They’re Coming to Take Black Jobs
The racism of Trump’s Black jobs comment
Poverty in the South has always been a major stain on our nation. In Mississippi, 1 in 5 people live in poverty. The child poverty rate in entire South is worse at 21%. Over 43 of the 60 poorest cities are in the South. Nationally, the poverty rate is 9%.
This was true even 250 years ago.
Huge numbers of Southern whites lived in dire poverty in the 1800s during the height of slavery.
And you wanna know what proponents of slavery told the poor whites at the time to keep them in line and against enslaved Black people.
“Support slavery or Black people will come take white jobs.”
Poor, uneducated whites bought into the idea and largely supported slavery. Millions of Southern whites who were not slave owners sat and watched the system of slavery run the economic engine of the South.
Not because poor whites owned any slaves. Not because they profited from slaves. But because they feared that Black people would take their “white” jobs.
That’s how slave owners stirred up more hate.
Sadly, what people didn’t get is Black people already had the jobs. For free! Why hire white people to work farms or do other tasks when Black…
