This is the eighth
in a series of interviews with philosophers on race that I am
conducting for The Stone. This week’s conversation is with Noam Chomsky,
a linguist, political philosopher and one of the world’s most prominent
public intellectuals. He is the author of many books, including, most
recently, “On Western Terrorism: From Hiroshima to Drone Warfare,” with
Andre Vltchek.
– George Yancy
George Yancy: When I think about the title of your book “On Western Terrorism,”
I’m reminded of the fact that many black people in the United States
have had a long history of being terrorized by white racism, from random
beatings to the lynching of more than 3,000 black
people (including women) between 1882 and 1968. This is why in 2003,
when I read about the dehumanizing acts committed at Abu Ghraib prison, I
wasn’t surprised. I recall that after the photos appeared President
George W. Bush said that “This is not the America I know.” But isn’t
this the America black people have always known?
Noam Chomsky: The
America that “black people have always known” is not an attractive one.
The first black slaves were brought to the colonies 400 years ago. We
cannot allow ourselves to forget that during this long period there have
been only a few decades when African-Americans, apart from a few, had
some limited possibilities for entering the mainstream of American
society.
We also cannot allow
ourselves to forget that the hideous slave labor camps of the new
“empire of liberty” were a primary source for the wealth and privilege
of American society, as well as England and the continent. The
industrial revolution was based on cotton, produced primarily in the
slave labor camps of the United States.
Thomas Jefferson feared the liberation of slaves, who had “ten thousand recollections” of the crimes to which they were subjected.
As is now known, they
were highly efficient. Productivity increased even faster than in
industry, thanks to the technology of the bullwhip and pistol, and the
efficient practice of brutal torture, as Edward E. Baptist demonstrates
in his recent study, “The Half Has Never Been Told.”
The achievement includes not only the great wealth of the planter
aristocracy but also American and British manufacturing, commerce and
the financial institutions of modern state capitalism.
It is, or should be,
well-known that the United States developed by flatly rejecting the
principles of “sound economics” preached to it by the leading economists
of the day, and familiar in today’s sober instructions to latecomers in
development. Instead, the newly liberated colonies followed the model
of England with radical state intervention in the economy, including
high tariffs to protect infant industry, first textiles, later steel and
others.
There was also another
“virtual tariff.” In 1807, President Jefferson signed a bill banning
the importation of slaves from abroad. His state of Virginia was the
richest and most powerful of the states, and had exhausted its need for
slaves. Rather, it was beginning to produce this valuable commodity for
the expanding slave territories of the South. Banning import of these
cotton-picking machines was thus a considerable boost to the Virginia
economy. That was understood. Speaking for the slave importers, Charles
Pinckney charged that “Virginia will gain by stopping the importations.
Her slaves will rise in value, and she has more than she wants.” And
Virginia indeed became a major exporter of slaves to the expanding slave
society.
Some of the
slave-owners, like Jefferson, appreciated the moral turpitude on which
the economy relied. But he feared the liberation of slaves, who have
“ten thousand recollections” of the crimes to which they were subjected.
Fears that the victims might rise up and take revenge are deeply rooted
in American culture, with reverberations to the present.
[End of Excerpt]
Read the complete installment of "The Stone" series at the [paywall warning] New York Times.
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