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variety of societies, each with its own religion, language, and social
structures. Most Africans were not " Kings and Queens. " In fact,
the majority of Africans had a variety of skills and performed
many occupations such as states persons, educators, healers, rice
farmers, and weavers. Indeed, when southerners developed rice
plantations in South Carolina, they captured and enslaved Africans
from modern-day Ghana because they had the skills to grow rice.
Particularly of note, although Africans viewed each other by ethnic
groups such as Asante, Mandingo, Ewe, and Twi, the concept of
race did not exist in African societies. Western Europeans are
the ones who created the concept of race. And it was in the 15th
century, during the European Slave Trade, on crowded slave ships
taking long voyages in chains, where Africans were transformed
into a " race. "
Slavery never benefited the Africans; it benefited
Western capitalism.
More than three and a half centuries of free labor in the Western
Hemisphere allowed the resource-poor Western nations to emerge
as powerful nation-states. Prior to the 16th century, slavery was
part of most societies, but it was not race-based slavery. The
Greeks enslaved non-Greeks, (barbarians). In Islamic society, they
enslaved the infidels and nonbelievers. In African society, they
enslaved individuals who were not part of their ethnic group. But
Western slavery was race-based slavery. And like Roman society,
the United States was a slave society. A slave society is an economy
based entirely upon slave labor. In other words, the Southern
United States was a slave society dedicated to maintaining slavery
and racism in order to develop and maintain white wealth, white
power, and white prosperity. The American economy depended
on slave labor for its survival. This violent and exploitative system
not only allowed a minority of rich southern planters to profit off
African labor and resources but provided a psychological benefit
for poor whites. For example, in 1860, there were eight million
southern whites, but only 2100 were part of the planter class who
owned more than 20 slaves. The majority of white slaveholders
owned less than five slaves. And the overwhelming majority of
southern whites never owned any slaves. But all were committed
to supporting slavery because it maintained white supremacy and
privilege.
The struggle and quest for freedom, equity, and self-definition,
despite racial oppression, are central themes in African American
history. And African American freedom was accomplished
not because of the goodwill of the federal government but
because African American organizations and individuals applied
enough pressure to compel the federal government to treat
African Americans as first-class citizens. As a result, the federal
government created new public policies, such as affirmative action,
which ultimately ended up benefiting all Americans.
In 1961, affirmative action started as Executive Order 10925
by President John F. Kennedy. The law was created to ensure
all employees and applicants were being treated fairly, not just
to assist African Americans. It was designed to ensure that all
underrepresented groups, such as white women, people with
disabilities, veterans, Latinos, Asian Americans, Native Americans,
and others, could have access to elite universities and federal
government contracts. In 2023, however, the United States
Supreme Court eliminated race as a condiseration in college
admissions, saying that it discriminated against Asian Americans
and white students. But this argument is, again, disingenuous. First,
affirmative action only applied to elite private and top-tier public
flagship universities. These are highly competitive institutions,
whereas most colleges and universities have a high acceptance rate
across most demographics. Second, legacy admissions at these Ivy
Leagues schools are disproportionately white, with many of those
students scoring lower than regular applicants. But since their
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