How Many Slaves Does It Take?

A mind is a terrible thing to waste.

Geez. Yet another case of common sense being missing in action:

Two Manhattan teachers are in hot water over an offensive homework lesson that used killing and whipping slaves to teach subtraction and multiplication.
Public School 59 teacher Jane Youn, 32, sent the boneheaded questions home with her fourth-graders in January.
One question focused on a ship loaded with 3,799 slaves. “One day, the slaves took over the ship. 1,897 are dead. How many slaves are alive?” the question read.
Another word problem used the example of a slave who “got whipped five times a day,” then asked students to calculate the number of whippings he received in a month.

Really?

Wow.

From what I read, the teachers may have meant well, as they were trying to get the students to combine what they were learning in their history class with their math lessons. But, uh, a little more thought here and they could have seen the inappropriateness of those questions.

Here is the full story.

Mississippi Finally Bans Slavery – Officially

Is this state trying to keep its old reputation?

Wow, Mississippi, welcome to the 2013!

A middle-aged recent immigrant from India recently set into motion a series of events that eventually led to Mississippi finally ratifying the Constitutional amendment banning slavery. The rousing finale of the movie Lincoln served as inspiration. It sounds like a joke, but it’s true. And even though it’s been nearly 150 years since that fateful day in the Capitol in 1864, Mississippi’s becoming the final state to officially ratify the Thirteenth Amendment serves as the final punctuation mark on a dark chapter in American history.

According to this story, this whole non-ratification thing was a mistake. I hope so. But I have to tell you, something tells me back in the day somebody knew what they were doing and purposely objected to the amendment by uh, not filing the proper paperwork. And since then everyone assumed it was done.

Whatever happened, once again, Mississippi doesn’t come out looking too good on the matter of slavery. Wow. Somebody better check some other key laws in that state.

Slavery Couldn’t Have Been That Bad, Right?

Ark. State Rep. Jon Hubbard is an un-wise old man.

OK, this goes under the “Some Republicans Have Simply Lost Their Minds” category.

Arkansas Republican State Representative Jon Hubbard  had this to say on the institution of slavery:

(T)he institution of slavery that the black race has long believed to be an abomination upon its people may actually have been a blessing in disguise. The blacks who could endure those conditions and circumstances would someday be rewarded with citizenship in the greatest nation ever established upon the face of the Earth.

Did he just imply that the horrors of slavery had  a reward built into it? Wow.

But wait. He is not alone. Another Republican lawmaker in Arkansas has written letters to the editor proudly proclaiming that he also does not believe slavery to have been such a big deal. This is what State Rep. Loy Mauch wrote:

If slavery were so God-awful, why didn’t Jesus or Paul condemn it, why was it in the Constitution and why wasn’t there a war before 1861?

Wow. Again, I am speechless. Sometimes ignorance is so bad there isn’t much you can say.

Here is a link to an article on Hubbard and here is the link to Mauch’s brilliant writings and thoughts.

Tea Party Says Slavery Wasn’t All That Bad

Tea Party craziness

Come on now, people. At first I didn’t believe this story. But it is true. The Tea Party in Tennessee now wants the schools to go easy on slavery and slave owners, to point out that they weren’t all bad people or bad intentioned.

O.M.G.

Check the story out here.

A $32 Million Slave He Is Not

A $32 million slave?

Albert Haynesworth, the Washington Redskins defensive football player, wants everyone to know he’s not a slave.

O.K.

But he is an idiot for even making such a statement.

To compare being a slave to being told what position to play on a football team that pays you millions of dollars every year is just plain stupid. And even more ridiculous that he would add a racial tone to his disagreement with the team.

“I mean, I’m not for sale. Yeah, I signed the contract and got paid a lot of money, but … that don’t mean I’m for sale or a slave or whatever.”

Oh…Kay.

Here is a link to the article on Yahoo where I heard this nonsense. Some people really do want to fan the flames of racism when they think it suits their agenda.

It doesn’t always work. And this is one of those cases when I don’t think anybody will think the man is making any sense. You got paid  $32 million by the team, Albert. The point of slavery was forced labor. Nobody’s forcing him to be a millionaire.