Agnostic.com

2 4

My Family's Slave.

Interesting story of a writer's family that came to America from the Phillipines and brought their slave with them in 1964. She lived as a slave in America until the author's mother died. In describing both his mother and father, he used the words:

"...moody, imperial, secretly fragile..."

Powerful words that describe a sense of superiority some feel over others used to justify deplorable behavior, inhumanity, and oppression. Personally, I have seen, and continue to see this mindset used in so many places and situations here in America. Not to justify slavery, but definitely to justify keeping people in a class system, in an organizational hierarchy, in devotion and belief to a false god, in an oppressed state with few choices and endless road blocks.

linxminx 8 Sep 14
Share

Enjoy being online again!

Welcome to the community of good people who base their values on evidence and appreciate civil discourse - the social network you will enjoy.

Create your free account

2 comments

Feel free to reply to any comment by clicking the "Reply" button.

0

I just read every word—couldn’t stop reading this amazing tribute to Lola.

@linxminx Yes, Lola had a pretty good life—better than many. I’m trying not to judge any of the characters in this true drama.

BTW, thanks for posting this.

3

I've read that one. Disturbing. I've only ever run into it in the South African expat community in Australia, which increased massively after the end of apartheid. I was working in a Telco at the time, and some of our field techs would flat out refuse to do installs when they saw an Afrikaaner surname in certain suburbs. I was trying to cajole one into attending, when he said "Mate, I'm pretty brown, and those bastard can't tell the difference between an employee, a servant, and a slave."

@linxminx We'd end up having to send one of the 'skips' - Australian slang for Anglo looking guys. They wouldn't provoke the same intensely rude 'servant mentality' reaction.

@linxminx It was a real shock to me, because most of the South Africans I'd meet had left South Africa because of apartheid. Then there was a wave of immigrants who left South Africa because apartheid had ended. Very different group of people.

You can include a link to this post in your posts and comments by including the text q:401976
Agnostic does not evaluate or guarantee the accuracy of any content. Read full disclaimer.