Word: slave
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...miners are scornful of that kind of work. "These are proud people, and they've been paid well," says Tucker County Commissioner Jerry DiBacco. "They really resent the prospect of having to slave away for tourists who still have good jobs." Until that day comes, miners can be found idling away the hours at the Italian Supper Club in the sleepy town of Thomas, nursing far-fetched hopes that better times will return, even if the mines...
Without some form of reparations, apologizing for a historical wrong is an empty gesture. For one thing, both the slaves and the slave owners are long since dead, and you can't repent for the sins of others. And even if you could, our legal system recognizes that repentance without compensation serves only to make the apologizer feel good while doing nothing for the victim. It's why the U.S. government not only apologized but paid $20,000 apiece to Japanese Americans who were sent to concentration camps during World War II. And why Germany not only apologized...
...second issue is how to distribute it. As the grandson of a slave, I naturally favor dividing it into lump sums and giving them to my generation of the slaves' descendants--but that would be too much like hitting the lottery. So here's another idea. Use the money to uplift those who have been most hurt not only by the legacy of slavery but by existing discrimination and poverty: the urban and rural black poor. Put the money into a fund--call it the New Freedmen's Bureau--to finance the construction of schools, housing, transportation grids, factories...
More irritating is the sidelining of the black characters, "Ol' Man River" notwithstanding. One especially grating moment involves a little exchange between Cap'n Andy, the proprietor of the Cotton Blossom, and the wise slave Queenie in which the latter, in response to Andy's grumbling that the balcony seats aren't selling, asks him "What about colored folks?" and launches into a ballyhoo aimed exclusively at said "colored folks." However, both Gretha Boston, who won a Tony award for her performance as Queenie, and Andre Solomon-Glover as Queenie's husband Joe, establish considerable presence that prevents their characters...
Born in Haiti as the illegitimate son of a French planter and slave trader and his Creole mistress, Audubon was sent to France for a brief education and then to live on a property owned by his father near Philadelphia, where he became enamored of local birds and wildlife. But a series of businesses he tried all failed; in 1819 he had to declare bankruptcy. That was when, at age 35, he decided to enlarge the collection of American bird paintings he had done over the years and prepare them for publication...