The Slaves of The Modern Era Will Be Bound Not With Chains But With Pills & Debt (Redux)

Denmark Vesey said ...
After the Emancipation Proclamation, only a handful of freed slaves immediately separated themselves from their former masters. Lacking either the resources or will to be free, the vast majority elected not to leave the security and safety of the plantation.

These partially emancipated slaves (sharecroppers) transitioned to a new economic and political reality, that bound them to the land, made them politically impotent, and kept them in perpetual debt. Stuck in the matrix of a simultaneously adversarial yet completely dependent relationship with the Plantation, these people became the first Plantation Negros.

The Plantation Negro reasoned, at least he could eat, even though he was not free. They were fed a diet designed to keep them alive, while costing the plantation as little as possible. However, early plantation negros were resilient and resourceful. They were able to supplement their diets with organic vegetables and naturally raised animals.

As the summer of the agrarian era evolved into a cold industrial winter, Plantation Negros developed relationships with the Factory. In exchange for safety and security, the Factory ensured the Plantation Negro a home. However, he remained politically impotent and as he was integrated into the culture of consumption, he became increasingly in debt.

Again, the Plantation Negro reasoned even though he was not free, at least he could eat. Tragically, now living in urban areas, the Plantation Negro was not able to supplement his diet by working the earth. The Factory filled this void by manufacturing cheap processed food which destroyed the organs of Plantation Negros and made disease inevitable. Now, added to the cost of housing and food, the Plantation Negro suddenly found himself saddled by something called Health Care costs.

What promised to be the spring of the Digital era witnessed a change in the relationship between the Plantation Negro and the Factory. It became a relationship between the Plantation Negro and the Corporation. In exchange for safety and security, the Plantation Negro was able to get multiple mortgages, credit cards, and school loans so the Plantation could educate his children.

Although he remained politically impotent and in insurmountable debt the Plantation Negro reasoned he could at least get Health Care.

As the bubble of the Digital era pops, the Plantation Negro finds himself wading in the tumultuous waters of economic upheaval, social collapse and an impending tsunami of disease. The Plantation that became the Factory which became the Corporation is now masquerading as the Government.

In exchange for safety and security, the Government provides housing by insuring mortgages, it finances debt and educates children. As an extension of its patronage, the Corpaorate / Government will continue to feed Plantation Negros an increasingly toxic diet of genetically modified food and prescription drugs, that not only makes them sick, but appears to sterilize the Plantation Population as well.

This year the Plantation / Factory / Corporate / Government is introducing a new product. It is called National (Plantation) Health Care. Sadly Plantation Negros think the same people who poisoned them are actually offering an antidote.

KonWomyn said...
Re-reading at the first half of this post there are deep differences between the past revisioned by Denmark Vesey the Blogger and the reality lived by Telemaque "Denmark" Vesey. One would hope you'd have revised this before re-posting. Not only bec the flaws were pointed out by Fish, Sub, Mahndisa and Makheru, but more importantly as homage to and recognition of the life and times of your ideological ancestor.

It's not the 'resourcefulness or resilience' of Black folk that lead them to grow organic food - it was the condition of the times that food was grown naturally. As for the origins of the "Plantation Negro" - has one not always existed prior to the Emancipation Era? Hence the house/field "negro" complex.

Finally, I Black people did not 'suddenly find themselves burdened with Health Care.' I think an historical analysis of Black Health and Uncle Sam would give more intellectual merit to your argument DV. The contradictions of simultaneous health debt/care, racial segregation, brutal denial of treatment as well as subjection to medical experimentation would be worth exploring. At least it would be the starting point of a discussion on health today for African Americans.

Denmark Vesey said ...
"has one not always existed prior to the Emancipation Era? Hence the house/field 'negro' complex. "  KW


The Plantation Negro has nothing to do with the field negro / house negro cliche oft repeated by those still channeling Malcolm. The Plantation Negro of today is not the historical descendant of his biological ancestors. His history is not a product of his ancestors reality. His history is as refined and processed a product of the Plantation as is his food.

As indicated in the comments, the more imaginative and creative minds on this thread recognized my treatise not as an exercise in historical revisionism, but in memetic deconstruction.

The Plantation Negro is the direct memetic descendant of the sharecropper. He is at war with an enemy he is completely dependent upon. He eats what his enemy feeds him. He teaches his children what his enemy wants him to teach. He injects toxic chemicals into his bloodstream. He has mortgaged his neurological system and his reproductive potential to the Plantation.

Now, invested and dependent upon the plantation, the Plantation Negro eventually defends the memetic interests of the plantation as if his very life depended upon the hegemony and perpetuation of plantation myth. (The Vaccine Myth for example)

There is a legend about Denmark Vesey that suggests he was quite a character during his years in Charleston. I imagine being free wealthy and black in Charleston South Carolina at the turn of the 19th Century would make any man a character. Denmark is remembered to have once chastised a group of black men for shucking and jiving when in the presence of white men.

Denmark Vesey challenged:

"Why do you bow and scrape so when in the presence of these white men?!"

One of the negros responded and then basked in the approving laughter of his companions:

"why we slaves ... aint we!"

Denmark responded:  

"Yes... And you deserve to be".

Now as Denmark Vesey's ideological, spiritual, possibly biological and certainly digital descendant I take that to mean a man deserves what he accepts.

Slavery is 80% Mental. The Plantation Negro meme refers to the voluntary nature of mental slavery. Even among those who pretend to resist on the surface, ultimately choose to be slaves.

The more articulate Plantation Negro expresses this phenomenon by engaging in quixotic, circular and self-defeating conspiracy theories like a Global System of White Supremacy. In an attempt to rationalize the voluntary aspects of his slavery. He pretends he has no choice.

So despite what Fish, Sub, Mahndisa and Makheru say, the fact that some black people left the physical plantation ... 100 years later than others... speaks for itself.

Unless those millions of sharecroppers were really Mexicans.