Like: A MiXtape Manifesto.” His research interests include the interaction between colonialism, mass media theory and history, as well as the development of underground journalism and cultural expression as mechanisms of social movements and political organization, The Black Scholar reported.
“Slavery has never been abolished and its principles (if not practice) remain at the core of this country’s social and economic order,” Ball said in an interview with Mehr News, an Iranian news agency based in Tehran, owned by the Islamic Ideology Dissemination Organization.
Ball addressed what he thinks would help the struggle in the U.S.
He said he’s not convinced that protests will effect much change, even if there is a change in the White House.
“It is always hard to say where protests like these might go. However, historical precedent would suggest that due to insufficient organization in preparation for protracted struggle and without an electoral political outlet to develop public policy solutions which will truly satisfy the underlying conditions of these protests, that the outcomes will be largely symbolic,” Ball said.
Ball pointed out that since the uprisings occurred, there have already have been more killings by police of Black people.
“No politician has voiced a plan to redistribute national resources to Black communities,” he said. “Instead, the leading ‘opponent’ to Trump, Joe Biden, says he wants to increase funding to police by at least $300 million. So no, there is no evidence of meaningful changes in behavior to African America.”
The justice system, Ball insisted, enslaves Black people.
“More Black people are imprisoned or in various stages of parole and probation than were held in bondage at the height of slavery and produce more wealth for the owners of this economy than ever under previous forms of enslavement,” he pointed out.
Why have Black people continued to be oppressed? Ball said it’s because the U.S. economy depends on it.
“The 13th Amendment only requires that conviction of a crime precede legal enslavement, and as many have pointed out since, capitalism is contemporary enslavement of working people with Black people most exploited still,” Ball said.
Listen to GHOGH with Jamarlin Martin | Episode 72: Jamarlin Martin Part 2. J. Edgar Hoover, the first director of the FBI, may not be around but his energy is present in new Black politics.FBI agents and informants were used to weaken Marcus Garvey, the Nation of Islam and the Black Panthers — in many cases for money and career advancement. How could this energy metastasize into the “New Blacks” politics in 2020? Jamarlin goes solo to discuss who is doing the trading and what is being traded to weaken the aggregate Black political position.
Facing racism head-on would be the only way to eliminate it, Ball said. “The best way to help with structural racism in the U.S. would be for those around the world to be honest about and to address their own anti-Black/anti-African attitudes…Of even greater help would be if countries around the world made this attack on structural racism substantive and material by finding ways to redistribute resources of their countries to address legacies of anti-Blackness: erase debt, provide housing, lands, healthcare, education, etc. Show the U.S. what real change looks like, beyond symbol. That would help the struggle here.”
