RHETOR 103B Chapter Notes - Chapter 11: White Supremacy, Sentience
Document Summary
To remake the world: slavery, racial capitalism and justice. Common to say that slavery dehumanized people. But this is misleading, harmful, and must be resisted. When we say this, we are participating in a sort of ideological exchange no less baleful for being so familiar. Separating ourselves from our own historical perpetration > holding oneself separate from the inhuman actions of many. We should not overwrite the complexity of history with the simple minded notion of moral progress . Question the assumption that slaveholders had to first dehumanize slaves so they can commit atrocities and injustices. Slavery actually depended upon the human capacities of enslaved people. To a large extent, owners depended upon the slaves" ability to bear witness, provide satisfaction, provide a living, huan register of slaveholders" power. To say slaves were dehumanized is to render black humanity intellectual probationary.
