Peter (fl. 1863) (also known as Gordon, or “Whipped Peter”, or “Poor Peter”) was an escaped American slave who was the subject of photographs documenting the extensive keloid scarring of his back from whippings received in slavery. The “scourged back” photo became one of the most widely circulated photos of the abolitionist movement during the American Civil War and remains one of the most notable photos of the 19th-century United States.
As much as I hate to say something that has any possibility of being interpreted as defending Trump, I don’t think he was trying to say that slavery was good (I’m referring specifically to his “museums talk too much about slavery being bad” comments from the other day). I think he was attempting to express, in his haphazard and thoughtless manner, a belief that is widely held among certain people, specifically white rural people. Namely, that focusing on the negative takes away from the positive.
Now, I don’t agree with that sentiment but I do think it’s helpful to understand the intent, or at least how his base is likely to interpret such comments. You and I probably share the belief that understanding history in all of its ugliness is necessary to both appreciate how we got to where we are and prevent us from making similar mistakes in the future. His base doesn’t care about any of that. All they know is that talking about slavery makes them uncomfortable so they would rather ignore it. It’s not as much about glorifying or whitewashing slavery as it is about avoiding discomfort. A lot of the time they will end up doing one of the first two in order to avoid the topic but that appears to me to be a simple attempt at justifying their desire to avoid the subject entirely.
I see where you’re going with this and I accept the possibility Trump is just clumsy and avoidant on the issue.
But you must be aware that there is a strong belief amongst MAGA types and deep conservatives in general that slavery was benign if not beneficial to those subjugated. D’Souza wrote a whole book about it.
They believe liberals exaggerate the bad parts of slavery due to irrational white guilt and black people agree because they are whiners and want reparations.
I strongly suspect this plays into Trump’s rants regarding museums and history curricula.
Sure, there are people like that just like there are actual Nazis. I just don’t think most of the base thinks about it enough to have an actual opinion on the subject. They might express one from time to time but in my experience it’s usually the same as the guy who drinks too much saying that a glass of red wine with dinner is good for your health. He doesn’t care if it’s true or not and he might not even believe it himself. It gives him the excuse he needs to ignore criticism of his habit and that’s all he wants.
In the same way most of MAGA doesn’t want to acknowledge that they have systemic advantages over others or that their prejudices against black people perpetuate centuries of poor treatment. Those ideas make them feel like bad people so they obviously shouldn’t be discussed in polite company.
Yeah, I don’t think so. He is trying to erase white guilt which is the only thing that is holding back a lot of people from wholesale attacking minorities.
What your saying is a gross simplification and not at all what the goal of this all is. His administration is literally trying to erase history and roll back whatever meager protections anyone other than white males enjoy.
This also is about people not receiving consequences for their actions. Trump has never received any consequences so why should his country. It is a denial of reality. The US is not a place of systemic racism when clearly it is.
Trump may be a bumbling old man but this is straight out of the white supremacist’s playbook.
I don’t disagree with your assessment of Trump and his goals, or at least what the goals of the people he’s surrounded by are. However, I’ve been talking about how I believe most of his base pereceives his comments which is usually pretty different from what he’s literally saying. His base hears what they want to hear in whatever he says and in this case I think that is “I don’t need to force myself to confront an uncomfortable topic” not “slavery is good”.
I see your point about what some people may think about what he has said.
No one is forcing anyone to confront the horrors of slavery, what is happening here is they are trying to erase it. You literally have to go to a museum and look in the specific section about slavery to see a watered down version of what happened. Even this apparently is too much though.
So while he may be whitewashing the debate with statements like we focus too much on slavery being bad (which we don’t and also it was very bad) the reality is the administration is busy erasing history by using its clout to remove historical references to minorities and women.