" all means are justified in the war of humanity against it's enemies"
---- Alexander Berkman
A few years ago I purchased a book Twelve Years A Slave by Solomon Northup. I was caught off guard by the fact this sentient human being, Northup lived as a free man in Washington City, only to be kidnapped in 1841. Sold into slavery this educated man was "rescued from a cotton plantation near the red river in Louisiana in 1853." Now a movie has come out about the Northup experience with actor Chiwetel Ejiofor in the role as Solomon. Why do I bring up the book and movie? Well, there are parallels to what one black man went through on a plantation to survive. Juxtapose Northup with employees - Department of Children & Families or Connecticut Juvenile Training School plantations do to survive. Northup played down his intelligence ( white plantation owners feared literate blacks), also worth noting is the fact of how this man allowed brutality to become part of a daily regimen. All around the plantation other slaves gave up hope; beaten down and treated like animals, all human traits erased while leaving vestiges of a personality.
When we look at employees of DCF / CJTS at work on their state facilities ( plantations), similar patterns emerge that relate to Northup. A large number of employees of color on state plantations submerge their true identities as not to be noticed by management. Data obtained through Freedom of Information documents show a higher number of disciplines for blacks & Latino men ( than other ethnic groups). Observations by this writer confirm how employees play low key roles, hoping not to be noticed by white management or overseers of color; infractions such as vocal complaints, e-mails about certain issues, or acting like men and women lead to punishment. In the movie lynching, whippings with leather straps were part of ol' massa's punishment. Today on these new DCF/ CJTS plantations punishment using policy or procedure to " put employees in their place" is common: sad to say, many are accepting such treatment as a means to economically survive on these plantations. Northup et al. ( and others) survived to get a meal or clothing or not be killed. At these new plantations employees survive to get another paycheck, go to a happy hour, or vacation spot, keep Blue Cross / Anthem insurance. Yet, for employees to accomplish this something must be given up; part of employees humanity is thrown away, and thus like slaves of old... state workers lose sight of self.
The movie Twelve Years A Slave is revealing for what happened to a man and how he kept remembering a humanity white people tried to obliterate out of him. Whites on the plantation did not succeed with Northup.
The tragedy on these new state plantations mirror horrors of the past for employees. White management attempt to snuff out humanity among workers, only in this modern version seems like slaves ( employees) are willing to be trod into nothingness.
No comments:
Post a Comment