lost cause
The Plantation Myth
One of the more pernicious memes propagated by apologists for slavery is that of the placid plantation populated by enslaved people enjoying their lives in an agrarian paradise. Amplified by countless historians and… Read More ›
Erasure
In grade school, we unquestioningly accepted the duty of a teacher erasing the blackboard no matter what material had been chalked. Sometimes, we might have had some concern that we had failed to copy some vital information into our notebooks…. Read More ›
The Symbols of Subjugation
Domination (i.e., subjugation) of one group of people by another is not only familiar in the history of the human race but has disturbing relevance in contemporary times: Uighurs in China and Rohingya in Myanmar, to cite a couple. The… Read More ›
Whistling Dixie The Virginia Way
By Frank Blechman Maybe our inclination as Virginians to deceive ourselves goes all the way back to the beginning. The very first settlers at Jamestown were not (to borrow a phrase from the 20th century) the “best and the brightest.”… Read More ›