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.
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.
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.