{"id":36424,"date":"2011-06-08T10:21:06","date_gmt":"2011-06-08T15:21:06","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/?p=36424"},"modified":"2013-11-11T02:59:50","modified_gmt":"2013-11-11T07:59:50","slug":"trivializing-the-slave-trade","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/2011\/06\/08\/trivializing-the-slave-trade\/","title":{"rendered":"Trivializing the Slave Trade"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Just as &#8220;I&#8217;m not a racist, but&#8230;&#8221; is a sure sign that someone is about to say something racist, an essay that begins &#8220;I don\u2019t want to trivialize the inhumane horrors that African slaves endured on slave ships destined for the Americas. But&#8230;&#8221; is certain to do just that. \u00a0Indeed, Steven Heller at <a href=\"http:\/\/imprint.printmag.com\/daily-heller\/a-curious-similarity\/\" target=\"_blank\">Imprint<\/a> began his post this way, going on to suggest that the design of modern airplanes &#8220;resemble[s]&#8221; that of slave ships. \u00a0As evidence, he recalls his own discomfort in coach and compares drawings of slave ships and blueprints of airplanes.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/files\/2011\/05\/133.jpg\" data-rel=\"lightbox-image-0\" data-rl_title=\"\" data-rl_caption=\"\" title=\"\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-36430\" alt=\"\" src=\"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/files\/2011\/05\/133.jpg\" width=\"492\" height=\"298\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/files\/2011\/05\/213.jpg\" data-rel=\"lightbox-image-1\" data-rl_title=\"\" data-rl_caption=\"\" title=\"\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter\" alt=\"\" src=\"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/files\/2011\/05\/213.jpg\" width=\"492\" height=\"284\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>Heller prefaced his observations with a disclaimer because he knew comparing modern air travel to the slave trade was sketchy. \u00a0And it is, indeed, sketchy.\u00a0The descendants of slaves live life with the knowledge that their ancestors were stolen, shackled, beaten, and denied their very humanity; at least they survived the trip across the Atlantic. \u00a0Nope, not like air travel one bit.<\/p>\n<p>So, yes, it&#8217;s lovely to be clever, but it&#8217;s also lovely to be thoughtful and sensitive.\u00a0\u00a0In this case, Heller&#8217;s desire to be the former won out over the latter. \u00a0Or perhaps he never really thought that anyone would seriously be upset by the comparison. \u00a0It&#8217;s obviously tongue-in-cheek right? \u00a0I mean, slavery has been over for, like, ever. \u00a0Or maybe he forgot that descendants of slaves read the freakin&#8217; internet just like everyone else.<\/p>\n<p>Who knows. \u00a0In any case, it&#8217;s a great example of the trivializing of the histories and traumas of a marginalized population.<\/p>\n<p>Thanks to Dolores R. for the tip.<\/p>\n<span class=\"ft_signature\"><em><a href=\"http:\/\/lisa-wade.com\/\">Lisa Wade, PhD<\/a> is an Associate Professor at Tulane University. She is the author of <\/em><a href=\"https:\/\/www.amazon.com\/American-Hookup-New-Culture-Campus\/dp\/039328509X?ie=UTF8&amp;*Version*=1&amp;*entries*=0\">American Hookup<\/a><em>, a book about college sexual culture; a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.amazon.com\/Gender-Interactions-Institutions-Lisa-Wade\/dp\/0393931072?ie=UTF8&amp;*Version*=1&amp;*entries*=0\">textbook about gender<\/a>; and a forthcoming introductory text: <\/em><a href=\"https:\/\/lisa-wade.com\/intro\/\">Terrible Magnificent Sociology<\/a><em>.\u00a0You can follow her on <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/lisawade\">Twitter<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/lisawadephd\/\">Instagram<\/a>.<\/em><\/span>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Just as &#8220;I&#8217;m not a racist, but&#8230;&#8221; is a sure sign that someone is about to say something racist, an essay that begins &#8220;I don\u2019t want to trivialize the inhumane horrors that African slaves endured on slave ships destined for the Americas. But&#8230;&#8221; is certain to do just that. \u00a0Indeed, Steven Heller at Imprint began [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":51,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[253,3920,283,285,1760,307],"class_list":["post-36424","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-history","tag-nation-united-states","tag-prejudicediscrimination","tag-raceethnicity","tag-raceethnicity-blacksafricans","tag-traveltourism"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36424","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/51"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=36424"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36424\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":58851,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36424\/revisions\/58851"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=36424"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=36424"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=36424"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}