tag:theconversation.com,2011:/us/topics/legacy-of-slavery-18467/articlesLegacy of slavery – The Conversation2020-09-13T07:37:03Ztag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1370162020-09-13T07:37:03Z2020-09-13T07:37:03ZBlack Lives Matter but slavery isn’t our only narrative<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/353709/original/file-20200819-42970-1ayov5s.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Slave memorial in Zanzibar.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Eye Ubiquitous/Universal Images Group via Getty Images</span></span></figcaption></figure><p><em>Our historical understanding of Blackness is most commonly shaped by the story of the Atlantic slave trade – the forced movement of Africans to the West, in particular to the Americas. But this is a linear narrative that is dominated by American voices. It’s not just potentially exclusory; it doesn’t adequately take into account the diversity of black people worldwide. The same is true of <a href="https://www.contemporaryand.com/magazines/the-forgotten-social-history-of-international-blackness/">Blackness</a> studies, which continue to be dominated by and serve the interests of Western scholarship. Aretha Phiri asks Michelle M. Wright, professor and author of <a href="https://www.dukeupress.edu/becoming-black/?viewby=title">Becoming Black</a>: Creating Identity in the African Diaspora, about her work in disrupting the slavery narrative.</em> </p>
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<p><strong>Aretha Phiri:</strong> To start with a recent development, the Black Lives Matter <a href="https://blacklivesmatter.com">movement</a> appears to have gained global momentum. And yet its impact seems to be mainly in the global North. Does this suggest that black people’s experience of race and racism is not universal? </p>
<p><strong>Michelle M. Wright:</strong> The fight for freedom is important, but it really has to include everybody. This requires some radical rethinking. We have to ask who gets to access contemporary spaces. Who has the time (and money) to join in the fight according to the times and places set by the leaders? Who speaks the language we have chosen to communicate in, and who is left out? Black folks are astonishingly diverse in their cultures, histories, languages, religions, so no single definition of Blackness is going to fit everyone. When we fail to consider this, we effectively leave many Black people out of the conversation.</p>
<p><strong>Aretha Phiri:</strong> Slavery’s afterlife is central to Black Lives Matter’s important call for racial and structural justice and equality. Yet, in your <a href="https://anthrosource.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/j.1548-7466.2010.01072.x">paper</a>, Black in Time: Diaspora, Diversity and Identity, you trouble the dominance of a corresponding “Middle Passage” epistemology as racially reductive. What is broadly meant by “Middle Passage” thinking and how is it disseminated by US-based scholars?</p>
<p><strong>Michelle M. Wright:</strong> In most US (and European) academic conversations, the “<a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/Middle-Passage-slave-trade">Middle Passage</a>” – also known as the Atlantic slave trade – is used interchangeably with the African “<a href="https://www.encyclopedia.com/social-sciences-and-law/anthropology-and-archaeology/human-evolution/african-diaspora">diaspora</a>” – the dispersal of Black and African people from their “original”, typically (West) African locales to North America. This linear mapping is not just convenient, it is false. Ninety-five percent of enslaved Africans were transported to South America and the Caribbean, not the US; not to mention the millions of slaves who were transported east to places like Turkey and India. Reinforced by a linear timeline which is understood to “progressively” track history, this mapping further distorts history in service to the West. That is, because (West) Africa is the starting point, the tendency is to view it as embedded in “the past” and the West as aligned with “the future”. </p>
<p>In my <a href="https://books.google.co.za/books/about/Physics_of_Blackness.html?id=0Za4oAEACAAJ&redir_esc=y">book</a>, <em>Physics of Blackness: Beyond the Middle Passage Epistemology</em>, I call this particular mapping of Blackness the “Middle Passage epistemology”. It’s a specific form of knowledge or way of knowing (the world) that is oriented to the West, specifically to America. This is problematic not just because it hierarchises or “ranks” Blackness, but also because (transatlantic) scholarship on Black African diaspora is often imagined through historical and cultural parameters in which “Middle Passage Blackness” is the norm, often the only representation of Blackness. </p>
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<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/355831/original/file-20200901-24-1pti2kf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A sculpture of a woman protester rests in a waste skip, her fist in the air." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/355831/original/file-20200901-24-1pti2kf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/355831/original/file-20200901-24-1pti2kf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/355831/original/file-20200901-24-1pti2kf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/355831/original/file-20200901-24-1pti2kf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/355831/original/file-20200901-24-1pti2kf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/355831/original/file-20200901-24-1pti2kf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/355831/original/file-20200901-24-1pti2kf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="caption">A statue of a Black Lives Matter protester in Bristol was put in the place of a statue of a slave trader - and then removed.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Ben Birchall/PA Images via Getty Images</span></span>
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<p><strong>Aretha Phiri:</strong> Building on your observation, I am struck by the continued influence in South African universities of Paul Gilroy’s seminal text <em>The Black Atlantic: Modernity and Double Consciousness</em> in particular and US-based <a href="https://www.tate.org.uk/art/art-terms/b/black-atlantic">Black Atlantic</a> studies in general. Where these foreground the global influences and contributions of Black peoples, they also unfortunately disseminate “Middle Passage” thinking which situates Africa in the past. What are the other challenges presented here?</p>
<p><strong>Michelle M. Wright:</strong> Not only is what is typically represented in Black Atlantic scholarship narrow, it is almost always heterosexual and masculinist. It struggles to imagine race and racism outside of the threat of emasculation and racial futures and racial pasts outside of a heteropatriarchal norm. </p>
<p>Most recently, the famous <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2019/08/14/magazine/1619-america-slavery.html">1619 Project</a> in The <em>New York Times</em> aimed at documenting the impact of slavery on the US. But it focuses almost exclusively on Black men in African American history, eliding the achievements of women and queer folks. This leads to the assumption that it is heterosexual Black men who played the major contributory roles. But our earliest <a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/abolitionism-European-and-American-social-movement">abolitionist</a> movements were started by Black women, our first Presidential candidate was a Black woman, and it was Black queer activists like James Baldwin and Bayard Rustin who were central to the <a href="https://www.britannica.com/event/American-civil-rights-movement">Civil Rights Movement</a>. So yes, part of the ethical challenge, then, is to recognise that some Black people have much more privilege than others.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/on-decolonising-teaching-practices-not-just-the-syllabus-137280">On decolonising teaching practices, not just the syllabus</a>
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<p><strong>Aretha Phiri:</strong> I am struck, again, at how your analysis is relevant to Black African scholarship, where considerations of women and queer bodies have also historically been obscured or omitted…</p>
<p><strong>Michelle M. Wright:</strong> Racial metanarratives are inherently limiting. It’s very difficult for Black Africans, much less Black Europeans and Black peoples of the Pacific and Central and South America, to read themselves through the dominant (US) framings of Blackness. For example, if you are a Kenyan living in Mombasa, chances are high that your greatest preoccupation is not racist white cops, but violence from <a href="https://www.hrw.org/news/2020/02/20/kenya-no-letup-killings-nairobi-police">Black Kenyan policemen</a>. And here we are, one scholar Zimbabwean/South African, the other a US citizen born and raised in Western Europe, both women, myself queer. The “Middle Passage” epistemology fails because it dictates that you belong to the past and I belong to the present and future. But history, nationality, gender, class and sexuality intersected us here at this exchange even as we came through different paths and bring different experiences, outlooks and philosophies. </p>
<p><em>This article is part of a <a href="https://theconversation.com/africa/search?utf8=%E2%9C%93&q=%23BlackAtlanticsSeries">series</a> called Decolonising the Black Atlantic in which black and queer women literary academics rethink and disrupt traditional Black Atlantic studies. The series is based on papers delivered at the <a href="https://stias.ac.za/events/revising-the-black-atlantic-african-diaspora-perspectives/">Revising the Black Atlantic: African Diaspora Perspectives</a> colloquium at the <a href="https://stias.ac.za">Stellenbosch Institute for Advanced Study</a>.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/137016/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Aretha Phiri is an NRF-rated researcher and previously a fellow at the Stellenbosch Institute for Advanced Study (STIAS)</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Michelle M Wright does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Black Lives Matter brings the slavery story into the present in America – but it leaves Africa stuck in the past.Aretha Phiri, Associate Professor, Department of Literary Studies in English, Rhodes UniversityMichelle M Wright, Professor, Emory UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1051532018-10-17T15:16:55Z2018-10-17T15:16:55ZSlavery was never abolished – it affects millions, and you may be funding it<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/241048/original/file-20181017-41144-11hcppa.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C0%2C3984%2C2174&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Nail bars are havens for modern slavery.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">shutterstock</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>When we think of slavery, many of us think of historical or so-called “traditional forms” of slavery – and of the <a href="https://www.ft.com/content/032fe4a0-9a96-11e8-ab77-f854c65a4465">12m people</a> ripped from their West African homes and shipped across the Atlantic for a lifetime in the plantations of the Americas. </p>
<p>But slavery is <a href="https://theconversation.com/modern-slave-trade-how-to-count-a-hidden-population-of-46-million-60275">not just something that happened in the past</a> –- the modern day estimate for the number of men, women and children <a href="https://www.ilo.org/global/about-the-ilo/newsroom/news/WCMS_574717/lang--en/index.htm">forced into labour worldwide exceeds 40m</a>. Today’s global slave trade is so lucrative that it nets traffickers more than <a href="https://www.ilo.org/global/about-the-ilo/newsroom/news/WCMS_243201/lang--en/index.htm">US$150 billion</a> each year.</p>
<h2>Slavery affects children as well as adults</h2>
<p>Debt bondage often ensnares both children and adults. In Haiti, for example, many children are sent to work by their families as domestic servants under what’s known as the <a href="https://restavekfreedom.org/issue/">Restavek system</a> – the term comes from the French language <em>rester avec</em>, “to stay with”. These children, numbering as many as <a href="https://restavekfreedom.org/issue/">300,000</a>, are often denied an education, forced to work up to 14 hours a day and are sometimes victims of sexual abuse.</p>
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<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/241042/original/file-20181017-41122-lujntx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/241042/original/file-20181017-41122-lujntx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/241042/original/file-20181017-41122-lujntx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/241042/original/file-20181017-41122-lujntx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/241042/original/file-20181017-41122-lujntx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/241042/original/file-20181017-41122-lujntx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/241042/original/file-20181017-41122-lujntx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">Slavery is a daily reality for 10m children around the world.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Shutterstock</span></span>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/how-trafficked-children-are-being-hidden-behind-a-focus-on-modern-slavery-87116">How trafficked children are being hidden behind a focus on modern slavery</a>
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<h2>Slavery is not always race based</h2>
<p>Then, as now, race is not always the main reason for enslaving someone. In the past, those who were living in poverty, who did not have the protection of kinship networks, those displaced by famine, drought or war were often caught up in slavery.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/what-does-modern-slavery-look-like-61187">What does modern slavery look like?</a>
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<p>In the UK, <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2018/jan/05/nail-bars-modern-slavery-discount-salons-booming-exploitation">nail salons</a>, <a href="https://www.expressandstar.com/news/2017/08/22/police-launch-major-raid-on-wolverhamptons-ming-moon-chinese-restaurant-in-modern-slavery-swoops/">restaurants</a>, <a href="https://theconversation.com/what-does-modern-slavery-look-like-61187">music festivals</a> and <a href="https://www.farminguk.com/News/Report-shines-light-on-modern-day-slavery-in-UK-agricultural-industry_49237.html">farms</a> have all be found to have people working in slavery. Victims of human trafficking come from <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-39047787">all parts of the world</a> and all walks of life. There isn’t just one type of modern day slavery, it takes many forms.</p>
<h2>Your gadgets could be to blame</h2>
<p>The demand for certain types of goods has propelled slavery’s numbers. In the past, the desire for sugar drove the growth in slavery. Now, the <a href="https://edition.cnn.com/2014/09/26/opinion/freedom-project-verite-malaysia-supply-chains/index.html">global consumption of electronic goods</a> has exacerbated slavery in the Coltan mines of the Democratic Republic of Congo. Many slaves or trafficked victims are often exploited in mining for gold, coltan, molybdenum, niobium, tin – which can be used in <a href="http://blogs.worldwatch.org/slavery-cell-phone/">electronic goods sold around the world</a>.</p>
<p><a href="https://www.savethechildren.org.uk/where-we-work/africa/democratic-republic-congo">According to Save the Children</a>, 5,000 to 6,000 young children work in the Coltan mining industry, surrounded by armed guards to prevent their escape. Much of the profit from this trade goes to <a href="https://foreignpolicy.com/2010/02/11/africas-forever-wars/">fund ongoing militia warfare</a> in Central Africa.</p>
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<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/241049/original/file-20181017-41140-10fe4j8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/241049/original/file-20181017-41140-10fe4j8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=398&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/241049/original/file-20181017-41140-10fe4j8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=398&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/241049/original/file-20181017-41140-10fe4j8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=398&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/241049/original/file-20181017-41140-10fe4j8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=500&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/241049/original/file-20181017-41140-10fe4j8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=500&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/241049/original/file-20181017-41140-10fe4j8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=500&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">Research has found children as young as seven mining cobalt used in smartphones.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Shutterstock</span></span>
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<h2>Traditional slavery still exists</h2>
<p>Chattel slavery (where one person is the property of another) is illegal but still exists especially in the <a href="https://www.reuters.com/article/us-mauritania-slavery/poverty-tradition-shackle-mauritanias-slaves-idUSL0187755020061201">West African country of Mauritania</a> – where abolitionists’ efforts to stamp out the practice have been in vain.</p>
<p>The organisation <a href="https://fightslaverynow.org/">Fight Slavery Now</a> says that today at least <a href="https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=BajHzj0Di8AC&pg=PA258&lpg=PA258&dq=ruth+macklin+90,000+mauritanian+slaves+owned+by+others&source=bl&ots=HX2ZzfJA5O&sig=FCyP1oSuLOLpTKGhmNrC9ibWzN0&hl=en&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwi_zMvhv43eAhUIJcAKHagLC2AQ6AEwAHoECAkQAQ#v=onepage&q=ruth%20macklin%2090%2C000%20mauritanian%20slaves%20owned%20by%20others&f=false">90,000 Mauritanians</a> are the property of others, while up to 600,000 men, women and children are in a bonded labour situation – up to 20% of the population.</p>
<h2>India has most number of slaves globally</h2>
<p>India has the <a href="https://blogs.wsj.com/indiarealtime/2016/06/02/india-has-the-most-people-living-in-modern-slavery/">highest number of slaves in the world</a>, with estimates ranging from 14m to 18m people. In India many people work as slave labour <a href="https://www.antislavery.org/report-slavery-india-brick-kilns/">in the brick kiln industry</a> – this includes women and children.</p>
<p>Now, as in the past, <a href="http://www.endslaverynow.org/learn/slavery-today/bonded-labor">not all slaves are forced into slavery</a>. Historically, some experienced such severe poverty that they had no choice but to sell themselves to be bound to another person. And similar cases still happen around the world today. </p>
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<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/241047/original/file-20181017-41138-1v38oyr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/241047/original/file-20181017-41138-1v38oyr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/241047/original/file-20181017-41138-1v38oyr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/241047/original/file-20181017-41138-1v38oyr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/241047/original/file-20181017-41138-1v38oyr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/241047/original/file-20181017-41138-1v38oyr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/241047/original/file-20181017-41138-1v38oyr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">Brick kiln workers in India are incredibly vulnerable to slavery.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Shutterstock</span></span>
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<h2>It involves global movement</h2>
<p>Long distance movement is common in slavery of the past and the present. For West Africans in the pre-modern era, the journey across the Atlantic must have been unimaginable.</p>
<p>Today, labourers move around the world freely looking for work, but some end up caught in slavery-like situations. They are promised a good job with decent conditions and wages, but instead are trapped in a cycle of debt and despair, where they are bound to their employer with no chance of escape.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/qatar-has-every-reason-to-enforce-new-workers-charter-23263">Qatar has every reason to enforce new workers charter</a>
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<p>Many of the workers constructing the stadia for the Qatar World Cup in 2022 come from South Asia. <a href="https://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/campaigns/2016/03/qatar-world-cup-of-shame/">Amnesty International says</a> these workers often have their meagre wages docked unjustly, their passports seized and are forced to work in life-threatening conditions.</p>
<h2>Slave soldiers fight in wars</h2>
<p>One similarity between historic and modern slavery is the use of enslaved labour, especially children, in armies.</p>
<p>In recent years, <a href="https://www.pri.org/stories/2017-05-23/ugandas-abducted-kids-try-get-their-lives-back-normal">at least 30,000 children</a> have been abducted and forced to labour in the <a href="https://theconversation.com/child-victim-or-brutal-warlord-icc-weighs-the-fate-of-dominic-ongwen-70087">Lord’s Resistance Army</a> led by Joseph Kony, in Northern Uganda.</p>
<p>Over four centuries ago, Christian children were valued as soldiers in the army of the Ottoman Empire. The children were taken from their homes, forced to convert to Islam and <a href="https://www.encyclopedia.com/history/modern-europe/turkish-and-ottoman-history/janissaries">put to work</a> in the military. </p>
<h2>Slavery was never abolished</h2>
<p>Today, an active abolition movement still exists. It applies lessons from the earlier abolition movement that ended the transatlantic slave trade – which recognised the importance of victim stories as a powerful tool to raise awareness.</p>
<p>Just as Africans such as <a href="http://abolition.e2bn.org/people_25.html">Olaudah Equiano</a> became part of the abolition movement in 18th-century London when they talked about their lives as slaves, so today, the benefit of encouraging survivors to share their <a href="https://www.bl.uk/romantics-and-victorians/articles/british-slave-narratives">stories is recognised</a>.</p>
<p>In the 1790s, to persuade the British government to end slavery in the British Empire, female abolitionists organised <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/british/abolition/abolition_tools_gallery_07.shtml">boycotts of sugar</a> that had been produced using slave labour and instead bought “fair trade” produce. Similarly, today, manufacturers and growers recognise that guaranteeing a product as fair trade – and free from slavery – will help their goods sell. </p>
<p>Slavery still exists in many forms today, and the impacts it has on millions of people are no less devastating than they were in the past. Yet ordinary people can use their power as consumers to combat modern slavery, simply by paying attention to what they buy, and raising awareness among their friends, family and colleagues.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/105153/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Catherine Armstrong does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Slavery still exists and it happens in plain sight.Catherine Armstrong, Lecturer in American History, Loughborough UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/582452016-04-22T10:03:07Z2016-04-22T10:03:07ZWho was the first woman depicted on American currency?<p>When the <a href="http://money.cnn.com/2015/06/17/news/economy/woman-on-ten-dollar-bill/">Treasury Department announced</a> that a woman would grace the vignette of a newly designed US$10 bill in 2020 – rather than Founding Father Alexander Hamilton – there was a groundswell of support for the plan, as well as <a href="https://www.billofrightsinstitute.org/educate/educator-resources/lessons-plans/current-events/down-with-hamilton-and-jackson-why-our-currency-may-be-changing/">heated debate</a>. </p>
<p>Even before Treasury Secretary Jacob Lew made his announcement, a nonprofit organization called “<a href="http://www.womenon20s.org">Women On 20s</a>” had launched a major online campaign urging the government to put a woman on U.S. currency. Its sights were set on the $20 bill, however. </p>
<p>Ultimately that campaign – as well as one by Hamilton boosters – was successful as the <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonk/wp/2016/04/20/u-s-to-keep-hamilton-on-front-of-10-bill-put-portrait-of-harriet-tubman-on-20-bill/">government decided</a> to leave the first Treasury secretary on the $10 and instead replace the face of seventh president and slaveholder Andrew Jackson on the $20 with that of Harriet Tubman, a self-liberated woman who led other enslaved people to freedom on the Underground Railroad. Jackson’s portrait will remain, but on the back of the bill. </p>
<p>Despite still having to share the monetary space with Jackson, this is a significant step forward for our country, full of symbolism and a sense of progress – even if long overdue. </p>
<p>Like the election of the first African-American president eight years ago, having the image of a black woman front and center on our nation’s paper money was until recently a far-fetched dream that will soon become a reality. It will have tangible implications for women of all ages and backgrounds for a long time to come. </p>
<p>Unfortunately, however, throughout this important conversation and debate, there have been some inaccuracies about the history of women on paper money. </p>
<p>My purpose in writing this article as a historian who has researched the symbolic links between money, colonialism and nationalism is to offer a contextualized global and historical perspective on the depiction of women and African-Americans on currency. </p>
<p>It’s also to answer a frequent question: who actually was the first woman on a banknote issued in what is now the United States?</p>
<h2>Women on world currencies</h2>
<p>While women have been featured on coins around the world since ancient times, they did not appear on banknotes until the 17th century – about 700 years after the <a href="http://content.time.com/time/specials/packages/article/0,28804,1914560_1914558_1914593,00.html">first paper money began circulating in China</a>.</p>
<p>Great Britain was first to do so by putting “Britannia,” the female personification of the island nation, on the <a href="http://www.bankofengland.co.uk/archive/Documents/history/britannia.pdf">inaugural banknotes issued by the Bank of England</a> after its founding in the late 17th century. </p>
<p>Depictions of both symbolic female figures like Britannia and actual women have since appeared on the paper money of many countries, from Albania to Zimbabwe. These representations can be divided into five main categories: as national personifications of mythical goddesses, which represent a nation, its people or empire; as allegorical images; as unnamed or general members of societies; as real, historical individuals; and as rulers.</p>
<p>National personifications, for example, include Britannia, Germania, Hibernia (Ireland), Columbia, (Mother) Russia and Scotia (Scotland). </p>
<p>The list of real-life women depicted on money is longer, ranging from ancient historical figures such as Warrior Queen Zenobia of the Palmyrene Empire in Ancient Syria to monarchs including Britain’s Queen Victoria and Russia’s Catherine the Great to national heroines like Jamaica’s Queen Nanny of the Maroons. The warrior queen led a small band of escaped African slaves in a successful guerrilla war against the British in the 18th century. She is also the subject of a 2015 documentary that I coproduced (with director Roy T. Anderson) called “<a href="https://www.facebook.com/nannythemovie">Queen Nanny: Legendary Maroon Chieftainess</a>.” </p>
<h2>Who was first in the U.S.?</h2>
<p>In the U.S., paper money has been issued by both governmental and private entities and has circulated in the country since 1690, including during the Civil War period, when the Confederacy printed its own currency. </p>
<p>While Tubman’s selection for depiction on the $20 bill is historic, she is not the first woman – either mythical or actual – to appear on paper money in the United States. </p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/119707/original/image-20160421-26983-10j8l2i.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/119707/original/image-20160421-26983-10j8l2i.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/119707/original/image-20160421-26983-10j8l2i.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=250&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/119707/original/image-20160421-26983-10j8l2i.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=250&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/119707/original/image-20160421-26983-10j8l2i.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=250&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/119707/original/image-20160421-26983-10j8l2i.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=314&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/119707/original/image-20160421-26983-10j8l2i.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=314&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/119707/original/image-20160421-26983-10j8l2i.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=314&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Martha Washington, the first First Lady, was the last woman to adorn an American note.</span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Pocahontas was the first nonmythical woman to earn that distinction on U.S. paper money, having been depicted on the back of the $20 bill from 1865 to 1869 and on the $20 bill in 1875. </p>
<p>Martha Washington was the only other woman to appear on U.S. federal paper money. She was on the front of the $1 Silver Certificate of 1886 and 1891 and (alongside that of her husband) on the back of the $1 Silver Certificate of 1896. Other women such as first ladies Rachel Jackson and Dolley Madison have been depicted on private banknotes.</p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/119704/original/image-20160421-26983-11mmadu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/119704/original/image-20160421-26983-11mmadu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/119704/original/image-20160421-26983-11mmadu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=551&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/119704/original/image-20160421-26983-11mmadu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=551&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/119704/original/image-20160421-26983-11mmadu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=551&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/119704/original/image-20160421-26983-11mmadu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=692&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/119704/original/image-20160421-26983-11mmadu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=692&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/119704/original/image-20160421-26983-11mmadu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=692&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Lucy Pickens was the first woman portrayed on paper currency in what is now the U.S.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:CSA-T65-$100-1864.jpg">National Numismatic Collection, National Museum of American History</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>However, the first nonmythical, historical woman to appear on any paper currency within our current borders was not on a U.S. bill but rather on Confederate money: “Queen of the Confederacy” Lucy Holcombe Pickens (and South Carolina’s first lady) was portrayed on Confederate $1 bills of 1862 and 1863 and the $100 bill of 1862 through 1864. </p>
<p>In other words, contrary to news reports, Pickens was actually the first woman to be depicted on paper money issued in the U.S., and <a href="http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation-now/2015/06/18/martha-washington-united-states-dollar-bills-silver-dollar/28933355/.">not Pocahontas or Martha Washington</a>. </p>
<h2>African-American depictions on paper money</h2>
<p>Tubman’s image on the $20 bill is hugely significant when we consider that practically all previous images of African-American women and men depicted on U.S. paper currency were stock images of nameless slaves. </p>
<p>In the 1850s and 1860s, slaves were illustrated on private banknotes in southern states and on Confederate paper currency. In 1858, for example, the Bank of the Commonwealth in Virginia <a href="http://www.colorsofmoney.com/miamip1.htm">depicted a slave mother and child</a> on a $50 banknote. Free blacks were depicted on a $10 banknote issued by the Bank of Catasauqua in Pennsylvania in the late 1850s. An 1861 Confederate States of America $10 bill <a href="http://exhibitions.blogs.lib.lsu.edu/?page_id=707">depicted a slave picking cotton</a>. </p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/119800/original/image-20160422-17388-ntl7b0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/119800/original/image-20160422-17388-ntl7b0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/119800/original/image-20160422-17388-ntl7b0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=262&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/119800/original/image-20160422-17388-ntl7b0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=262&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/119800/original/image-20160422-17388-ntl7b0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=262&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/119800/original/image-20160422-17388-ntl7b0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=329&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/119800/original/image-20160422-17388-ntl7b0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=329&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/119800/original/image-20160422-17388-ntl7b0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=329&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">This Confederate bill from 1862 portrayed nameless slaves in the fields.</span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The signatures of four African-American men who served as registers of the Treasury have also appeared on the greenback. And during the Carter administration, Azie Taylor Morton became the first and only African-American to serve as U.S. treasurer. As such, her signature graced all currency issued during her tenure.</p>
<p>Aside from currency, there are other noteworthy historical and contemporary precedents for commemorating African-American women on our national symbols. </p>
<p>Many African-American women have been featured on U.S. postage stamps, especially under the Black Heritage series. Like national currencies, postage stamps are part of a government’s mass marketing of its history, identity, culture and achievements. The <a href="http://stamps.org/userfiles/file/albums/BlackHeritage.pdf">Black Heritage series</a> has depicted women such as Tubman, Sojourner Truth, Mahalia Jackson, “Ma” Rainey, Billie Holiday and Madam C.J. Walker. </p>
<h2>Why it matters</h2>
<p>The portrait of a woman on current paper currency is long overdue. </p>
<p>With her image, the U.S. is now moving on from the depiction of African-Americans as slaves on Confederate banknotes to the portrait of a woman who fought for liberation from slavery. And that liberator’s appearance ends a long absence of African-Americans – and women of any race or ethnicity – from U.S. paper currency.</p>
<p>The Treasury Department says it aims to unveil the design of the currency by 2020, in time for the 100th anniversary of women’s suffrage, when the 19th Amendment was ratified by enough states to become part of the U.S. Constitution. The new $20 likely won’t enter circulation for another few years.</p>
<p>Even if it takes a while before we actually see these new $20 bills, the fact that Harriet Tubman’s visage will grace them underscores just how far we have come as one nation. And that she will replace a slaveowner makes it the perfect poetic and monetary justice.</p>
<p><em>Editor’s note: due to a typo, Andrew Jackson was initially inadvertently identified as the 17th president of the U.S. He was the seventh president.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/58245/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Harcourt Fuller does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>The announcement that Harriet Tubman will be the first woman on U.S. currency in more than a century recalls the history of female – and African-American – portrayals on money.Harcourt Fuller, Assistant Professor of History, Georgia State UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/498232015-10-30T15:04:33Z2015-10-30T15:04:33ZA history of sugar – the food nobody needs, but everyone craves<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/99850/original/image-20151027-4997-1nvw1oq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/sweeteralternative/4579461966/sizes/l">Sweeter Alternative/Flickr</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/">CC BY-NC</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>It seems as though no other substance occupies so much of the world’s land, for so little benefit to humanity, as sugar. According to the latest data, <a href="http://faostat3.fao.org/download/Q/QC/E">sugarcane is</a> the world’s third most valuable crop after cereals and rice, and occupies 26,942,686 hectares of land across the globe. Its main output – apart from commercial profits – is a global public health crisis, which has been centuries in the making. </p>
<p>The <a href="http://www.who.int/nutrition/topics/obesity/en/">obesity epidemic</a> – along with <a href="http://www.nhlbi.nih.gov/health/health-topics/topics/obe/risks">related diseases</a> including cancer, dementia, heart disease and diabetes – has spread across every nation where sugar-based carbohydrates have come to dominate to the food economy.</p>
<p>So at this time, it pays to step back and consider the ancient origins of sugar, to understand how it has grown to present an imminent threat to our landscapes, our societies and our health.</p>
<h2> Stepping back</h2>
<p>Human physiology evolved on a diet containing <a href="http://ajcn.nutrition.org/content/20/2/108.full.pdf">very little sugar</a> and virtually no refined carbohydrate. In fact, sugar probably entered into our diets by accident. It is likely that sugarcane was primarily a “fodder” crop, used to fatten pigs, though humans may have chewed on the stalks from time to time. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/99870/original/image-20151027-4994-1hzx6tc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/99870/original/image-20151027-4994-1hzx6tc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/99870/original/image-20151027-4994-1hzx6tc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/99870/original/image-20151027-4994-1hzx6tc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/99870/original/image-20151027-4994-1hzx6tc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/99870/original/image-20151027-4994-1hzx6tc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/99870/original/image-20151027-4994-1hzx6tc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Nom.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">from www.shutterstock.com</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Evidence from plant remnants and DNA suggests that sugarcane evolved in South East Asia. Researchers are currently hunting for early evidence of sugarcane cultivation at the Kuk Swamp in Papua New Guinea, where the domestication of related crops such as taro and banana <a href="http://www.jstor.org/stable/10.1086/658682">dates back</a> to approximately 8,000BC. The crop spread around the Eastern Pacific and Indian Oceans around 3,500 years ago, carried by Austronesian and Polynesian seafarers. </p>
<p>The first chemically refined sugar appeared on the scene in India about 2,500 years ago. From there, the technique spread east towards China, and west towards Persia and the early Islamic worlds, eventually reaching the Mediterranean in the 13th century. Cyprus and Sicily became <a href="http://www.cambridge.org/gb/academic/subjects/history/regional-history-after-1500/sugar-plantations-formation-brazilian-society-bahia-15501835">important centres</a> for sugar production. Throughout the Middle Ages, it was considered a rare and expensive spice, rather than an everyday condiment.</p>
<p>The first place to cultivate sugarcane explicitly for large-scale refinement and trade was the Atlantic island of Madeira, during the late 15th century. Then, it was the Portuguese who realised that new and favourable conditions for sugar plantations existed in Brazil, where a slave-based plantation economy was established. When Brazilian sugarcane was introduced in the Caribbean, shortly before 1647, it led to the growth of the industry which came to feed the sugar craze of Western Europe.</p>
<h2>Slave trade</h2>
<p>This food – which nobody needed, but everyone craved – drove the formation of the modern of the world. There was a huge demand for labour to cultivate the massive sugar plantations in Brazil and the Caribbean. This need was met by a <a href="http://www.slavevoyages.org/tast/index.faces">transatlantic slave trade</a>, which resulted in around 12,570,000 human beings being shipped from Africa to the Americas between 1501 and 1867. Mortality rates could reach as high as up to 25% on each voyage, and between 1m and 2m dead must have been thrown overboard. </p>
<p>And of course, goods such as copper and brass, rum, cloth, tobacco and guns were needed to purchase slaves from the African elites. These were secured through the expansion of industrial production, particularly in the English Midlands and South West. Modern-day banking and insurance can trace its origins to the 18th century Atlantic economy. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/99847/original/image-20151027-4974-1fv7lki.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/99847/original/image-20151027-4974-1fv7lki.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/99847/original/image-20151027-4974-1fv7lki.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/99847/original/image-20151027-4974-1fv7lki.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/99847/original/image-20151027-4974-1fv7lki.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=501&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/99847/original/image-20151027-4974-1fv7lki.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=501&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/99847/original/image-20151027-4974-1fv7lki.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=501&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Slaves driven to work in the cane fields.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Mark Horton</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Meanwhile, the slaves working the plantations suffered miserable lives. When they were finally emancipated in 1834 in the British Empire, it was the slave owners who were fully compensated – not the slaves. Much of this money <a href="https://www.ucl.ac.uk/lbs/project/context/">was used</a> to build Victorian infrastructure, such as railways and factories.</p>
<h2>Modern day scourges</h2>
<p>In many ways, the story of sugar and tobacco are closely aligned. Both products were initially produced through slave labour, and were originally seen to be beneficial to health. And although both sugar and tobacco have ancient origins, it was their sudden, mass consumption from the mid-17th century onwards that created the health risks we associate with them today.</p>
<p>The idea of “industrial epidemics” of non-communicable diseases, being driven by the profit motives of major corporations, rings true for both. And while tobacco is widely acknowledged to be addictive, sugar can also <a href="http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0149763407000589">drive behavioural responses</a> that are indistinguishable from addiction. </p>
<p>But in the 21st century, the grip of sugar is stronger than comparable scourges like tobacco, or even alcohol. Sugar is not only ubiquitous – it is potentially responsible for <a href="http://ajcn.nutrition.org/content/81/2/341.full">approximately 20%</a> of the caloric content of modern diets – but also central to the world’s economy and cultural heritage. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/99868/original/image-20151027-4991-15mdhp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/99868/original/image-20151027-4991-15mdhp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/99868/original/image-20151027-4991-15mdhp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/99868/original/image-20151027-4991-15mdhp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/99868/original/image-20151027-4991-15mdhp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/99868/original/image-20151027-4991-15mdhp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/99868/original/image-20151027-4991-15mdhp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Heavy industry.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/unforgiven/9272410618/sizes/l">Dirk Kirchner/Flickr</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/">CC BY-NC-SA</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Perhaps a better comparison is our reliance on fossil fuels. Fossil fuels are not just a vice or bad habit, but central to the way we live, and to the geography and politics of the territories where it is sourced. Likewise, the rise of sugar has been key to global trade and socioeconomic development, slavery and the African Diaspora and modern cultural norms. </p>
<p>The evolutionary and historical origins of sugarcane may hold insights into why sugar dominates modern culture, and what we can do to mitigate its malign influence. Like many great challenges of the 21st century, such as climate change, the science identifying the problem seems clear. </p>
<p>What’s lacking is the public and political will to address it, in ways such as the proposed sugar tax and prominently displayed <a href="https://theconversation.com/sugar-isnt-just-empty-fattening-calories-its-making-us-sick-49788">health warnings</a>. With sugar still deeply part of our food system – in 2013, sugar crops <a href="http://faostat3.fao.org/download/Q/QC/E">made up</a> 6.2% of world’s agricultural yield and 9.4% of its total monetary value – such bold socio-economic measures are needed to make the necessary changes possible.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/49823/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>The authors do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Like many great challenges of the 21st century, the science identifying the problems with sugar seems clear. What’s lacking is the will to address them.Mark Horton, Professor in Archaeology, University of BristolPhilip Langton, Senior Teaching Fellow in Physiology, University of BristolR. Alexander Bentley, Professor and Chair of Comparative Cultural Studies, University of HoustonLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/446422015-07-27T10:03:36Z2015-07-27T10:03:36ZHow the legacy of slavery affects the mental health of black Americans today<p>On July 22, in announcing the federal indictment of Charleston killer Dylann Roof, Attorney General Loretta Lynch <a href="http://www.postandcourier.com/article/20150722/PC16/150729789">commented</a> that the expression of forgiveness offered by the victims’ families is “an incredible lesson and message for us all.” </p>
<p>Forgiveness and grace are, indeed, hallmarks of the Black Church. </p>
<p>Since slavery, the church has been a formidable force for the survival of blacks in an America still grappling with the residual effects of white supremacy. </p>
<p>This was eloquently illustrated in the aftermath of the Charleston church massacre. Americans rightly stood in awe of the bereaved families’ laudable demonstration of God’s grace in action. </p>
<p>But what about the psychic toll that these acts of forgiveness exact? </p>
<p>Events like Charleston put a spotlight on the growing body of literature that looks not only at the United States’ failure to have authentic conversations about slavery and its legacy but also at the mental health impact of forgiving
acts of white racism and repressing justifiable feelings of anger and outrage – whether these are <a href="http://www.csmonitor.com/USA/USA-Update/2015/0724/Why-is-Dylann-Roof-not-facing-charges-of-terrorism">horrific acts</a> of <a href="https://www.fbi.gov/about-us/investigate/terrorism/terrorism-definition">terrorism</a> or nuanced <a href="http://socialwork.oxfordre.com/view/10.1093/acrefore/9780199975839.001.0001/acrefore-9780199975839-e-987">microaggressions.</a> </p>
<p>I am a social work educator and practitioner with 25 years of experience in the field of mental health. I teach at one of the nation’s leading schools of social work, committed to preparing its graduates to work with racially and ethnically diverse populations. It is time, I believe, to bring this new field of inquiry into the mainstream. </p>
<h2>The church as buffer</h2>
<p>In his seminal book, <a href="http://ukcatalogue.oup.com/product/9780195161793.do">Mighty Like A River, the Black Church and Social Reform</a>, sociologist <a href="http://ifs.sc.edu/facultystaff/billingsley.asp">Andrew Billingsley</a> asserts that the Black Church is the only African-American institution that has not been reenvisioned in the image of whites. </p>
<p>His research illuminates the role of religion in building the resilience that allows blacks as a people to overcome the various forms of terrorism and oppression endured over centuries that sustain doctrines of white supremacy. </p>
<p>Indeed, in <a href="http://books.simonandschuster.com/Climbing-Jacobs-Ladder/Andrew-Billingsley/9780671677091">his analysis</a> of the African-American family, Billingsley concludes that it is “amazingly strong, enduring, adaptive and highly resilient.”</p>
<p>But as we pay homage to church and family in buffering blacks against the full effects of white racism, we must not obscure or diminish racism’s impact on the mental health that few blacks – <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2011/08/11/books/excerpt-the-persistence-of-the-color-line.html?_r=0">irrespective of educational, social or economic status</a> – will escape. </p>
<p>There is increasing evidence that repressing feelings associated with acts of white racism may be psychologically damaging and lay the foundation for future mental health problems and behaviors symptomatic of post-traumatic stress syndrome.</p>
<h2>Evidence of racism’s impact on mental health</h2>
<p>Harvard psychiatrist Alvin Poussaint asked why suicide rates among black males doubled between 1980 and 1995. </p>
<p>In his co-authored book, <a href="http://www.beacon.org/Lay-My-Burden-Down-P155.aspx">Lay My Burden Down: Suicide and the Mental Health Crisis among African-Americans</a>, which takes its title from a <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2LbzGjGUgGU">Negro spiritual</a> describing the hardships of the slave system, he argues that one of the reasons for this increase is that African-American young men may see the afterlife as a better place. </p>
<p><a href="http://terriewilliams.com/portfolio/home/terrie-williams-author/">Terrie M Williams</a> is a clinical social worker in New York. In her book, <a href="http://books.simonandschuster.com/Black-Pain/Terrie-M-Williams/9780743298834">Black Pain: It Just Looks Like We’re Not Hurting</a>, she uses powerful personal narratives of blacks from all walks of life to illustrate the high toll of hiding the pain associated with the black experience on mental health. </p>
<p>Joy DeGruy, Portland State University researcher and scholar, has developed “<a href="http://joydegruy.com/resources-2/post-traumatic-slave-syndrome/">post-traumatic slave syndrome</a>” as a theory for explaining the effects of unresolved trauma on the behaviors of blacks that is transmitted from generation to generation. </p>
<p>DeGruy’s argument may be <a href="http://www.essence.com/2005/01/12/breaking-the-chains">controversial</a>, but the questions she asked are surely relevant as we try to make sense, for example, of <a href="http://archpedi.jamanetwork.com/article.aspx?articleid=2293169">research</a> released this July that shows suicide rates among black elementary school pupils significantly increasing between 1993 and 2012. </p>
<h2>Moving to the mainstream…slowly</h2>
<p>The fact is that from my perspective at New York University’s Silver School of Social Work, these publications have yet to move into mainstream literature. They have low visibility in the curricula and training programs for mental health professionals. </p>
<p>Nor have the questions these scholars and practitioners raised led to the kind of research that is <a href="https://www.omh.ny.gov/omhweb/cultural_competence/resources.html">needed</a> to support race-conscious and culturally appropriate practices for the mental health programs and agencies working with African-American families. </p>
<p>At the same time, however, the original thinking of authors like Poussaint and DeGruy is very much in sync with the new emphasis on <a href="http://www.socialworktoday.com/archive/exc_012014.shtml">trauma-informed care</a> in social work across all fields of practice. </p>
<p>As the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention concluded in a May 2014 <a href="http://www.cdc.gov/violenceprevention/acestudy/findings.html">research report</a>, undiagnosed childhood neglect or trauma is widespread among American adults and is the root cause of mental health and behavioral problems in adulthood. </p>
<p>Indeed, it is now the recommendation of the <a href="http://www.thenationalcouncil.org/topics/trauma-informed-care/">National Council for Behavioral Health</a> that trauma-informed care be integrated into all assessment and treatment procedures. </p>
<p>This emphasis on trauma provides a new lens for developing research into the impact of slavery - and its legacy of structural and institutional racism - on black mental health today.</p>
<h2>A difficult topic of conversation</h2>
<p>The problem is, no one likes to talk about slavery.</p>
<figure class="align-left ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/89694/original/image-20150724-8468-1jac4aj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/89694/original/image-20150724-8468-1jac4aj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=994&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/89694/original/image-20150724-8468-1jac4aj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=994&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/89694/original/image-20150724-8468-1jac4aj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=994&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/89694/original/image-20150724-8468-1jac4aj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1249&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/89694/original/image-20150724-8468-1jac4aj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1249&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/89694/original/image-20150724-8468-1jac4aj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1249&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The trauma of slavery.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Slavery_in_the_United_States#/media/File:Cicatrices_de_flagellation_sur_un_esclave.jpg">National Archives and Records</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>For blacks descended from slaves, the subject evokes feelings of shame and embarrassment associated with the degradations of slavery. For whites whose ancestry makes them complicit, there are feelings of guilt about a system that is incongruent with the democratic ideals on which this country was founded. </p>
<p>Cloaked in a veil of silence or portrayed as a benevolent system that was in the best interest of blacks, slavery – much like mental illness – has become shrouded in secrecy and stigma. </p>
<p>Associated emotions are pushed away. </p>
<p>Anger, however, is a healthy emotion, as even the Scriptures acknowledge. </p>
<p>The God of the Old Testament is angry and vengeful. In the New Testament, Jesus vents his anger in driving the money changers from the Temple. </p>
<p>As research (including <a href="http://www.worldcat.org/title/community-mental-health-challenges-for-the-21st-century-second-edition/oclc/845253880">my own</a>) has shown, when anger is internalized and driven deep into the unconscious, contaminated by unresolved pain, it becomes problematic. </p>
<p>So what happens to the anger felt by people discriminated against and, in extreme cases, physically targeted because of their race? </p>
<p>Not enough is known about the relationship between clinical depression and race. But there are extensive findings (including reports by the <a href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK44243/">Surgeon General</a>) that attribute racial disparities in mental health outcomes for African Americans and whites to clinician bias, socioeconomic status and environmental stressors (such as high rates of crime and poor housing). And there is <a href="http://www.worldcat.org/title/community-mental-health-challenges-for-the-21st-century-second-edition/oclc/845253880">evidence</a> of a link between perceived racism and adverse psychological outcomes such as increased levels of anxiety, depression and other psychiatric symptoms.</p>
<p>The numbers tell a story. According to the <a href="http://www.mentalhealthamerica.net/african-american-mental-health">Minority Health Office </a>of the Department of Health and Human Services, black adults are 20% more likely to report serious psychological distress than white adults and are more likely to have feelings of sadness, hopelessness and worthlessness than do their white counterparts.</p>
<p>And yet there continues to be reluctance to forthrightly confront the impact of racism on mental health. Some of my colleagues, for example, say that content on race and racism is the most challenging content for them to teach. Authentic dialogue on race is constrained by the fear of being “political incorrect.” It takes less effort to promote the more inclusive liberal view that we live in a “color-blind society.” </p>
<p>It may be easier to allow everyone to remain in their comfort zone. But today as the US faces what would appear to be an epidemic of race-based attacks committed by whites, it is time to examine how our history of racism affects the mental health of African Americans as well as that of whites.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/44642/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Alma Carten does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Forgiveness, as we have seen in the aftermath of the Charleston killings, is a hallmark of the Black Church. But what psychic toll do these acts of forgiveness exact?Alma Carten, Associate Professor of Social Work; McSilver Faculty Fellow, New York UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/438962015-07-07T09:00:24Z2015-07-07T09:00:24ZTo see the legacy of slavery, look at present-day school systems<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/87186/original/image-20150702-11335-17tq5rn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Let's not forget what the history of this abandoned school tells us.
</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/atelier_tee/209582519/in/photolist-jwazH-5R4hBA-rycrA6-nHK8LR-5xx4KY-bsp6S5-cmLwXh-8Gze6T-hBpyoD-82MUon-8qGjPp-9E5Z8H-cSbPZ-e938qa-dTXSXV-fNYvhJ-pXDMMV-9xtN8k-5qZfG-6fiqSY-3c3fTs-58CH15-9eCYvh-9uMwc1-cWiaFC-akhki5-6Rd1j4-A1otv-3Gpbfr-5es3oB-94H58b-qVqYKZ-mEaGhn-K1uNX-bkiYKy-7QrxNC-nWLxNS-9yuSeF-8MFJU7-7cbefW-pfviCt-H8xQm-5LjPxU-8uo8HZ-6PpuTz-8BNxg-8UENJ9-PrNFu-q2NQhQ-9uS2in">Terence Faircloth</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/">CC BY-NC-ND</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>None of us alive today had any direct involvement in slavery in America, but we continue to be affected by its <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2015/03/15/opinion/sunday/slaverys-enduring-resonance.html">legacy</a> and could even be perpetuating it in subtle, everyday ways. One of the ways the legacy of slavery manifests is through the school system. </p>
<p>My recent <a href="http://sre.sagepub.com/content/early/2015/05/04/2332649215582251.abstract">research</a> with <a href="http://sociology.duke.edu/people?Gurl=&Uil=16229&subpage=profile">Robert L Reece</a> suggests the school system has been deeply affected by our slavery history, most notably in ways that relate to present-day school segregation.</p>
<h2>Identifying the legacy of slavery</h2>
<p>One of the many striking aspects of slavery was the forcible denial of education to slaves.</p>
<p>As we detail in our <a href="http://sre.sagepub.com/content/early/2015/05/04/2332649215582251.abstract">paper</a>, there is historical evidence to suggest that the insistence that black Americans don’t need or shouldn’t have the same quality of education as whites persisted even after emancipation.</p>
<p>But how does this history get reflected in the contemporary school system? We find that one of its consequences is greater black–white school segregation.</p>
<p>Using contemporary and historical census data for all counties in the South, we find evidence that indicates a positive relationship between the concentration of slaves in 1860 and black–white disparities in public school enrollment during the 2006–2010 time period.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/87218/original/image-20150702-11339-1xqv4tb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/87218/original/image-20150702-11339-1xqv4tb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/87218/original/image-20150702-11339-1xqv4tb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/87218/original/image-20150702-11339-1xqv4tb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/87218/original/image-20150702-11339-1xqv4tb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/87218/original/image-20150702-11339-1xqv4tb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/87218/original/image-20150702-11339-1xqv4tb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">White private school enrollment is greater in counties where slaves were more heavily concentrated.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/santacatalinaschool/5787685972/in/photolist-9Prppb-9PoymM-fwi7Z5-ib9X2z-axPx99-rfVrq1-6xMkPx-dALeWx-ewqvC3-ib9UX4-ebwcaR-9Rciar-ebwckB-ewnmfg-ewqTnq-a5wbnT-ebwcoz-92n9vb-dALezP-dARF4h-dALemp-dARFWb-dALcUH-dARGFA-dARFpN-dALcMe-dARGcU-dAREWG-dALeoX-dARFnE-dARGDG-dAREBy-dALdiZ-dALd5D-dALdPi-dALepH-dARFcw-dARGiQ-dALdaB-dALcVX-dALeuX-dARET1-dARFkb-dALdcT-dARFPU-dALdmZ-dALdFn-dALdAn-dALds4-dARFJE">Santa Catalina School</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/">CC BY-NC</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Most importantly, our results suggest that white private school enrollment is greater in counties where slaves were more heavily concentrated in 1860, thereby leaving black students overrepresented in public schools.</p>
<h2>We need to learn from history</h2>
<p>It is perhaps no surprise that slavery is associated with inequality and disadvantage for the enslaved population. However, what is notable is that this connection persists more than 150 years after the abolition of slavery.</p>
<p>Despite <a href="http://www.pbs.org/wnet/supremecourt/rights/landmark_brown.html">rulings and legislation</a> aimed directly at reducing school segregation in the time between slavery and today, it is far from being a distant <a href="http://www.urban.org/urban-wire/americas-public-schools-remain-highly-segregated">issue</a>. And it needs our attention.</p>
<p>Segregation negatively impacts disadvantaged groups but has little effect on those who are already advantaged. As a result, school segregation helps perpetuate the cycle of <a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/answer-sheet/wp/2014/04/24/how-after-60-years-brown-v-board-of-education-succeeded-and-didnt/">disadvantages</a> that black kids already face.</p>
<p>Sixty years after the historic Brown v Board of Education court case, <a href="http://www.newyorker.com/news/news-desk/sixty-years-later-we-need-a-new-brown">new</a> conversations are starting about how the dream of an inclusive society hasn’t been achieved. </p>
<p>So, what does our research add to these emerging conversations?</p>
<p>First, as we approach this issue again, we need to keep its historical foundations in mind. The historical depth of segregation’s foundations should remind us that solutions will not be easy and they cannot be short-term. Sustained efforts over several generations may be necessary before real change will be seen.</p>
<p>Second, we need to remember the importance of teaching history. Recent changes in our <a href="https://www.understood.org/en/school-learning/your-childs-rights/basics-about-childs-rights/how-no-child-left-behind-affects-your-child">approach</a> to education in the United States have directed an increasing amount of the school day to math and reading while squeezing out other subjects, including history. If we are to understand what’s going on today, history needs to remain among our core school subjects.</p>
<p>Black–white segregation across schools has been a <a href="http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/politics/2014/05/brown_v_board_of_education_60th_anniversary_america_s_schools_are_segregating.html">persistent</a> issue in the United States, one with serious ramifications for subsequent inequality. Without addressing its historical foundations, we may never fully address the contemporary consequences of our history.</p>
<p>We may not be at fault for our country’s history, but we are responsible for what we do with it.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/43896/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Heather O'Connell received funding from the Center for Demography and Ecology at the University of Wisconsin, Madison through center grant P2C HD047873 and training grant T32 HD07014, and from the Kinder Institute for Urban Research while conducting this research.
</span></em></p>One of the many striking aspects of slavery was denial of education to slaves. How is this history reflected in today’s school system?Heather O'Connell, Postdoctoral fellow, Rice UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.