icebear
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Short Story: Reparations
🕑 Added 2019-06-17 17:47:59 +0000 UTCWhew! OK, so let me say up front, my intention is *not* to be political, and while the title is certainly a political buzzword in modern American politics, I don't think this story does anything to take a stand. Still, if you're easily agitated or triggered, feel free to sit this one out and I promise the next one will be disclaimer-free. :)
That said, this piece is about a young white girl whose rich dad, upon learning his ancestors had enslaved people, decided to make amends by giving up his eldest daughter to a family descended from slaves for a week, using a lamentably fictitious control chip to coerce her into going along with it. Some good old multi-ethnic shenanigans ensue.
Full disclosure: this story was inspired by my own sister's genealogical investigations, which recently turned up... well, you guessed it. I'd always figured my family had dodged that particular historical bullet, which on my dad's side is true. They immigrated from Germany in the late 1800's (post Civil War). I always used to joke that we'd done it exactly right, karmically speaking -- too late in America for slavery, quick enough out of Germany to be clear of Nazism. (Ha. It's funny because those things were horrible.) Then we found out that my mom's side... yeah. They've been here trifle longer.
None of that is to outline any particular moral framework or political perspective on the subject of the story's title. I know my own personal reaction to the news was to feel some amount of baseless guilt, much as when that same research turned up an ancestor who served in the American Revolution (Valley Forge and everything), I felt some amount of equally baseless pride. Ancestry is a weird thing, where we get that attachment to all those deeds we never did, and in many cases probably couldn't have done (for good or ill), and so jotting down this weird little story was just on my mind as I was processing this recent revelation of some very old stuff.
Anyway, I promise the next one will be... well, not normal, because fuck normal, but normal for me? :) More to come!
Comments
Ferrum1
IB, Having a black SIL ties you to slavery no less than having white ancestors. The word "slave" actually comes from Slav, a region of Europe once considered a great hunting ground for Ottoman and African slave traders. Europeans were sold into slavery for a thousand years. One of the reasons President Jefferson sent the Marines to fight at Tripoli was to stop the taking of US citizens as slaves. Yea, you and me both are distant beneficiaries of slavery.... but only because we're human. I don't know why the idea of slavery ever came up in human society, but it was in every single society we know of. That's why I don't fret it and encourage everyone else to follow suit. Your family benefited from it, but that's not exactly true. Your family benefited from being in America, yes, but go back further than that. Your family benefited from being in Europe because America was settled by 95% European colonists. If your ancestors had moved east towards the orient.... you wouldn't necessarily be here today. Your family benefited from having ancestors who were smart, savvy, good with money, etc. Many a rich family has fallen on hard times because someone in the line of succession pissed all the money away. You benefited from a long line of people making good decisions. People who were in the right place at the right time and did the right things. But who knows, you might have been even wealthier is some distant ancestor hadn't screwed something up somewhere along the lines. Look back far enough and you might be related to a duke or earl or whatnot. Slavery was the norm for thousands of years, every culture practiced it. Neighboring cultures took slaves from each other. Some evolutionary biologists have even postulated that it's part of our DNA since we're basically pack animals that need a hierarchy. Vikings, Greeks, Romans, Picts, Persians, Chinese, Indians, Egyptians.... they all practiced slavery. Their societies flourished, in part, because of slave labor. So, yea, you and I benefited from the practice. Just like saying we benefited from hunting or war or good farming practices. No big deal in the grand scheme of things, and certainly no reason for any sense of shame or guilt -- even if it's only a 2 out of 10.
Ice Bear
It's for sure a complex issue. I can definitely see some folks getting this news and no big deal, and others taking it very seriously, and the whole spectrum in between. I think for me, on 10-point guilt scale where 10 is total anguish, I'm at maybe a 2 or 3? Like you say, I had nothing to do with it, after all. Still, I do have a black sister-in-law (haven't heard yet how she's taking the news), which makes it hit a little closer to home for me, at least. And while I don't feel any personal responsibility, I am a distant beneficiary of the practice of slavery. That branch of the family had, in part due to slavery, more money, which allowed them to relocate from Virginia to my home state with a large amount of land, which a couple generations down the line enabled some of then to go to college at a time when few people did, which enabled them to become even more affluent, then their children followed suit, and grandchildren, then my grandpa who was a successful accountant, whose daughter got to go to college, where she met my dad, and some years later I got my own education with minimal fuss. (Now, I happen to be squandering mine in the field of smutography, but my bro works for Wall Street and my sister has her own Ivy League education.) So, would we all still have achieved what we did without inherited advantages? I dunno. Some of it, maybe most if it. Icertainly don't mean to diminish anybody's accomplishments. (I'm hella proud of my sister! I have her in my phone as Dr. [Lastname].) Hence the 2 or 3. But it does make me wonder, and it for sure doesn't feel good. Anyway, that's a lot of rambling, but I guess like with this goofy story, I'm still processing and prone to obsessing over minutiae. :) Anyway, thanks for giving me the excuse!
Ferrum1
I've never understood why anyone would feel guilty because some ancestor owned slaves. Similarly, I don't understand why someone would feel "baseless" pride over an ancestor fighting in a battle. It just doesn't make sense. To the first point -- it was the norm. For all of human evolution, slavery was the norm. It was only with the introduction of America that the norm was changed. Every culture in the world practiced slavery of one kind or another, and many still do to this day. Being embarrassed or feeling guilty about that would be akin to me feeling guilty my dad ordered a pizza or went to a ballgame. To the second point, being proud that your ancestor stood up for something is a good thing. It took courage and conviction to fight in a battle no matter which side you were on. The underlying motivations for the war are outside of the average soldiers control, but that doesn't strip him of his own achievements. And, yes, that applies even to the "evil" forces we smacked down over the years. Kind of odd how we celebrate vikings - a group that routinely slaughtered innocent people, raped women and carried them back home, while also filling their pockets full of treasure from the monasteries they looted.... but feel guilty about someone owning a slave.
WDB
This is the content I subscribe for. Thanks!
Ice Bear
Ha! Usually accusations of cowardice center on my fears of needles, blood, anesthesia, my paralyzing dread of roller coasters, lizards, leaping bugs, or commitment. I did indeed DM this year. The tradition's been going for I think 15 years or so, and I've DMed for eight or nine of those. This year was our first trying out the new Starfinder system, and I ran a time travel themed campaign wherein the players had to go back in time to figure out who was destroying the sun and how it could be prevented. If any of you happen to be boardgame fanatics, I also incorporated a card game element inspired by the Fallout boardgame (which is surprisingly good - definitely recommend), with (I think) around 180 hand-crafted cards. It wasn't my best year in terms of the final execution, as the sudden but inevitable betrayal came a little too close to home, but still, good times had by all.
WDB
I cannot believe you'd tell us all about your family's genealogy, but you haven't told us what character class you played (of if you DM'd) from your "week o' D&D". You coward!
