Public speech and the badges and incidents of slavery

Some may feel uncomfortable with this post, or think it too radical. I think it's actually quite moderate - standard issue liberalism from 1865, the year the 13th Amendment to the US Constitution freeing enslaved people and prohibiting the badges and incidents of slavery was passed.

Here’s our daughter's speech to our local school board that started our current journey to ensure kids or adults of any race or nationality can address our school board, on any topic, without fear of violence, harassment, or intimidation -- that is, free of the badges and incidents of slavery.? (see 20:48 if it doesn't work - warning adults who speak after her used profanity and vulgarities).

I’m immensely proud of her intelligence and bravery. She’d wanted to give this speech months earlier, but many parents warned me about threats, harassment, and intimidation at or in connection with board meetings.?She wouldn’t take no for an answer, pointing out that I literally bear scars on my head from a Klansman’s club to my head when I was much younger. If I was willing to take those risks for myself, could my wife and I really deny our daughters the right to speak? We could not. So we pressed the city and the board to protect kids at the meetings. They literally said there was nothing they could do. Aftermonths of trying, we decided to force their hand. We told them we were going and we demanded protection. Faced with that, the board and city began to address our safety concerns.

The board has done a good job as we pushed for changes.?That said, some of my fellow progressives locally have told me enough is enough.?I supposedly can’t defend my daughter’s right to speak, nor point out the racial animus underlying threats, harassment, and intimidation. So they’ve threatened?violence and a slew of other retaliatory actions.?I’m white, you see, so apparently that means my daughter is supposed to be on her own. I don’t think so.

It should be possible for Black children and adults, Black-biracial people, or their family members of any race or ethnicity to speak in public meetings, to participate in the public sphere,?or to engage in politics without fear of violence,?without fear of law enforcement, without fear of vigilantism, without fear for their jobs and livelihoods, and without fear of retaliation.?

To put a finer point on it, when people cannot freely speak in public meetings, participate in the public sphere, nor engage in politics absent those fears, those are what the legislative history and jurisprudence of the 13th Amendment call “badges and incidents of slavery.”?Whether those fears are the result of public or private action, they are badges and incidents of slavery, and thus prohibited by the 13th Amendment and its enabling legislation in Reconstruction-era 1860s and 1870s and again in the 1960s.?

Here’s the key thing some don’t know: the 13th Amendment applies to all states and persons of all races and ethnicities. That is the genius of people like Frederick Douglass and Senators William Lloyd Garrison and Thaddeus Stevens; the latter was probably secretly married to a Black woman. While the 13th was focused on protecting Black people from the badges and incidents of slavery, to protect Black people, the Amendment needed to protect white people who had married Black people, particularly in northern states where this was legal,or any otherwhite people who supported or rendered aidto the cause of justice for Black people, and faced legal repercussions or mob violence because of it.?Under slavery, it was illegal for whites to marry Black people, even free Black people, to teach Black people to read and write, to offer them skilled jobs, to teach them to defend themselves or provide the means to do so. To varying degrees, these kinds of laws also held in Northern states.?

The badges and incidents of slavery applied differently to white people, but they applied nonetheless. The laws targeted supportive whites were intended to remove all protection from Black people. Above all, these badges were intended to prevent “mixing the races,” which the makers of these laws saw as the ultimate badge of degradation of any white person and of "the race."?Tellingly, this same language holds even today, and is the view of local people who have made or incited the most serious threats, and who despite this, remain quite prominent in local politics and the business community, beyond even the borders of Texas.

The 13th?was designed to protect formerly enslaved people, free Black and biracial people, and their family members of other races and ethnicities from the ravages of racism, that is, from the badges and incidents of slavery.?The Amendment was intended to remove these badges and provide to all citizens of any race or ethnicity the same rights, privileges, and immunities as that provided to the most privileged. The 13th Amendment is the only constitutional provision intentionally designed to prevent not just government, but also private parties from violating the fundamental rights of other private parties. It is the only Amendment that directly encumbers private parties against other private parties. Because again, whether by governmental or private action, violence, vigilantism, takings of property and livelihood, and retaliation are all badges and incidents of slavery.?While they are badges and incidents of slavery regardless of the race or ethnicity of the person, they are especially badges and incidents of slavery for Black people, biracial people, and their family members of any ethnicity.

Some wish to tell me I cannot speak in defense of my daughters’ right to speak, nor note the racial animus behind the strategy to run her and other Black and Black-biracial kids out of public meetings, nor note the callousness of some who would have us subordinate our safety concerns to their political ambitions.?That’s what the whole last two years of horror has been about. Some Black kids showed up to speak at the school board, and they spoke about racism, so some people devised a strategy to threaten and bully them out of participating. Many progressives were willing to go along, figuring that the political cost of addressing bigoted behavior would be too high. Through the example they set, our kids successfully maneuvered the board into making positive changes that mostly solve this problem. There is just a little way to go. Some want us to drop it already. We will not. We’re tired, but we can’t stop now. The threats just redouble our resolve.

Why am I posting this on LinkedIn? My community of support is mostly here. The conspicuous rage, overt racism, and threatening behavior seen on other platforms is largely absent here. That said, the folks who brought this on our family and many others are prominent in local politics and business. They seem to have paid little price, while I faced threats to my safety and livelihood only a few days ago. It seems to me there remain some issues for the larger business community and business leadership to explore. We know these kinds of threats againt Black people who speak up can be rampant. What should businesses do? Do employees feel comfortable raising these issues, and if not, what does this tell us? I’m also very proud of our daughters, who have taught me my responsibilities as a parent, and given me the courage and determination to look past my fears, and to do what I have always believed -- one must do what is right. I thinkI owe itto them to encourage others to show the same courage, should they choose. Many already do, and together with my wife and daughters, we express our gratitude.