Céad Fáilte
Welcome to The Village Oak Tree. I am Terrance Ó Domhhaill, your digital village scéalaí, returning once again this week with another, somewhat, controversial interview.
My guest this week is Steve Brigham, the author of It’s Never Been a Level Playing Field.
We start our discussion around his book, why he wrote it, and his background.
Mainly, we discuss a lot of American history regarding slavery and the aftermath in the United States and where it came from.
Our discussions run from how the first Puritan colonists started taking native American slaves at first, once they got their foothold on the North American continent, to the first boat load of African slaves, to the American constitution relegating Africans as only three fifths of a man for voting reasons, and so on.
The author gives us a lot of history about how the American colonists treated, supposedly, freed slaves throughout the history of the United States and how things stand today.
There is also a part about the inherent racism brought over from Great Britain at the time of the early colonists and how that has prevailed in American culture for over 400 years now and still going. The idea that this societal racism is just relegated to the African Americans is not true. These descendants of the English colonists have committed racist attacks and segregated themselves as much as possible from all others coming to the shores of North America. My own ancestors included.
He says that, although that is true, the native Americans and African Americans took the brunt of all of this racist culture through the decades and still are today.
We also talk about the eight myths of systematic racism and about American society in general today. I bring up some personal history of my own growing up in a segregated community, even though there were no black or Latino families living anywhere near me as a kid.
He also talks about his involvement with Affirmative Action and how that also affected African American people around the country. The obvious treatment of banks and lenders towards them and other normal societal living.
We close things out with some more about his background and the research for his book and I show everyone how to find his website to learn more.
This video interview is about an hour long but lively. We had a good discussion about how North America is systematically racist towards all those not descended from the first English colonists even today, by the government and communities, where all peoples who are not part of their tribe end up on the short end of things. Just look at the ghettos of Los Angeles, South Side Chicago, the segregated boroughs of New York City and so on. We don’t even have to mention the south east part of the country as they are famous for their racist culture around the world.
The thing is, North America doesn’t have to be this way. We can change, if we truly want to. And that may be the issue. A large portion of the white North American people like things just as they are and do not want to give up that little bit of power they imagine they have over those they think are inferior to them.
I have news for them. Change is slowly coming for them, whether they like it or not. Between the large migrations coming from people with darker skins from all over the world, with their cultures, to higher birth rates for them and not so much for the descendant of the English colonists, the overall demographics in North America are changing. More so in the United States than in Canada but they are also seeing a change in demographics there as well.
Europe is also seeing this swell in peoples immigrating from the middle latitudes of that part of the world and they don’t like it either. All over the world, tensions are high over the influx of migrants.
Our discussion today is about those that were brought to the Americas against their will and forced to stay because they had nowhere else to go when they were freed from their bondages. And how, even though chattel slavery has been abolished by law and constitutional amendment, quieter forms of slavery still exist in North American society in the 21st century.
Thank you for joining me today. I encourage you to watch the video to learn more about this author and his book. If you believe that North American society should be a more inclusive culture, read his book and start up a discussion here to let me know what you think.
As I say good bye this week, I wish to leave you with this Irish blessing as you go about your day. "May your hand always be stretched out in friendship and never in want" Slán go fóill.
The Village Oak Tree