King’s New Rationale For Voting Against Slave Labor Resolution: It Wasn’t ‘A Balanced Depiction Of History’
King’s New Rationale For Voting Against Slave Labor Resolution: It Wasn’t ‘A Balanced Depiction Of History’
Yesterday, a number of blogs reported that right-wing Rep. Steve King (R-IA) was the lone dissenter on a House vote to acknowledge the role that slave labor had in constructing the U.S. Capitol. The resolution would merely authorize the placement of a marker inside the new Capitol Visitor Center to acknowledge the work of slaves.
In an attempt to quell the criticism, King spun his vote as an effort to defend religion. He said in a statement that he opposed the slave labor resolution because it was put up for a vote before the depiction of “In God We Trust” could be considered in the Visitor Center.
But in an interview with Radio Iowa yesterday, King offered a new explanation for his vote, complaining that the slave labor resolution wasn’t a “balanced depiction of history”:
KING: I would just add that there were about 645,000 slaves that were brought to the United States. And I’m with Martin Luther King, Jr. on this. His documents, his speeches – I’ve read most of them. And I agree with almost every word that came out of him. Slavery was abhorrent, but it was also a fact of life in those centuries where it existed.
And of the 645,000 Africans that were brought here to be forcibly put into slavery in the United States, there were over 600,000 people that gave their lives in the Civil War to put an end to slavery. And I don’t see the monument to that in the Congressional Visitor Center, and I think it’s important that we have a balanced depiction of history.
Listen here (full interview available here):
The Capitol Visitor Center is simply trying to recognize the work of those who built the Capitol. But King is apparently concerned that slaves are being unduly recognized while Union soldiers who fought for their emancipation are not getting any credit. He simply needs to open his eyes and look around Washington, DC. If he steps right outside the Capitol, he’ll see the Ulysses S. Grant memorial, a monument that commemorates the former general of the Union Army. (See picture to the right.)
Grant’s statue is flanked on either side by monuments of fighting Union Artillery and Cavalry groups. The Grant statue faces west toward the Lincoln Memorial, which of course honors the President who led the effort to free the slaves. In addition, at the Congressional Cemetery lies the Arsenal Monument, a memorial in honor of women who died while performing services for the Union Army. And there’s also an African American Civil War Memorial that honors the contributions that African-American troops made to the war effort.
If Steve King wants to learn more about how DC has honored the contributions of Union soldiers, he can order this book, titled: “Testament to Union: Civil War Monuments In Washington, D.C.” And if King’s truly interested in a “balanced depiction of history,” he’d be supporting a simple acknowledgment of slave labor’s role in building the Capitol, a memorial that doesn’t currently exist in DC.
Topic Cloud
ArchivesBlog Roll
Steve King loves Iowa because there are so few black people there.
July 9th, 2009 at 11:31 amSomeone should tell King that the mask is off and the right wingers don’t bother to hide their racism anymore….
July 9th, 2009 at 11:36 amCome on, Little Stevie. Do us all a favor. Pull a “Palin”.
July 9th, 2009 at 11:36 amFor some reason, Rep. King only counts those who were forcibly relocated here in his comparison with the number of war dead.
A couple of things to consider:
The total slave population of the United States in 1860 was 3.9 million.
Among the 600,000 that King claims who “gave their lives in the Civil War to put an end to slavery” he counts 258,000 Confederate dead who were basically fighting to PRESERVE slavery.
So, taking a reasonable look at King’s comparison, instead of a near balance of slaves victimized by slavery and the brave souls who sacrificed to end it, we actually have about 10 slaves in 1860 alone for every soldier who actually died in the effort to end slavery.
If we want to count up the total number of Americans who lived as slaves from the seventeenth century until 1865, Rep. King’s attempt at “balance” looks even more absurd.
July 9th, 2009 at 11:39 amRacism is as racism does.
July 9th, 2009 at 11:40 amThe GOP has ran everyone with any sense of reason out of their party. All they have left are the religious, the racists, the uneducated, and the fearful.
July 9th, 2009 at 11:46 amWell **I** was against the resolution because DC doesn’t have a single monument to the aliens that built the crop circles and Mayan pyramids.
July 9th, 2009 at 11:47 amAnother quote from King Bigot:
“We are — we keep marrying other species and other ethnics and other … See, the problem is the Swedes have pure genes. Because they marry other Swedes …. Fins marry other Fins, so they have a pure society.”
Racism is based on ignorance and fear. Of course, so are most Republican policies.
July 9th, 2009 at 11:48 amAnd….black slaves were counted as 3/5 of a person when assigning Congressional representation, but had absolutely NO rights.
One of the 2 WORST rulings EVER by SCOTUS was the Dread Scott decision, the other was Bush vs Gore 2000.
July 9th, 2009 at 11:50 amKind of surprising that this nitwit is from Iowa, which to my knowledge was heavily pro-union and pro Lincoln. I can expect this behavior from southerners who’s ancestors fought in the confederacy, but I guess ignorance knows no boundaries, chronologically or geographically.
I for one am sick and tired of southern racists. It was they who were primarily responsible for bringing the majority of slaves from Africa to work on plantations. Why? Because they didn’t want to do the work for themselves.
I say STFU, quit b1tching about your supposed ‘black’ problem, because it was the laziness of your ancestors who brought them here in the 1st place.
July 9th, 2009 at 11:54 amWhatever happened to that Black Irish acidhead Outback Wandering Sun worshipping pretend guy? Maybe he has some thoughts on this…
July 9th, 2009 at 11:54 amTo really have a balanced story, I want to know the number of “I’m with Stupid” t-shirts Steve King has given out to friends, family, colleagues, and acquaintences.
July 9th, 2009 at 11:55 amBefore anyone jumps on me for that last comment, I am not implying that there is in fact a ‘black’ problem. The southerners still consider blacks to be ‘problems’, or the source of their problems. My point was to tell them STFU, you sleep in the bed you make.
July 9th, 2009 at 11:57 amKing’s running out of reasons to justify his petty, small-minded vote. First, it’s because there’s no endorsement of religion in the CVC. Then, it’s because there’s no plaque honoring Civil War dead in the CVC. What’s next — a complaint that there’s no photo of the first Mercury launch?
Look, Steve — your hatred of people of African ancestry is great enough that you can’t even bring yourself to acknowledge that the building you work in was built by them (and not on a voluntary basis, either). But if you’re going to get called on your vote, as you have, can’t you at least be honest about it? Instead of offering these completely lame justifications that fool nobody?
July 9th, 2009 at 11:57 amIs any Republican with the last name “King” by definition, a moron?
July 9th, 2009 at 11:58 amIt wasn’t a blananced depiction of history? Neither were the slave conditions, jim crow, then denial of rights in a fair and equal balance with the rights of whites.
What an ahole.
By the way King, our society isn’t color blind just yet.
July 9th, 2009 at 11:59 amdbadass #13,
i remember that guy, for a troll he was pretty (unintentionally) funny.
July 9th, 2009 at 12:01 pmShorter King “blacks are ungrateful for all the nice things whites have done to help them”
July 9th, 2009 at 12:02 pmDo Swedes ever marry Fins?
July 9th, 2009 at 12:02 pmSo King’s idea of a fair and balanced monument would be to have a gigantic confederate flag and lynching noose tree for him to eat his lunch under?
July 9th, 2009 at 12:04 pmThe only way to get racists like Steve King out of our government is if people stop voting for him. Steve King is a Republican, so he has no morality, so there is no way to get him to stop his evil behavior. He cannot be shamed into better behavior.
The people of Iowa that voted for him are another subject. They should be ashamed of themselves. What sort of people would send a racist to represent them?
The people of Iowa have a duty to America and that is to mount a recall campaign for King. The rest of us have a duty to shame Iowans into not voting for racists.
July 9th, 2009 at 12:04 pmKing also decried the lack of a monument to the slave-owners, who did the hard work of barking orders and whipping the slaves all day… while they built the Capitol…
July 9th, 2009 at 12:06 pmdbadass Says:
Do Swedes ever marry Fins?
I dunno, but I know an American who did. Can’t blame him, either, because at 60+ she’s still a knockout. Weird damn language, though.
July 9th, 2009 at 12:08 pmiowa actually has a notable and honorable role in re to slavery. it was the only state of the missouri compromise to reject slavery; and the iowa supreme court issued one of the earliest rulings in favor of a missouri slave who had been given permission by his owner to work in iowa to earn money to purchase his freedom. once in iowa — a ‘free state’ — his rights as a free man were secured, despite kidnappers’ efforts to return him to missouri.
and this from the 1854 inaugural address of James Grimes, the newly appointed governor:
“The removal of that great landmark of freedom, the Missouri Compromise line, when it had been sacredly observed until slavery has acquired every inch of soil south of it, has presented the aggressive character of that system broadly before the country. It has forced upon this country an issue between free labor, political equality and manhood on the one hand; and on the other, slave labor, political degradation and wrong. It becomes the State of Iowa – the only free child of the Missouri Compromise – to let the world know that she values the blessings that compromise has secured to her, and that she never will consent to become a party to the nationalization of slavery.”
Steve King is an embarrassment to the people of Iowa and its history.
July 9th, 2009 at 12:08 pmRantingTommy Says:
Another quote from King Bigot:
“We are — we keep marrying other species and other ethnics and other … See, the problem is the Swedes have pure genes. Because they marry other Swedes …. Fins marry other Fins, so they have a pure society.”
So… If Americans are marrying Americans, then what’s the problem? :)
July 9th, 2009 at 12:13 pm“And I’m with Martin Luther King, Jr. on this. His documents, his speeches – I’ve read most of them.”
Looks like he is doing a bit of back-peddling here…and the “I’ve read most of them.” is, well, not really believable from this cretin.
July 9th, 2009 at 12:14 pmThanks for that background, linda. Well done.
July 9th, 2009 at 12:14 pmKing: “We are — we keep marrying other species…”
Really? Can’t remember the last time a human married a different species…
That’s what you get when you don’t understand teh science….
July 9th, 2009 at 12:15 pmAs if the Union Army had some divine calling to end slavery. BZZZZZZZ. Everyone tries to simplify history as this side wanted slavery-this side didn’t. Many northerners, including soldiers in the Union Army, could care less about slavery. It was not the motivation of the Union Army as we are taught to believe in elementary school. As far as Iowa King is concerned, he’s a fcking tool bag rascist moron. I think their should be a plaque at the Capitol and the true role of slavery taught in schools.
July 9th, 2009 at 12:17 pmWhenever a Republican resorts to using numbers to defend anything, a word of caution. It is very clear where they pull those numbers from. If a Republican can see a number, keep in mind where their heads are located.
July 9th, 2009 at 12:17 pmKing’s excuse doesn’t hold up logically by itself, either.
What he is proposing is actually a one-sided depiction of history: The version of the people who suffered under and/or were against slavery.
For a “balanced depiction of history” (a la FoxNews), there would need to be a monument to the people who owned slaves, who defended the institution of slavery, and who fought to defend it.
I cannot fathom anyone defending that idea -not even King. At least not publicly. What a twit.
July 9th, 2009 at 12:19 pmLibertyLover Says:
Really? Can’t remember the last time a human married a different species…
Oh yeah well according to O’Liely we’ll soon be marrying turtles and ducks so just you wait
July 9th, 2009 at 12:20 pmcitizen_pain Says
July 9th, 2009 at 11:57 am
Before anyone jumps on me for that last comment, I am not implying that there is in fact a ‘black’ problem. The southerners still consider blacks to be ‘problems’, or the source of their problems. My point was to tell them STFU, you sleep in the bed you make.
___________________________________________________________
And your point is well taken. For decades after slavery ended, the southern states maintained strict racial segregation in most places, and many whites resented the presence of blacks. But, as you say, it was their ancestors who uprooted blacks from their homeland and brought them here, so they really had no cause to complain.
But I would like to clear up a misconception. The south that you speak of really doesn’t exist anymore, except in a few very rural areas. Even the city of Philadephia, MS (the setting for “Mississippi Burning”) has a black mayor now, even though the majority of the city is white.
I live in a southern state (North Carolina), and I find far more racial integration and racial tolerance among the people here (of all colors) than I experienced in places outside the south I have lived. In the Los Angeles area, for example (where I lived for a few years), people are fearful and distrusting of anybody from any ethnic group not their own. But here, it’s a normal thing for a person of any color to walk up to a total stranger of any other color, ask for directions someplace, and receive not only detailed directions with a smile, but a conversation about the weather and other subjects, and a genuine wish to have a nice day.
I’m not saying racism doesn’t exist here. It exists to some extent everywhere. But it’s not as overt as it was during the Jim Crow days, and it’s considerably less noticeable than many places outside the South. In fact, many Northerners who come here are very surprised to find the way people relate to each other here never seems to fit their pre-set assumption.
So I don’t think it’s southerners who are the ones who perceive a “black” problem — certainly no more than the rest of the country. Yes, there are a few jerks like Senator Sessions, but you pretty much have to admit politicians like Steve King are more likely to be found wearing a white hood. And for a blatant example of modern-day racism, look no further than Philadelphia (Pennsylvania, not Mississippi):
http://www.nbcphiladelphia.com/news/local/Pool-Boots-Kids-Who-Might-Change-the-Complexion.html
July 9th, 2009 at 12:24 pmYeah, to get off subject (like that never happens here) along the marriage theme, if you mix races (any race) the children that come out of those marriages are beautiful, intelligent, healthy children. What more can we ask?
July 9th, 2009 at 12:24 pmThen the real challenge starts in how they are raised. But that is a COMPLETELY different topic.
The Union soldiers did not fight to end slavery – they fought to maintain the Union. Slavery was the proximate cause for the South’s secession, but the Civil War did not start and was not fought to end slavery. Slavery did not really end until after WWII; the Emancipation Proclamation and the end of the Civil War was the beginning of the end of slavery, but that process took another 70 years or more to complete.
July 9th, 2009 at 12:26 pmDidn’t anyone tell King that the Swedes and Finns are evil Socialists?
July 9th, 2009 at 12:30 pmAs a biology major in college I studies genetics. The first thing they teach you is that larger gene pools produce superior biological specimens. Both Adolf Hitler and Rep. Steve King (R-IA) had it backwards.
July 9th, 2009 at 12:34 pmOh, I think there are several of these throwback Repugnants who have participated in inter-species relationships, maybe not marriage.
“Please, Mr. King. Make an honest sheep out of me.”
Or chicken, or mule, or horse, or…..
July 9th, 2009 at 12:35 pmSlavery was the reason the south wanted to secede. The norhern states fought to preserve the union – north and south, but slavery wasn’t the cause of the war (?).
o.k. I’ve read enough and been taught enough that you can find competing reasons for the start of the war. However, with an accurate reading of history and Lincoln’s notes and letters, I’d have to disagree with you.
Slavery was the cause of the war, therefore the end of slavery was a necessity and was what the north was fighting for.
July 9th, 2009 at 12:37 pmI agree shoeless, repetitive inbreeding causes problems in all species, including ours. You get some pretty mean banjo players though.
July 9th, 2009 at 12:37 pm22. dbadass – Sweded and Finns marry. Finland used to be part of the Swedish empire, so there is a good bit of Swedish blood in Finland. Not to mention that about 1 or 2 % of the population of Finland have Swedish as their first language (many speak little Finnish).
July 9th, 2009 at 12:42 pmWasn’t the primary argument during the civil war the question of the “right” of the southern states to leave the union? Was not the primary reason that the war was fought was to maintain the United States AS the United States? The issue of slavery was secondary, being an issue that was a hot-button issue of the time to get people (on either side) emotionally involved. It was also a clear defining difference between the union and confederate states.
Quite simply, the confederate states acted as traitors to The United States — they wanted to steal land and resources to declare themselves their own independent country.
Mind you, Steve King IS a racist bigoted small minded republican nitwit scumbag deserving of intense public ridicule and humiliation for his backwards thinking brain cell (yes, just one) and the idiotic filth he spews. The preceeding comment applies to 99.99999867% of all republicans.
And I don’t know about marrying other species… well, it is certainly a possibility (laws nonwithstanding), however, breeding with a different species is another bag of genetics alltogether. However, whoever made the comment, that they said species where they meant race clearly shows their ethnic-elitist views (nazi, anyone?….): they believe other races (or at least some other races) to be so inferior as to be no longer human — to be a different species.
And finally… while there are many animal lovers out there who are focused on “pure bed” animals, the fact is that your “mutts” are, on the average, smarter (and sometimes physically superior) to their parents breeds. The samller the gene pool, the weaker the creature. The broader the gene pool, the better the result. O.k. someone could phrase that in a more intelligent and scientific manner. I’m in a rush. :)
July 9th, 2009 at 12:43 pmAmazing how hard empirical facts and human reason just run right over freaking freaks like that Steve King character.
(I wonder if he and Michele Bachmann are getting it on…?)
====
July 9th, 2009 at 12:44 pmO.k. I see I was a bit late to make my points. they’ve done been made.
That’s what I get for swimming in the shallow end of the gene pool. :/ :O ;)
July 9th, 2009 at 12:45 pmIt would be funny if it weren’t so disgusting. Why do these bigots always “come up with a second explanation” when their first one’s don’t float. This guy is a pro christian racist. He is pathetic. With a voice to match. Anti gay, anti black and probably anti middle class
July 9th, 2009 at 12:46 pmhttp://quickfacts.census.gov/qfd/states/19000.html
July 9th, 2009 at 12:52 pm
jbrantow Says:
It would be funny if it weren’t so disgusting. Why do these bigots always “come up with a second explanation” when their first one’s don’t float.
Its not just the racists that do that. Seems to me, at least, that a lot of repugs (more than anyone else) do that a lot.
It is observable in children who just got caught doing something wrong, but want to wriggle out of it, or diminish it. They offer an excuse, and as sson as the excuse is obviously not good enough (or when they’ve had a moment to come up with a better excuse) they offer a new one. They are simply trying to find the right words for you to find what they did acceptable… although THEY know that they did something wrong AND for the wrong reasons.
Someone who does something for what they believe are the right reasons do not offer repeatedly different reasonings for the same action. They have a sound principle to stand on, and they stand on it.
July 9th, 2009 at 12:55 pmWell, it does better than S.Dakota, which has only a 1.1% black population.
July 9th, 2009 at 12:55 pmtony and lido
jbrantow Says:
Pro-fanatical XXXtian Right. Hardly anything to do with the best sentiments of the Sermon On the Mount–Love, Charity, etc. Let’s not go attacking all Christians. We know where that kind of thing ultimately leads.
====
July 9th, 2009 at 12:57 pmWow. He really is a spin doctor. Well, I have some advice for him: Sit and spin.
July 9th, 2009 at 1:11 pmNobody cares about blacks
July 9th, 2009 at 1:11 pmAs long as we’re on the subject of nut-job Republicans in Congress, let’s hope that Sen. Jim DeMint (R-SC) gets his due:
we’re about where Germany was before World War II where they became a social democracy. You still had votes but the votes were just power grabs like you see in Iran, and other places in South America, like Chavez is running down in Venezuela.
Talk about a bunch of easily-terrified, pants-wetting sissies…
July 9th, 2009 at 1:20 pmI may be wrong but I do believe the population of blacks in the US is a much larger number than that of the bigoted, racist theocrats like our little buddy. When you add in the other minorities and the folk who actually think, the difference grows.
So when some bonehead says nobody cares about blacks, he is closer to the truth than he realizes. The ‘nobodys’ on the fringe are getting closer and closer to oblivion.
We can always hope. (and keep pushing)
July 9th, 2009 at 1:23 pmNormally, my first thought would be that a troll had been name-jacked.
But then I realized that some of them really ARE this racist.
And what would be the point of name-jacking a troll anyway? You can’t really make them sound stupider than they themselves do.
July 9th, 2009 at 1:24 pmA brief education about the civil war for the racist congressman King…
The civil war was fought to keep the racist south -who were then mostly democrats- from breaking off from the rest of the nation. Lincoln had to be pressured by liberal radicals and incrimintalist to free the slaves, and he only did it after he saw a military advantage in doing so.
If Lincoln could’ve kept the union together and kept slavery at the same time, HE WOULD’VE.
He was a racist by todays standards, just as many of the Union soldiers were, but he was viewed as a good man when measured against the men of his time because he was considered the lesser of two evils. Now because of Lincoln’s efforts -and his relationship with Fredrick Douglas- post slavery, mostly all blacks were REPUBLICAN.
When the republican party decided to employ the racist “southern strategy” to attempt to appeal to the racist south, blacks abandoned the party of Lincoln and defected to the democratic plantation in DROVES.
Now, the racist south (some states who still wave the confederate flag) is mostly Republican and still entertaining the thought of breaking off from the union after all these years. (Can someone say Texas? Lol)…
July 9th, 2009 at 1:29 pmThese die-hard racists are sickening.
July 9th, 2009 at 1:35 pmI’d say he was an old fart who is too ignorant snd stubborn to change his ways, but this guy is too young to be senile at 60 — he has no excuse. He is a bigot, living in the past. Plain and simple. His type of primitive thinking cannot become extinct too soon.
Reparations4TheBlackHolocaustNOW Says:
When the republican party decided to employ the racist “southern strategy” to attempt to appeal to the racist south, blacks abandoned the party of Lincoln and defected to the democratic plantation in DROVES.
Now, the racist south (some states who still wave the confederate flag) is mostly Republican and still entertaining the thought of breaking off from the union after all these years. (Can someone say Texas? Lol)…
Do you think you are telling us something we don’t know? Absolutely everyone here knows this.
July 9th, 2009 at 1:41 pmIt would be interesting to know what part of Iowa King is from. Are his constituents mostly farmers?
If they are, they will be more interested in getting agricultural support payments than King’s stand on race.
In fairness to the farmers, one must realize that the farmers get scr*wed on both ends, by the big seed and fertilizer companies and the commodities market. Farmers have little say on how much they get for their crops.
Few urban people appreciate the hard work and difficulties the farmers face.
July 9th, 2009 at 1:48 pmI would like to correct something that was said above:
That’s not exactly true. It is easy to assume that the reason for slavery was lazy white people, but that’s really not a fair assumption. The South was THE source for the farmed goods that the entire country depended on. You didn’t have many cotton plantations in the urbanized North, for example. The main reason that the South refused to give up slavery was not racism, but business interest. Slave labor was free labor, and to pay people to work the fields would have made the cost of the goods so much more that many would not be able to afford it, and thus business hurts.
Now, I’m certainly not defending this. It offends my sensibilities in so many ways, I can’t even begin to get into it here, but the truth of the matter is that it wasn’t evil racism that made the South pro-slavery, it was the almighty dollar.
On a different note, I’ve had the same experiences as a Southerner as missmolly. I have noticed that when I’m in the North, or in a city, the areas are much more segregated and the people much more distrusting of their fellow citizens of color, and are frankly quite rude to everyone else. Here, though, we all live in the same neighborhood, and everyone is treated with the same level of courtesy and hospitality. There are some jerks, but most people are just simply nice to everyone. People are people, and everyone needs other people to give a damn every now and again. Most people who visit the south suddenly understand why we say that Northerners and city-folk are rude. It’s because compared to us, they are.
July 9th, 2009 at 1:53 pmWhy, moderators, is The Young Racist, I mean The Young Republican still allowed to post here?
How many times must it prove its racism with offensive and ridiculous remarks? How many times must the posters point out the blatant plagerism without citation?
Honestly – what do you have to do to get kicked off this site? This isn’t just a matter of differing opinions, it’s a matter of the complete lack of any decency in someone who hates people because of their skin color and steals other people’s intellectual works. Not banning him is tantamount to condoning his actions, and I expect more from people who claim to be progressive.
July 9th, 2009 at 1:58 pmI suppose you want them wiped off the planet as well.
July 9th, 2009 at 2:01 pmsmidget, I noticed in New York City, it was very difficult to get someone on the street to give me directions. Maybe it comes from the hectic pace of their eight-million-person city. Finally found a policeman who nicely told me. There is a lot of racism in NYC and the surrounding area. Whites hating Blacks, Blacks hating Whites, Irish hating Italians, Italians hating Irish, etc. A Black walking into the wrong neighborhood on Long Island can get beaten up with baseball bats, etc. There is racism all around the world.
There is also the problem of capitalism wanting people to work for nothing. Or today, as close to nothing as they can get.
July 9th, 2009 at 2:06 pmThe Young Republican probably does not care about 99% of people.
July 9th, 2009 at 2:09 pmSo in history class, kids should be taught the writings and speeches of John C. Calhoun, Edmund Ruffin, Jefferson Davis, Joseph Brown and Alexander Stevens as morally acceptable counterpoints to abolition?
July 9th, 2009 at 2:18 pmKing could help promote a more “balanced depiction of history” if he were to mention the staggering human cost of bringing 645,000 Africans to North America. The slave trade consisted of kidnapping people deep within the African continent and then putting them on death marches to the slave ports of the western coast. These marches were hundreds and sometimes even thousands of miles long and historians estimate that typically 2 out of 5 people would perish during the marches. Then came the Middle Passage, where historians estimate that only 2 out of 3 people survived the slave ships. So to do the math based on King’s 645,000 estimate it follows that,
1,612,500 Africans would have been kidnapped
976,500 (3 out of 5) would survive the march to the sea.
645,000 (2 out of 3) would survive the Middle Passage and would ultimately arrive in North America.
So for the 645,000 people who made it here alive, 645,000 people would have lost their lives during the overland death march and 322,5000 would have lost their lives during the Middle Passage. I know these are only estimates but they are estimates on the order of magnitude of a Holocaust. We are typically not very accurate at calculating the body counts of our own crimes but making the effort would show that we are actually serious about presenting a “balanced depiction of history”.
July 9th, 2009 at 2:21 pm“I’m with Martin Luther King, Jr. on this. His documents, his speeches – I’ve read most of them. And I agree with almost every word that came out of him.”
In other words, Rep King agrees with MLK that the Vietnam war was “senseless, unjust”, and that the US must change from Capitalist to Socialist.
Keep digging, Rep. King, keep digging.
July 9th, 2009 at 2:24 pmThis is the classic case of a politician talking out of both sides of his mouth.
July 9th, 2009 at 2:26 pmThe Young Republican, sounds like he might be Rep. King, or even worse, a “MOLE” working for the “LUNATIC FRINGE”, of the Republican Party.
These “PATHETIC MORONS”,need to be exposed every time they come out of their “HOLES”.
Whether Rep. King, acknowledge the contributions of the Slaves to building the Nations Capital is “IRRELEVANT”, because Rep. King is “IRRELEVANT”.
It happen, and he nor any one else can ever change that History.
July 9th, 2009 at 2:30 pmWait a minute, don’t the wing-nuts usually say that the Civil War was not fought to free the slaves. I think the claim is that it was about states rights. Could King just be making excuses for being a racist? I mean that Dr. King stuff sounds a lot like “some of my best friends are…”
July 9th, 2009 at 2:37 pmDo rich, old, white men make up 1% of the population?
July 9th, 2009 at 3:03 pmNo one cares about guys like King or Young Republican.They will die alone, screaming because they see the demons coming for them. The dog will eat snack on a body part and the smell will reach the neighbors before anyone notices that they’re dead. That’s how little a difference people like this make in this world. The only thing those around them will feel is relief.
July 9th, 2009 at 4:04 pmthe republicans seem to want to destroy themselves. they are like a petulant child who, after being rebuked by its parents, descends deeper and deeper into a self defeating temper tantrum that will make the ensuing consequences way worse than the original behavior would have.
i still don’t really think the ‘gop’ will dissolve or that a third party will make a serious challenge to it, but i get less and less sure of that, seemingly with every passing day…
http://blahgblog.wordpress.com/2009/07/09/rep-steve-king-r-ia-salvery-was-abhorrent-but/
July 9th, 2009 at 4:30 pmThanks
July 9th, 2009 at 7:33 pmThank You..
Sesli Chat , Sesli Sohbet
July 14th, 2009 at 1:48 amSesli Chat , Sesli Sohbet
Sesli Chat , Sesli Sohbet