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.
No comments:
Post a Comment