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Politics : The Trump Presidency -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: i-node who wrote (9717)	2/6/2017 2:37:43 PM
From: combjelly	1 Recommendation Recommended By bentway Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 358044

And in areas where minimum wage is highest, the problem is worse than any other places in America. Like Seattle... Or San Francisco. Don't let facts get in your way.

To: i-node who wrote (9717)	2/6/2017 3:14:22 PM
From: Lane3	1 Recommendation Recommended By i-node Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 358044

I don't know if it makes a difference, but it certainly IS institutionalized in the North, even today. There wasn't any where I grew up (NJ). I've posted several times that I grew up in an immigrant environment. That was back when Italians and Eastern Europeans weren't quite white and the Irish had barely gotten their noses under the tent. My block had one genuine white family by the name of Painter. The rest were one each Greek, Dutch, Slovak, and German. There was a black family one block over, the only black family in town, a daughter one year ahead of me who was best friends with the Painter girl and a son two years older than his sister. I don't know when they moved in. I was unaware of them until high school. My dad worked occasionally with their dad and he came by a few times for a beer. No one seemed to think them any more different than any other ethnic group. If there was any prejudice towards them it was no different than that towards us light skinned non-whites. (Me, a blue eyed blonde.) There was most definitely no sign of institutionalized racism. Their dad couldn't join any of the nearby country clubs. But then again, neither could mine. A scratch golfer, he was ethnic and Catholic--not a WASP. He used to caddy to get playing time off hours on the private courses. Thomas Sowell, who was recently disparaged on this thread, wrote a book in the early 80's called Ethnic America. That was my first knowledge of him. I was very impressed with how perfectly he captured the experience of the immigrants of the time. FWIW.

To: i-node who wrote (9717)	2/6/2017 7:09:36 PM
From: koan	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 358044

reimaginerpe.org Black Codes and Convict Leasing When slavery was legally abolished, a new set of laws called the Black Codes emerged to criminalize legal activity for African Americans. Through the enforcement of these laws, acts such as standing in one area of town or walking at night, for example, became the criminal acts of “loitering” or “breaking curfew,” for which African Americans were imprisoned. As a result of Black Codes, the percentage of African Americans in prison grew exponentially, surpassing whites for the first time.3 A system of convict leasing was developed to allow white slave plantation owners in the South to literally purchase prisoners to live on their property and work under their control. Through this system, bidders paid an average $25,000 a year to the state, in exchange for control over the lives of all of the prisoners. The system provided revenue for the state and profits for plantation owners. In 1878, Georgia leased out 1,239 prisoners, and all but 115 were African American.4 Much like the system of slavery from which it emerged, convict leasing was a violent and abusive system. The death rate of prisoners leased to railroad companies between 1877 and 1879 was 16 percent in Mississippi, 25 percent in Arkansas, and 45 percent in South Carolina.5 The stories of violence and torture eventually led to massive reform and abolition movements involving alliances between prisoner organizations, labor unions, and community groups. By the 1930s, every state had abolished convict leasing.6 Chain Gangs As the southern states began to phase out convict leasing, prisoners were increasingly made to work in the most brutal form of forced labor, the chain gang. The chain gangs originated as a part of a massive road development project in the 1890s. Georgia was the first state to begin using chain gangs to work male felony convicts outside of the prison walls. Chains were wrapped around the ankles of prisoners, shackling five together while they worked, ate, and slept. Following Georgia’s example, the use of chain gangs spread rapidly throughout the South.7