First, if you haven’t read the post from Renee at Womanist Musings (reposted here on Feministe) titled “The Obamas and the Door of No Return,” please do. It’s about the Obama’s visit to Cape Coast Castle, a memorial site for the African slave trade in Ghana.
As part of CNN’s coverage of the trip, “Anderson Cooper 360″ sent reporters Joe Johns and Justine Redmonds to the site of the North South Carolina plantation where Michelle Obama’s great-great-grandfather is thought to have been a slave. It’s an interesting story–we hope it prompts readers and viewers to think about how, just a few generations ago, our First Lady would have been considered the property of a white man. While we certainly can’t look back what happened on the Friendfield Plantation and think, “Whew! Problem solved! Go team!”, the distance between then and now is certainly a profound one. (Also, a slave plantation called “Friendfield” seriously tests our ability to even deal with irony.)
What we would have loved to see CNN do is to acknowledge that all Americans have slave roots, not just Michelle Obama. We are a country that owes much of our prosperity to our slave labor history. The White House was built by slaves. Thomas Jefferson would not have had the leisure to write one of America’s most treasured documents had he not owned slaves. This country would not be here if it weren’t for slaves. This is not news. Slavery is part of our collective history, and not just the history of Michelle Obama and other descendants of the African Diaspora.
Instead of noting that, CNN presented their trip to Friendfield as celebrity story–like going to Spain with Penelope Cruz!–and thoroughly erased the reality of slavery from their coverage. Describing a former plantation as “Not exactly ‘Gone With the Wind’” is almost laughably offensive, implying that if Michelle’s great-great-grandfather had been lucky enough to be a slave on the fictional plantation of Tara, his life would have been that much better. The piece does detail some of the woes of life at Friendfield, noting that the shacks the slaves lived in were hot in summer, cold in winter, and provided little protection from creatures ranging from chiggers to alligators. However, nowhere does CNN note the other unpleasantries Michelle’s great-great-grandfather and other slaves likely experienced, such as rape, flogging, or having one’s child taken away. The most jawdropping line, to us, is this one: “And unlike the CNN crew, the slaves were not free to leave.” No kidding. But hey, lucky you!
Johns and Redmond–and you too, Anderson Cooper– had an opportunity here. They could have taken the story beyond its “Today, instead of her outfit, we’re talking about Michelle’s folks!” premise and brought some powerful truths to their audience. The piece was ostensibly part of the coverage of the Obama’s trip to Cape Coast Castle, but they never made the connection between that place, “where human cargo was shipped off to a life of bondage,” and Friendfield, even thought it was literally right in front of them.
CNN should have foregrounded the fact that slavery is not a historical quirk in Michelle’s lineage, like a tendency towards twins, but a bloody part of every American’s identity. It is incumbent on all of us to reflect on this history and how it still affects us today.
tell the truth on the news??? but it’s just not done!
White folks trivializing slavery – what a shocker!
One of the reporters, Joe Johns, is black. Not sure about the other one.
This post reminds me so much of Canada’s erasing of history.
We don’t talk about our history of slavery, or our destruction and erasure of Black communities, past and present. But I’m assured we’re a wonderful and amazing country, now that “a Haitian with a French passport” is the Governor General.
What is the “not exactly Gone With the Wind” line supposed to mean, anyway? I expected it to come before a description of the property that’s not much like the Tara in the movie, but the only description there is overgrown marsh and pine trees, which is what I’d expect most of the old plantations in that area to look like now. (And, in fact, is how Tara was described quite a few times in the book.)
Slavery is part of our collective history, and not just the history of Michelle Obama and other descendants of the African Diaspora.
And, on the white side of that, not just the history of descendants of slaveowners, either. Even people whose ancestors didn’t come to the US until after slavery was over still had ancestors who came to a country hugely impacted by its history of slavery.
Ruchama’s last line is so true. I am so tired of white people who like to claim they don’t need to acknowledge racism against blacks because their ancestors immigrated after slavery.
Therefore, in their weird world, they don’t have to acknowledge white privilege, and since they are free of white privilege, blacks are not oppressed, and so it just naturally follows that if a black person tries to discuss prejudice, oppression, discrimination or slavery, the non-slaveowner-descended white person has every right to silence the discussion by their preferred silencing method.
Arrrrrrrg.
You make a good point. I didn’t watch the segment because, quite frankly, the story isn’t new. However, a different perspective, such as the one you propose, may have made the segment more intriguing from a historical perspective. Good post. :)
“And unlike the CNN crew, the slaves were not free to leave.”
Wow. Just wow.
I’m trying to remember if the Bush family plantation was *visited* during his time in office…
great post.
i see this piece as indicative of the vile celebrification (new word?) of our culture. as you said, the piece was presented almost as a perky penelope-cruz-shows-us-HER-spain story. when the media turn every news story into a personality-driven ooo-celebrities-are-speshal piece, they miss an opportunity to educate and inform in a meaningful way.
and yes, even us northerners and new immigrants need to take responsibility for slavery. that history is absolutely part of what it is to be american.
Ruchama’s last line is so true. I am so tired of white people who like to claim they don’t need to acknowledge racism against blacks because their ancestors immigrated after slavery.
Therefore, in their weird world, they don’t have to acknowledge white privilege, and since they are free of white privilege, blacks are not oppressed…
Maybe its just my experience but such people don’t actually claim that blacks are not oppressed just that their ancestors had nothing to do with. Though you totally are right that pointing out that they had nothing to do with it does not excuse them their silencing and ignoring.
(Tiny nitpick, its a South Carolina plantation not a North Carolina one.)
Indeed it is! Thank you, Danny, will fix.
I’m trying to remember if the Bush family plantation was *visited* during his time in office…
What plantation?
Even though my ancestor’s enslaved my ancestor’s numerous times, I wouldn’t think that would excuse me from the racism that exists today in America. It exists, it’s a problem and it’s up to everyone to work to change that.
The oppression of “others” has influenced history since before the written word. It’s simply illogical to ignore that and pretend that it has no bearing on the present. The past predicates the present, there’s no getting around that no matter who your ancestor’s are.
Also, just because a white person’s family immigrated to the US after the abolition of slavery it doesn’t mean their ancestors had nothing to do with it where they emigrated from. The US isn’t the only nation where people kept slaves, and vast numbers of people from many different nations may not have had plantations with slaves, but they sure as hell took part in the trade. My own country, Denmark, is a pretty accurate example of that. We’re a tiny country, no huge plantations, so no need for slaves, however, having always had a large merchant fleet it’s only logical that Danish merchantmen would be shipping slaves from “Christiansburg” on the Gold Coast (former Danish colony) to the Caribbean etc.
Not exactly proud history, that, so just because US-ians don’t feel connected to slavery in the US, it certainly doesn’t remove them from the slavery in the rest of the world. I’m not from the US, in fact I’ve never so much as been there, and yet the above bit of history is also part of MY history.
That is a great point Jemima. Everyone has a slave past, probably. Certainly anyone living in the US today, regardless of ethnicity or when you got here, is connected to slavery just by virtue of being part of the American economy and its slave history, and being subject to a government that was created by slave owners.