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Writer's pictureThe Duchess

THE CAUSE

Updated: Jul 3, 2020


THE CAUSE: The continued survival of Slavery.

Are you uncomfortable? Good. You should be.


I'm angry my dear reader. I'm heartbroken. I'm disappointed. I'm furious.


There are so many, many, many hundreds upon thousands upon millions of things that are wrong right now. America is bleeding. She is hurting, she is being violated. I am hurt. I feel violated. I feel deceived, I feel attacked. I am fed up. I am so very very fed up with the absolute fuckery of everything.


Another Black Man has lost his life to Police Brutality. To White Privilege, to White Supremacy, to THE CAUSE. I feel it is my personal duty, as a historian (and I alert you Prima-Dona Historian bitches out there that NO; I do not have your fancy credentials. NO; I do not have published works. NO; I do not have sponsored research. YES; I do have the training required to call your bitch ass out on this) to educate those that I can as best as I can, with the FACTS. With The FACTS as I have researched, interpreted and seen them. To discuss the FACTS with a semblance of impartiality. I must acknowledge that there is no such thing as true impartiality. It is humanly impossible to be Impartial. So I beg of you to read and allow to simmer what I have research, analyzed and prepared for you.


The Ideology of THE CAUSE is ONE of the root causes of America's racial problem. I know you are now asking yourselves- what is THE CAUSE. You know you have heard it before in beautiful Civil War films. I myself absolutely love Gone With the Wind- it's deplorable but I love the film, It's my romantic happy place if you will (which tells you all you need to know about my fucked up views on romance). I also am able to watch said film and understand and acknowledge its very fundamental racism. Most of us watch it and see these beautiful white women in gorgeous gowns and handsome men impeccably dressed parading across our screens and truly believe that what you are seeing is truth. Sure it's based on a fiction novel but surely theres truth in there? Wrong. There isn't.


America is RACIST. At the American core is the ACT OF SLAVERY. Let me be even clearer here, because I don't want there to be ANY confusion. At the core of American Ideals, of America as a nation is BLACK SLAVERY. I'm so happy you are uncomfortable. I'm about to set your world on fire. America, was built on the backs of SLAVES. It was "liberated" with the specific purpose of preserving SLAVERY. Oh, let me guess, because I can hear you now- No Duchess, America was built on the pursuit of Freedom, Liberty and Justice. No. It was not. It was a built in the pursuit of WHITE Liberty, WHITE Freedom and WHITE Justice.


Ok, go ahead and get mad. That's your business and frankly I'm madder than you are right now. It was not liberty the colonists looked for. They were quite frankly treated better-than mainland Englishmen. They barely paid taxes in comparison with mainland Englishmen. But sure- the King is taxing us unfairly- lets start shit. What your history books won't tell you? Most colonists identified as Englishmen. They did not identify as American's but saw themselves as ENGLISHMEN. The concept of independence was not raised once until it became an "inevitability" in 1776. I'm not your personal History teacher so I'm not going to go into the full details of that. What I am going to give you, briefly, is the key points that drove the decision to seek independence from Britain.


It was:

  1. Taxation without representation. Basically they got big mad that the crown decided to tax them on sugar and rum from the West Indies. Gasp how dare they expect us to pay for our own protection!

  2. Westward expansion. Britain entered into agreements with NATIVE AMERICAN NATIONS to preserve their land and ensure that colonizers would not INFRINGE UPON NATIVE LANDS.

  3. SLAVERY. By the Mid 1770's slavery was beginning to dwindle in popularity. Britain was beginning to curtail the trafficking of Slaves to its American colonies. The abolitionist movements in Britain were beginning to take root significantly & American sympathizers caught the scent. By 1883 England abolishes slavery in most of it's colonies.

Now that I've cleared that one up- you can begin to understand maybe a little bit why the fuckery happening is happening. No? Not clear yet ok, cool no worries. Let's continue with today's lesson. The founding fathers were slave owners. Benjamin Franklin owned them. Thomas Jefferson Owned them. George Washington owned them. Alexander Hamilton owned them. Oh yeah. Hey Lin- Manuel- where was that part in the musical by the way? Oh so cuz he bought and sold them for his wife's family its not the same thing? Ok. I see what you did there. PROCEED.


One tactic the English used against the rebellious colonists, which helps us to further understand how slavery is essential to the American independence? (yeah I said INDEPENDENCE not Revolution. I'll instruct on that one in another lesson) They "freed" their slaves. I put quotations there because they were "free" but expected- nay- required to join the English militia AGAINST their former slave masters. So here is one area where the link between White Safety & Black Rebellion in America are married. In the very real notion that Black Slaves will revolt against their masters. Yeah. That fear is still alive and well. I don't care what names you give it today. The Dunmore Proclamation of 1775 helped to cement that fear in the minds of WHITE slave owners. Dunmore's proclamation stated "I do herby further declare all indented servants, Negros, or others...free., that are able and willing to bear arms, they joining His Majesty's Troops as soon as may be" The colonists were shooketh. So shooketh in fact that they "won" the war. Yeah. "won". You can't really win something when the other side is just straight up tired of fighting you and votes to walk away. I said what I said. Your History books are doctored. Fake News people. FAKE NEWS.


Flash forward to the Civil War. Now thats the real revolution right there. Would you like to know what that war was about? The ONLY reason that war was fought? The only VALID REAL UNCOMFORTABLE reason? S-L-A-V-E-R-Y. Now here is where we get the birth of THE CAUSE. More accurately let's discuss briefly how The North wins the war and proceeds to completely and utterly change the entire narrative of the Civil War. Immediately after the war attitudes and narratives of the causes of the war begin to shift dramatically. It's almost like the North was sorry for wining the war. Yeah- I said it. Narratives regarding the institution fo Slavery as a central key component of the Civil War completely shift to ones that highlight slavery as an added alternative cause of the war. Bullshit. What you see come about from this narrative shift is the ideology of "The Lost Cause". No one wants to say it. It's ok. Its been a few years. I'll say it for them THE LOST CAUSE OF SLAVERY. It's a deliberate tactic- which is STILL used today- that preserves WHITE SOUTHERN PRIDE. Because they were big big mad they lost the war and ain't have no slaves anymore. It was a perverted form of National Reconciliation.


I mean, it's a Genius political move on behalf of the conquering Northern states who were seeking to reintegrate the bitch ass angry babies of the South back into the Union. You know when you fight with your sibling but like- ya'll gotta team up so mom will buy you that new doll playhouse? You don't like each-other but you rely on each other. Yeah that's what was happening with that. But this ain't no playhouse. This wasn't a "I told you to stop jumping on my bed thats why you 'accidentally' jumped on my foot and now your collarbone broke" (I have admitted nothing). This was attempting to completely gloss over the very real, essential issue of slavery. What occurs from the creation of this narrative is an agreement to A. not discuss the real issue and B. One side will look the other way. So essentially they all went back to how it was before the damn war.


Except, this is worse. It's worse because the Black man, the Black woman is no longer physically enslaved to the WHITE man. So naturally (I mean- fucking seriously people- I write that and am disgusted) new methods of control must be implemented. Jim Crow laws begin to pop up, and last into the very end of the 20th century. The ideology of THE CAUSE takes on a very different form, "The South Will Rise Again". Let us pause, and I want you to really let the gravity of that phrase sink in. The South Will Rise Again.


The little brother is a patient bastard ain't he? What that ideology is centered around is a form Historical ideology we Historians call "Romanticism". Romanticism is an ideology which glorifies the past. It rejects the current circumstances and regards the emotional, the visual, the perceptions of past events as truth. Do you see where I'm going here? The Lost Cause ideology had given birth to a Romanticized view of the Southern role in the Civil War. It allowed the defeated South to gloss over their guilt (ok I laughed at that one) and to paint themselves as the victims of an unjust war of aggression by the Northern States. I know it sounds ridiculous, but it's what happened.


The South built statues to honor their leaders. They were allowed to keep the Confederate Flag. They were allowed to implement laws specifically targeting Blacks. They were allowed to perpetuate the ideology of a Lost Cause as if it is a form of innate right that they own other human beings. They were allowed to form groups specifically to target Blacks with Violence. They were allowed to manipulate the Historical truth of events.


Quick detour because of that last one- I place the blame of this sole, and completely at the feet of Historians. We should know better than to allow political agendas to effect our truth. We are the record keepers, the fact checkers, the voices of the silent, the hands of the missing. We have an obligation to truth. To the absolute pursuit of truth, no matter what our personal beliefs are. It truly sickens me that my fellow Historians are not all capable enough of this. I do not believe it is our place to judge events, to judge the people behind events, but it is our place to accurately report those events. To educate our fellow man & woman. THAT is what being a Historian means. We are the Guardians of the World's records. Not the manipulators of it.


There are levels to this shit. So many levels I do not have the mental capacity to highlight entirely for you. I don't have it. Because I am seeing the effects of all the above playing out today. In a world that is very different from the world of the War of Independence and the Civil War and the Civil Rights Era. Yet, I am seeing a world that is exactly the same on a basic fundamental level. OK, so Slavery doesn't exist. Except that it does, in a more subtle, creative form. It exists when a Black man or woman can not go running in the street, eat ice cream, wear a hoodie, drive a car, use a gym, be in their own homes, use a cellphone, receive medical attention, be treated humanely in police custody or even speak to a white woman. This is not isolated to the Southern states. This is NATIONWIDE.


It exists when a White individual says "rioting is not the way. There are better ways to protest". It exists when the Black Man and Woman protest peacefully, but are attacked by the White Individual because their form of protest is "disrespectful' to a flag. It exists when they protest peacefully on the street but are maced by the Police force. It exists when the White Individual says "I can only listen". It exists when the White Individual allows another White Individual to make racist comments unchallenged. Slavery is alive and well in America; in the form of Racism. It exists when a White Individual sees a Black man using a gym and questions if he is "allowed to be here".


The Problem with Police Brutality is that Police function as the new Overseers of this new form of Slavery. I do not want to hear the argument that "there are good cops". Yes. There are good cops. But there are many more bad cops. To those good cops, do better. Stand against the bad cops. Call them out on their injustices. There are more Police out there who embrace the power of their badge, the power of the overseer. Who have become drunk and emboldened by that power. The Overseers of today have enjoyed their jobs. They have a new false persona that they hide behind, the persona of protectors. But they are not protectors. They are the enforcers of THE CAUSE.


The Cause is alive and well in America. That is her biggest failure. That is the enduring legacy. That is what every generation of Black Men and Women is fighting against. They don't want your sympathy. They don't want your judgement. They don't even want your god damn opinion. You need to shut the absolute fuck up and accept that White Privilege is real. That White people benefit from simply being White. That does not mean all White people have had an easy life, that is deliberately twisting this idea to suit the fragility of White Pride.


I've done my best to highlight why we are where we are today. We are here because "I CAN'T BREATHE". We are here because this generation is not like the others. This generation is educated, is angrier than the last. This generation is fed up. So am I.


I'm tired of worrying that my friends will be hurt. I'm tired of seeing videos of Black Men and Women being murdered plastered all over the news and social media. Footage which has been bought and sold for White entertainment. I'm tired of politely staying silent so as not to offend a friend by correcting their racism. I'm tired my loves. I'm angry and I'm tired. I'm not here to tolerate this any longer. I am here to say some of their names.


George Stinney

Emmet Till

Mike Brown

Eric Garner

Ahmad Arbery

Botham Jean

Sandra Bland

Alton Sterling

Jonathan Ferell

Breonna Taylor

Trayvon Martin

Amadou Diallo

Stephon Clark

Megan Hockday

Akai Gurley

Philando Castile

Atatiana Jefferson

Aiyana Mo’nay Stanley-Jones

Jordan Edwards

Tamir Rice

Freddie Grey

George Floyd.




With Some Type of Love,

The Duchess

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