Wednesday, July 11, 2018

My father's father immigrated here around 105 years ago. We benefitted from oppression of Black people.

My father's father immigrated from Poland around 105 years ago.  He worked for years in a garment factory sleeping in the factory to save money to bring his family here.

That's a commonplace narrative one is likely to hear from whites who don't want to acknowledge that they're beneficiaries of oppression of Black people.  Let me fill in a few blank spaces in this narrative:

No Black people worked in the factory.  Black people mainly lived in the South, many working in cotton fields under abominable conditions. That's why there could be a garment factory in New York City to begin with.

Fast forward to WWII. My father in law told me a story about a union meeting of war industry workers in Delaware. It was a plant that made military vehicles and the union was United Auto Workers. Apparently a group of Black workers (Who predominantly had the worse jobs) decided that they would participate in a union meeting.

The local union President would not convene the meeting.  He said out loud and without a blush: "We'll begin our meeting as soon as the n-'xxx clear the hall." No white workers including my father in law (Who was a card carrying red) spoke out, let alone chase the sob off the dais.

That's some of what crossed my mind when I first saw this cartoon and I felt like it should be seen widely and discussed in the context I am raising here.

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