July 20, 2023
Troy D. Smith
“Dispossessing the Poor, Part 7- Divided Means Conquered”
A few weeks ago, I talked about agrarianism versus
industrial capitalism, and the fact that by 1800 many people had come to regard
subsistence farmers as -not quite civilized. This was because they produced
pretty much only what they themselves needed, rather than “cash crops” to be
sold and thus turned into money that would circulate around. I later connected
that philosophy to the dispossession of many Appalachian farms, turning those
farmers into cogs in a labor machine.
It is worth noting, though, that not EVERYONE (other than
the farmers) felt that way. Sure, Alexander Hamilton -Secretary of the Treasury
-was deeply invested in that philosophy and in a global, money-oriented
economy… but his political rival, Thomas Jefferson, believed in an “agrarian
ideal.” He believed that small farmers were the backbone of America, and the
very fact they were self-sufficient is what made them so important. Beholden to
no one, they were free to vote their conscience without pleasing landlords or
employers. Another Founding Father, Thomas Paine -always a bit of a radical,
who’d been calling for years for the government to provide more aid to the poor
-wrote a pamphlet called “Agrarian Justice” in 1797. “The landed monopoly …has
produced the greatest evil. It has dispossessed more than half the inhabitants
of every nation of their natural inheritance, without providing for them…and
has therefore created a species of poverty and wretchedness that did not exist
before.”
The Market Revolution and the related concept of Manifest
Destiny doomed the Jeffersonian vision and helped ensure a more Hamiltonian
one. So which political party actually has consistently protected the “little
guy”? Well, neither one, really. Both are and have been indebted to Wall Street
and big business. I still maintain that, over the past century, the Republicans
have been many times worse for the working class than the Democrats. For more
than half-a-century now, they’re the ones that have used racial dog-whistles
(or, more recently, megaphones) to distract their working-class voters and
prevent them from really noticing how bad GOP policies are for them.
I want to tell you about my friend Hy Thurman. Originally
from Tennessee, in 1968 he was one of the roughly 40,000 Appalachian
transplants in Chicago -we probably all know people who moved to Detroit,
Indianapolis, or Chicago for work then. In Chicago, they were concentrated in a
run-down neighborhood called “Hillbilly Harlem,” where they were often the
object of ridicule… and worse. They not only lived in tenements, they were
targeted for police brutality. Hy and a bunch of other young, white
Appalachians formed a group called The Young Patriots to fight for their
rights. They allied with the Black Panthers (under Fred Hampton), the Young
Lords (a Puerto Rican group), as well as AIM (the American Indian Movement), in
what they called The Rainbow Coalition. There’s an HBO movie about it, “Judas
and the Black Messiah.” All these groups realized that race was a con, put upon
them to keep them from uniting together on all the things that, as poor people,
they had in common. This probably does not conform to your perception of Black
Panthers, who are usually presented as “anti-white.” There is a big difference
between being “anti-racism” and being “anti-white.”
And that’s the point, on several levels. One, what you think
you know about Black Panthers or Black Lives Matter might not match up with
reality, and you should take a closer look at it. Two, when you have
representatives from many different groups, INCLUDING white people, coming
together in solidarity to fight for ALL their rights, together- that is not
“division.” That is unity. It is always discouraged by the status quo, which
doesn’t want change. The ones who are trying to break those groups APART from
each other, they are the dividers… and they have an agenda. Unless you are
incredibly rich, that agenda is not meant to protect YOU.
--Troy D.
Smith, a White County native, is a novelist and a history professor at
Tennessee Tech. His words do not necessarily represent TTU.
A list of other historical essays that have appeared on this blog can be found HERE
Author's website: www.troyduanesmith.com
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