Black civil war soldiers
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[Carol] Anderson’s [book, The Second: Race and Guns in a Fatally Unequal America], however, is wanting in important respects. She argues unconvincingly, in the face of formidable scholarship to the contrary, that the aim to protect slavery was the predominant motive behind the Second Amendment. She writes that the Second Amendment was “the result of [James] Madison’s determination to salve Patrick Henry’s obsession about Virginia’s vulnerability to slave revolts, seduce enough anti-Federalists to get the Constitution ratified and stifle the demonstrated willingness of the South to scuttle the United States if slavery were not protected.”

The Second Amendment, she claims, “came into being … steeped in anti-Blackness, swaddled in the desire to keep African-descended people rightless and powerless, and as yet another bone tossed to keep the South mollified and willing to stay aligned with the grand experiment of the United States of America.”

Because the centrality of racism to American history has often been obscured, revisions adding racial realism are urgently needed. Racism, however, for all its importance, is not the only major influence in the country’s affairs.

Akhil Reed Amar’s careful explanation of the debate over the Second Amendment in “The Bill of Rights: Creation and Reconstruction” (1998) points to considerations that Anderson notably slights, particularly “deep anxiety about a potentially abusive federal military.”

Anderson does not ignore altogether such concerns. She alludes to “the anti-Federalists’ heightened fear of a strong central government” as a factor in their calculations. But in her telling, dread of Blacks was the essential, overriding cause of the Second Amendment, an entitlement “rooted in fear of Black people, to deny them their rights, to keep them from tasting liberty.” Such claims significantly overstate the role of race in the amendment’s development.

— Randall Kennedy in Was the Constitutional Right to Bear Arms Designed to Protect Slavery?

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105 COMMENTS

  1. When you look for racism everywhere…you will see racism everywhere…
    if it does not exist, it will be manufactured
    yes…it exists…yes it is a problem…but racism is NOT responsible for every single thing wrong in the USA (not to say that the 2A is wrong, either)

    • A Crap Book like that is what happens when people sit around and hurl the same old, same old lightweight lame defenses for their right to keep and bear arms.
      As I have said from day one…”Gun Control in any shape or form is rooted in racism and genocide.” That is a fact and any attempt to rewrite the history of Gun Control is a sneaky, disgusting attempt to whitewash the mountain of race based atrocities belonging to the democRat Party. And it takes pond scum to do that.

      Not to allow such rubbish to overshadow Memorial Day…”All Gave Some, Some Gave All.”

      • finally a succinct, unique point. thankyou.
        i work these three days, but afters i honor my kokoreeree vets by brain cell elimination; they benefit from this somehow, there is one left and he told me so.
        “what are we, amateurs?”

    • The USA is probably the least racist country on earth in 2021. But acknowledging that won’t help bring about a socialist utopia.

      • I don’t think I can agree that the US is “least racist”. Latin America generally sets a better example than the US does with race relations. Mexico’s La Raza crap would be the exception to the rule. We missed something, somewhere.

        • Yes indeed … we missed not ridiculing those who make careers out of race-baiting, and instead a substantial chunk of the population decided to listen to them.

        • No. No, we aren’t. Reach back, deep into the darkest past. How “racist” was American Society BEFORE Jan 20th, 2009? Do you remember any issues? I dont. We were well on our way to reducing dramatically, if not erasing racism as a viable issue until that day.
          And let’s get something straight right now: I don’t give a DAMN what his skin color is, or even where he was born. Obama is a fricken COMMUNIST to his core. THAT’S why I despise the SOB.

        • Sure, in Latin America they hate blacks and whites but that’s not racist… And the aboriginal peoples are discriminated against from the Rio Grand to Tierra del Fuego.

        • I don’t know, they don’t seem real happy with “gringos”. Maybe I’m wrong. I have been once or twice.

        • Paul, that would be an incorrect assumption. I’ve lived in SA for many years. This nation IS the least racist.

        • “How “racist” was American Society BEFORE Jan 20th, 2009? Do you remember any issues? I dont.“

          I am sure that you never had any issues with racism until a black man with a brown name was elected to the White House.

          And suddenly it seemed to be everywhere, right? Hilarious.

          And Obama a communist? You mean even more than Putin ass-kissing Donald Trump?

      • This x 100000000

        Meanwhile, genocide is the state policy in some nations. The South African “dream” has been exposed as a racial fraud in which the current ANC is going after racial minorities through preferential policy and naturally, sought to license/limit gun ownership.

    • Racism is alive and well and strongly rooted in America. It is the #1 play in the Socilaist/Libturd/Demorat Playbook to divide, segment, and conquer America.

      • Barry Soeterro, aka barack hussein, brought racism to the forefront of the socialist democrat party playbook. We all got along fine until Barry somehow became president, with that treasonous mother effer McStain’s assistance. If not for those two immoral and corrupt SOB’s, America would be so much better off today. May they rot in Hell.

        • “We all got along fine until Barry somehow became president, with that treasonous mother effer McStain’s assistance.“

          Yes, those were the glory days, as Cloven Bundy said, all the Black people were laughing and singing and doing so well.

          Yes sir, that 250 years of institutionalized racial slavery, those thousands of lynchings, the segregated bathrooms and restaurants and hospitals, all just evaporated in a space of a few moments one afternoon.

        • Minor IQ,

          I’m sure, in your drug-addled haze, it doesn’t seem like it, but it has been 57 years since the Civil Rights Act was passed (over a DEMOCRAT filibuster – a higher percentage of Republicans voted for it than Democrats – but we all KNOW the Democrat Party is the party of slavery, Jim Crow, racism, and keeping “those people” down on the plantation). When was the last lynching, Minor IQ??? Can you identify even ONE lynching that was known to have been done by a Republican???

          Or are you just the lying, tendentious @$$ we know you are???

          It’s your “go to” move – whenever you’re getting your @$$ handed to you in a discussion thread – usually due to your limited acquaintance with facts and reality – your response is always some form of “Republicans are racists” and/or some completely tortured and irrational Constitutional exegesis for which you have exactly ZERO support.

          Be a good little Leftist fascist, and go loot a store or two.

    • Under Critical Race Theory everything you do is based on racial bias. The purpose is to create a constant state of anxiety as there is no correct decision or action. CRT followers will see racism in everything and everyone.

      If a store owner had two customers, one white and one black, under CRT serving the white customer first is racism because of bias towards white people getting preferential treatment. And serving the black customer first racism because you want them out of the store quickly. Common sense would be the customers are served in whatever order they approach the counter but under CRT this is still racist.

      • “…everything you do is based on racial bias. The purpose is to create a constant state of anxiety as there is no correct decision or action.”

        Close, but not quite.

        The ‘Correct’ thing that must be (automatically, without thought- And that’s important, it must be a *reflex* response) done is a decisively “anti-racist action”.

        …which makes it an unfair racist action, done under the Holy banner of purity, “Anti-Racism”.

        It is a deliberate attempt by them to ignite a race war. We. Must. Not. Fall For. It…

      • Yep, for the first 350 years, white people were served first, last and always in stores because no ‘coloreds’ were allowed.

        To the privileged, equality feels like oppression.

        • And how are you atoning for your ‘privilege”? Or is it turning into self-loathing which you are projecting on to others?

        • Yeah, Minor IQ, we all know what racist b***ards you Democrats are; you don’t need to remind us. Thank God Republicans did the right thing and got the Civil Rights Act adopted, DESPITE the vicious filibuster of Al “I invented the Internet” Gore’s racist @$$hole of a father. If we left it up to folks like Gore and other well-known DEMOCRATS, those blacks would be back where they belong, on the plantation, amirite???? LBJ – “We’ll have those n****** voting for us for a hundred years!”

          Take your MISPLACED sanctimony and virtue-signalling, and put ’em where the sun don’t shine. You are a CLOWN. You have that impenetrable Leftist armor – the strength of your opinions is in inverse proportion to your actual knowledge of the subject. But, you’re fun to mock, so there’s that.

  2. Like so many others, she believes the 2A is a privilege bestowed by a Government on the ‘right’ people, and forbidden to the ‘wrong’ people. Nothing is farther from the truth, and no lie or twisting of the plain language of the 2A is more dangerous to Liberty.

  3. From the NYT article :

    “Guns are not the key variable here. It’s Black people. … The Second Amendment is so inherently, structurally flawed, so based on Black exclusion and debasement, that … it can never be a pathway to civil and human rights for 47.5 million African-Americans.”

    And, there ya go –

    The 2A is just as racist as the United States itself, and is further proof the whole ‘system’ needs to be torn down to the roots.

    If this warped narrative isn’t effectively countered, they eventually will destroy this country. And it will be done to the sound of *cheering*…

    • Destroying the country is the primary objective for these people.

      • If only they had a plan for afterward. Step 1) Destroy the county Step 2) Uh, we’ll sort that out later.

        BTW, that reminds me of a quote I once saw: “This is sort of like when you see wannabe “marxists” talking amongst themselves on Twitter about what they want to do “post revolution”. As if they will have a say.”

        • What do I want to do after the Marxist revolution?
          1) eat
          2) escape

        • “What do I want to do after the Marxist revolution?

          1) eat
          2) escape”

          Gov, They won’t let you eat until you turn in all your guns and ammo.

          Then you will be shot as an escape risk.

          *Snicker*… 😉

    • Interesting quote you pulled out, Geoff. It started me thinking…

      Guns aren’t a variable at all in American society and history; they’re a constant. Guns and the individual right to keep and bear arms are a ubiquitous, fundamental baseline in this country, from before the Declaration of Independence to the present day — and you can judge any ideology’s liberality and respect for individual freedom (or lack thereof) in reference to it.

      The NYT did get one thing right when it said “the key variable is black people.” More accurately, the key variable is what those who wield power think about black people.

      Throughout this nation’s history, there has been a constant effort to keep guns away from the “wrong” people — and for most of it, black people have been those people.

      The founders, if they wanted to make sure black people could never legally own guns, could have said so at the start. They could’ve coded it right into the Constitution in so many words if keeping that right away from black people meant as much as Professor What’s-Her-Face claims…but they didn’t. True, blacks weren’t part of “the people” back then, so they were excluded by default. But the fact remains that the language of the Second Amendment left open the possibility that black people actually could share the right to keep and bear arms if society came around to the idea of their being part of “the people” at some point…and they probably did it deliberately.

      Now contrast that with what “progressives” think about black people. Strip away the academic puffery, and you get this: “The Second Amendment … can never be a pathway to civil and human rights for 47.5 million African-Americans.”

      Tell me again, who are the racists here?

      The progressive cognoscenti want the government to have total control of all firearms, turning gun ownership into a heavily restricted privilege exercised only by the elite. And who are the elite? Who controls the government and the corporate centers of power that will decide whether you’re worthy of this rarefied privilege? Not black people.

      And that tells you everything you need to know about gun control in America. It’s a racket run by racist grifters for the benefit of the most powerful, lily-whitest racist tyrants you’ll ever see. They want America’s 47.5 million black people to give up on the idea of having the same Constitutional rights as everybody else.

      And they’ll get everyone else soon after. Got to keep guns away from the proles for their own sake, you see — especially the blacks. The poor creatures just can’t handle freedom or any degree of power, so the special few who *can* handle it had better do it for them.

      As for Carol Anderson…what a disgusting, vile creature; a house servant with special privileges ratting out the field slaves who dream of freedom; selling them out for for table scraps and telling everyone how grateful they should’ve been that the Great White Master fed and housed them at all.

      Our Debbie W. may sound like a broken record, but she’s absolutely right when she says gun control is rooted in racism and genocide. It’s an incontrovertible fact. As she says, “Any attempt to rewrite the history of gun control is a sneaky, disgusting attempt to whitewash the mountain of race based atrocities belonging to the democRat Party.” And I’d go one step further and say that these attempts to rewrite the history of gun control aim to create MORE race-based atrocities, up to and including genocide.

      • Do you find it interesting that the same people complaining that the Second Amendment is racist are the same people always thumping for keeping guns out of the hands of black people?

        • You don’t understand.

          Blacks and other minorities, you see, have historically been denied the same rights as White people under the 2nd Amendment, which is racist. At the same time, as Blacks and other minorities have been historically denied the same rights as White people under the 2nd Amendment, which is racist, it is incumbent upon superior White people of the right sort to protect them from the evils of the 2nd Amendment by preventing them from exercising the same rights as White people under the 2nd Amendment who, in certain circumstances, such as government officials for example, are better able to handle the responsibilities that the racist 2nd Amendment entails, which is NOT racist.

          It’s the same for voting, by the way.

  4. Carol Anderson is the Charles Howard Candler Professor of African American Studies at Emory University

    Why is it the more racist these Marxist “Professors” become the more they are lauded… This is an absolute garbage piece of “critical race theory” propaganda… This woman is a member of one of the most privileged groups in the world and all she wants to do is play the victim…

    • From Emory, eh? Almost aptly named, since most of what comes out of there rubs me the wrong way. They ought to change the name to the more befitting “Emery University” and own up to their crap.

  5. The never ending need to convince everyone that everything is racist is quite tiresome. None of them understand, care to understand, or care to preserve what the 2nd Amendment is or its reason for being.

  6. Several “northern” states had legal slavery at the founding of the nation . . . as states not just as colonies. NYC was a destination for the slave trade. Ben Franklin (PA), John Hancock (MA), Benjamin Rush (PA), and John Jay (NY) owned slaves at some point in time.

    • You know, Pennsylvania abolish slavery in 1780, long before the ratification of the Bill of Rights.

      Yes, when Ben Franklin was young he owned slaves but as he matured he begin to understand the position was untenable for a principled and moral scholar:

      “In his later years he became vocal as an abolitionist and in 1787 began to serve as President of the Pennsylvania Society for Promoting the Abolition of Slavery. The Society was originally formed April 14, 1775, in Philadelphia, as The Society for the Relief of Free Negroes Unlawfully Held in Bondage; it was reorganized in 1784 and again in 1787, and then incorporated by the state of Pennsylvania in 1789. The Society not only advocated the abolition of slavery, but made efforts to integrate freed slaves into American society.

      Franklin did not publicly speak out against slavery until very late in his life. As a young man he owned slaves, and he carried advertisements for the sale of slaves in his newspaper, the Pennsylvania Gazette. At the same time, however, he published numerous Quaker pamphlets against slavery and condemned the practice of slavery in his private correspondence. It was after the ratification of the United States Constitution that he became an outspoken opponent of slavery. In 1789 he wrote and published several essays supporting the abolition of slavery and his last public act was to send to Congress a petition on behalf of the Society asking for the abolition of slavery and an end to the slave trade.”

      • No, ‘minor’, that’s not how it works today, you obviously “didn’t get the memo”.

        Franklin owned slaves at one point, therefore his statue *must* be torn down, and his name erased from history.

        The exact same way that America once tolerated slavery, and now *must* be torn down and replaced by a new Constitution, written by Scholars steeped in ‘Anti-Racist’ “Critical Race Theory”.

        See? 🙂

        • Well no, that’s not how it is. I’m sure somewhere there are some extremist left wing protesters who want to tear down Ben Franklin statues, but I don’t know of any myself.

          Like myself, the vast majority of liberals would like to see the statues and memorials commemorating those traitorous scoundrels who took up arms against the United States of America removed from the public square.

          Essentially, every statue commemorating some confederate military or political leader is a sad second place participation trophy.

          Don’t be sad, Little Johnny Reb, when you grow up you might just be a fine soldier boy if you get your loyalty to the United States Constitution all worked out.

        • Let me help you out with that, here are just a couple of MINER headlines from the past year… All EXTREME Left Wing, NOT all protesters…
          Protesters in Portland, Oregon, pulled down statues of former Presidents Abraham Lincoln and Theodore Roosevelt… Statues of Thomas Jefferson and Benjamin Franklin have been removed from the Washburn University… In Philadelphia, a statue of Benjamin Franklin was vandalized… Washington, D.C., Mayor Muriel Bowser has taken a break from her busy schedule of ignoring violent anti-police protests in her own city to figure out which problematic historical figures need to disappear from the public square… The Bowser-created group has not provided the reasoning behind its determinations, It is unclear how Ben Franklin fell into disfavor with the committee, considering how he was a scientific pioneer who led serious abolitionist efforts in the late 1700s.

      • And New York was the home and support of the Copperhead movement, and many Northerners owned slaves, and that all happened 250 years ago. Got anything current????

        Didn’t think so.

        FWIW, not that it will matter to you, but I went to law school with a black “Army brat”. Because of his father’s profession, he lived literally all over the U.S. Specifically, because there are so many military bases in the South, he’d lived and gone to school in Mississippi, Alabama, Georgia and Louisiana (and they don’t put those military bases in big cities). You know where he maintained was the single most racist place he’d ever lived?? Boston, MA. He had another saying I liked – “I don’t mind rednecks – they let you know where they’re coming from. If they don’t like us n******, they tell you to your face. I hate the sanctimonious racist ‘liberals’ in the Northeast, who condescend to you while they’re telling you how they’re ‘down with the struggle’.”

        Wonder if he’d met you???

  7. I cannot help but notice the photo at the top was one of the units of free black people fighting with the Union to end slavery. Pretty sure each of them has a rifle. People who support freedom support the Second Amendment regardless of race or creed.

    Second Amendment protects all free people – – against the institution of slavery.

  8. Her very premise is counter intuitive. Establishing the “rights of the people,” is the core of the Bill of Rights. While some slave owners did not consider their slaves people, most did. If you want to look for racism, look at all of the laws passed in the name of gun control. Restrictions in New York, the Sullivan Act, was passed to control access by immigrants, in Missouri, their law required permission from the county sheriff, specifically to control blacks access. California passed control over “concealed weapons,” to ban them from “the chinee!” All “gun control” is based on fear of some “other!”

    • They 2nd has always been treated like a red headed step-child. Always with conditions. America isn’t perfect but making all races “equal” is a good start…which is why I bought my beautiful black wife a gun!

  9. I dunno. How do you think Pseodo-Prof Anderson will fare trying to convince all those black women who have newly become gun owners, that their gun purchases are taking them back into slavery?

    At one point, we have to admit that racism is a mental illness.

    The evidence is clear, the leftards, the BLM’ers, the University elites, they are the resurgent racists in this country. They are ill, and they are making this country ill.
    If only there was a vaccine against racism and hatred.

    Oh, wait….what about faith?

    Yeah, yeah, trolls. Lots of violence in the history of religion. But religion is not faith. It is just the confluence of governance and dogma. Faith transforms religion into spirituality. Faith is the vaccine against racism and hate.

    This country is going to explode.

    • This country is going to explode…unnecessarily.

      There is no serious racism problem in this country. Racism is used by the governing elites to mask the real problem of class divisions.

      If the truth be told, it’s a class war between the ruling elites and the rest of us. The ruling elites fear guns in the hands of us peons; black, white, and all other races and ethnicities. They want to keep the People ignorant of the real problem.

      • Mad Max,

        Sort of agree. Racism in this country was on its deathbed….then, Obama was elected. Black Lives Matter became a billion-dollar, international organization pushing race-based terrorism. I agree that this new, resurgent racism has been manufactured to weaken and divide this country. Nonetheless, race- based, ethnicity-based, and religious-based violence is being pushed by the left. The overwhelming majority of folk in this country just want to get along. But the illegal Biden administration, the blue states, the media, and much of big tech are pushing a destructive, divisive campaign of hate, subversion of the Constitution, racism, and political persecution of Patriots.

        And we are getting fed-up.

        There will be a number of false flag ops this summer. They will be violent. They will be used to further restrict freedom. Unless we stop them.

        • “illegal Biden administration“

          In what manner is the Biden administration illegal?

        • Miner,

          “In what manner is the Biden administration illegal?”

          The above is only bait. You know my intention with that statement. And I know yours.

          The quote you provided about faith was more interesting, but still, just a worm on a hook.

    • “faith is an assertion of unreasonable conviction which is assumed without reason and defended against all reason“
      Aron Ra

        • Apparently he is not the only one who thinks that faith is belief, Daniel Webster’s dictionary of 1828 lists ‘belief’ as the first definition of ‘faith’:

          “1. Belief; the assent of the mind to the truth of what is declared by another, resting on his authority and veracity, without other evidence; the judgment that what another states or testifies is the truth. I have strong faith or no faith in the testimony of a witness, or in what a historian narrates.“

          It looks as if the act of ‘faith’ is the very definition of the logical fallacy of appealing to authority, “without other evidence”.

          According to Dan’l Webster, Aron Ra hit it right on the head.

        • Miner,

          Yes, Webster’s uses the word ‘belief’ as a component of its definition of faith. It also uses words like ‘complete trust’ and ‘loyalty’. Words have different usages and those usages have nuance. You know that; I do not mean to be pedantic.

          Most people of faith will tell you that faith is a relationship. Beliefs underly that faith, but faith is it’s own experience.

          I have often heard/read people who have not experienced faith in God reduce the understanding of faith to a set of mechanics, practices, and dogmas. That reductionist view is linguistically defensible, as you have demonstrated. But it also becomes a hindrance to the experience of faith.

          As Thomas Aquinas wrote: “To those who have faith, no explanation is necessary; to those who do not, no explanation is possible”.

        • Well put, LifeSavor. Miner and others insist on looking at, and therefore miss the point every time. Until they look along, truth will continue to elude them. Or perhaps better put, they will continue to avoid truth.

        • Minor IQ,

          I’m sure they didn’t get into this kind of detail in the remedial classes in the grammar school you went to, but in both Philosophy (I minored in it) AND Comparative Religions (two classes shy of being able to declare it as a minor), we were taught that faith is the acceptance of and belief in a doctrine or set of values in the absence of (or in the impossibility of) objective proof. Any competent philosopher knows it is impossible to “prove” a negative – I can’t prove God exists, and you sure as h*** can’t prove He doesn’t. What’s hilarious is that your ‘fundamental beliefs’ are no more grounded in objective reality than my religion – probably less so. So, continue to feel (unwarrantedly) superior to all us rednecks – it isn’t insulting, if anything, it’s humorous.

        • “I can’t prove God exists, and you sure as h*** can’t prove He doesn’t. What’s hilarious is that your ‘fundamental beliefs’ are no more grounded in objective reality than my religion – probably less so.”

          It is you who makes the claim that a God exist, therefore the burden of proof is upon you.

          I am making no claim, just stating that I have not seen sufficient credible evidence to support the theory of any god or goddess.

          I am not expressing any “fundamental beliefs”, but you are expressing a complex, multi layered belief structure, with absolutely no evidence whatsoever to support your claims.

          I don’t feel superior to you because of your self delusions, but I am surprised you would hold such a treasured belief without any evidence to back up your faith. Seems intellectually bankrupt to me…

  10. The author actually stumbled upon the truth saying “another bone tossed to keep the South mollified”. The Southern States never would have joined the Union if Slavery was banned. The point was to get South to sign on and then ban slavery. Which is exactly what occurred. Not as quickly as desired and not through a civil war but it slavery was eliminated in the US none the less.

    • The Southern States never would have joined the Union if Slavery was banned

      You’ll need to clarify just exactly what the 2nd Amendment has to do with any of that… There is a 75 year gap between the 2A and secession… “A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms shall not be infringed”… How do you read anything about “SLAVERY” into those 27 clear and very concise words… I’m not a Rhodes Scholar and I did not spend the night at a Holiday Inn Express BUT, I do understand the meaning of each of those 27 words and the context in which they are assembled and I’ll be damned if I can pull ANYTHING even remotely referencing slavery out of that simple little statement… The racism entered into the equation when “enlightened” politicos started writing gun control bullshit in spite of and in direct defiance of the 2nd Amendment…

      • Slave-holding was a significant consideration in getting the former colonies to create any sort of central committee. Thus, any provision of the constitution that does not abolish slavery is racist (even if slavery was abolished 80, or so, years later). And today, the failure of the politicians of this nation to carve-out zones of habitation based on group/culture/race is the epitome of racisisism.

      • “A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State”.

        You know, when the Bill of Rights was ratified there were both “free States” and slave States in America at that time.

        Yes, it is certainly possible that the second amendment did not apply to any slaveholding state. When we consider historical fact and text, this possibility must be entertained.

        “Pennsylvania abolished slavery in 1780, and about half the states abolished slavery by the end of the Revolutionary War or in the first decades of the new country”
        “Although not one of the Thirteen Colonies, Vermont declared its independence from Britain in 1777 and at the same time limited slavery, before being admitted as a state in 1791.”

        So no militia for any of the southern states, the second amendment does not apply to states that were slaveholders.

        • You must have been an English major. Reality utterly defies that interpretation, but you *can* torture it out of the text, so go ahead and run with it. Spin grand theories to your heart’s content. Heck, you could even reorganize society to match your snazzy theory! (What do you think we should call it? “Critical Race Theory” has a ring to it, don’t you think?)

    • Yes, and people also forget the order of events. The Revolution happened, then the Constitution happened significantly afterwards, after the Articles of Confederation started breaking down.

      If the Southern states were allowed to go their own way at that point, you essentially have the Confederacy forming 70 years early. What happens next is pure speculation, but I don’t think it’s good for the abolitionist cause.

      I also wonder what would have happened with the Louisiana Purchase. Would it still make sense to sell to the United States? Or does France sell to the new proto-Confederacy? Maybe they sell to Spain, and everything west of the Mississippi is consolidated under Spanish rule, eventually becoming several Latin American countries. The history of slavery in Latin America was extremely brutal as well, so that history would not have been favorable either.

      I’m not saying everything turned out for the best. I’m saying it was a complicated situation and there wasn’t necessarily a “solution”.

      • “I’m saying it was a complicated situation and there wasn’t necessarily a “solution”.”

        Ah, but there was !

        Better to fail as a nation, and suffer for it.

        Please try to keep up.

      • “I also wonder what would have happened with the Louisiana Purchase. Would it still make sense to sell to the United States? Or does France sell to the new proto-Confederacy?”

        It’s possible they would have sold to the ‘proto-Confederacy’ on credit, they were the ones producing the cash crop of cotton, and Louisiana was the perfect soil and climate to grow more cotton that was becoming a demand crop in Europe, and the rest of the world…

  11. There needs to be more discussion about the origins of Slavery. Slavery was part and parcel of the Tribal warfare that was taking place on the African Continent. Warring tribes were more than willing to sell their captives to Slave traders as a way of not only removing enemies from their newly obtained territories, but also as a means of profit. Which in turn was used to acquire goods including firearms so as to be able to conquer more enemy tribes. Which in turn produced more captives to sell as Slaves. This is a well documented history. If one wishes to truly learn the Complete history of Slavery. It will require many unpopular facts to be brought into the light of day. As a matter of fact Slavery continues to be a standard practice among many Tribes and Societies on the African Continent. Only it is now called Indentured Servitude, Debt Bondage. Younger Children are often sold to Tribal Elders in exchange for monetary considerations needed so the remaining family members can survive. Young women are given into marriage for monetary or goods consideration under the guise of Arranged Marriages regardless of the brides desires. So called Indentured Servitude, Arranged Marriage, Human Trafficking and Sex Slavery practices are not exclusive to Africa, but also continue in many parts of Asia, India, Eastern Europe the Middle East, South and Central America. Also lets not forget in the United States the practices of Human Trafficking and Sex Slavery continue with support for the former coming from many who oppose Slavery. If any true discussion is to be made about Slavery these historic practices must be a part of the conversation. The issue of Who gets to control the conversation and what can be said has become as much a problem. As the issue of Slavery itself. Without the ability to bring all facets of the story to the table including the contributing factors of the all Parties involved. An open dialog will never be accomplished. Truths will continue to be hidden and the very act of Slavery will continue to reside in the shadows of Tribal Dominance and Political ideology. The Truth doesn’t have to be and often isn’t Pretty… It Just has to be the Truth. Without it there is little chance anything will ever be accomplished. Unfortunately with the Current and Historical divides of Political Ideologies, Traditional Beliefs and Religions among the World’s population. I see No clear answers or solutions, but as a People the effort must continue to be made. Otherwise We are the Problem and Deserve the Consequences of that Failure.

    • ‘Profit’, e.g rum. Slaves from Africa to the Caribbean, molasses from the Caribbean to New England, rum from New England to Africa.

    • I’m guessing the ancient Semitic tribes, including the Hebrews, engaged in organized and institutionalized slavery 1000 years before the African subcontinent.

      The old testament has many books (Exodus in particular) dating back 3000 years discussing the conduct of slavery by the Hebrew tribes.

      • Slavery is a broad term. In ancient times you could pay off a debt by selling yourself into slavery for an agreed upon time period. Once your debt was paid off you were free. In colonial America you could buy your ticket here by selling yourself into indentured servitude for a period of time. The Hebrew tribes had strict laws on how such a slave could be treated which was lacking in most other societies, including colonial America.

        • The detailed records left by the Hebrew tribes in the book of Exodus show slavery was anything but benign. Slaves were bought and held as property, and could be handed down to your children never seeing freedom until death.

          You could beat your slaves as you wish, as long as they didn’t die in a day or two. And the sections on selling your daughter into sexual slavery are especially reprehensible.

      • Minor,

        You needn’t “guess”, the Old Testament is quite explicit about it, as are many contemporaneous “non-religious” texts – slavery has been practiced by just about every society known. It is STILL widely practiced in various African and Asian countries, and practiced “sub rosa” in some European and Latin American countries.

        Yes, the Jews did have strict Judaic laws about treatment of slaves (although it is probably more historically accurate to differentiate between chattel slavery and indentured servitude), but they were not unique in that regard. The issue was addressed in the Code of Hammurabi, so it wasn’t exactly “new” in ancient Israel.

        Glad you’re starting to study history; perhaps you’ll begin applying it to your understanding of the 2A. Nah, that’s just crazy talk!

  12. “came into being … steeped in anti-Blackness, swaddled in the desire to keep African-descended people rightless and powerless…”

    Do we still have to keep them?

  13. Americans have ABSOLUTELY no idea what modern racism actually is. I was in Morocco taking a connecting flight to Sierra Leone a few years ago. All the Black passengers awaiting the same flight were corralled into a dirty, hot, non-air conditioned part of the airport, under armed supervision. They were not allowed to roam the airport, eat in the restaurants or buy in the duty free shops. I was appalled by these conditions, but what do you say to armed men pointing guns at you when you’re asking to use the restrooms? Racism exists in the world, but the great majority of racist actions occur in third world countries. God bless America, our freedoms and our Constitution.

    • Thank you for illustrating that, Hegemon!
      Prior to the current crop of manufactured racists (BLM, for example), racism was almost dead in the USA.

    • “what do you say to armed men pointing guns at you when you’re asking to use the restrooms?“

      Sounds like the Dixiecrat controlled American south in 1954, not so long ago…

      • Regarding calls for modern racial segregation, it is coming from the Democrat supporting black supremacists and their white leftist supporters. Old habits don’t die in the Democrat party, they just switch colors.

        • Regarding calls for modern racial segregation,

          You mean like Black graduation ceremonies, Black prom, Black Spring Break, calls for an all Black State (they have one, it’s called Africa) I didn’t call for that stuff, It is all the result of “demands” made by Black individuals… It almost sounds racist but, Black folks can’t be racist…

        • “I would like to hear more about democrat calls for racial segregation.”

          The ‘Elite’ Universities are doing that today with areas segregated for “People of Color Only”…

  14. Dumb woman.

    I must admit I’m a raceist, any time someone pulls up along side me and guns their engine the race is on. It sucks when your running a 124hp Sunfire , however excepting defeat graciously is a virtue. I’m taking the catalytic converter off, that should milk out another 5hp, Hellcats beware.

    • ” I’m taking the catalytic converter off, that should milk out another 5hp, Hellcats beware.”

      Be glad you’re in Kansas, that is a FELONY crime in California…

  15. She is misguided as well as uneducated in what went down to cause the Civil War. Everything in this nation’s history isn’t about the color of your skin.

    • The Civil War was about skin color, read the ‘Cornerstone Speech’, written by the vice president of the confederacy to justify their treason against the United States of America.

  16. The commentary was published by the NTY, people, The New York (feaking) Times!

    What happened? How did this article escape the editorial board?

    • How did the article escape the NYT Editorial board???? AYFKMRN??? I’m sure they read it with glee, and probably made “helpful” suggestions to make it even more left-wing and tendentious. It’s how they roll.

      • “I’m sure they read it with glee, and probably made “helpful” suggestions to make it even more left-wing and tendentious. It’s how they roll.”

        We didn’t read the same article.

        My article was an NYT takedown of the idea that 2A had/has a racist intent.

  17. Ugh, this canard again? The 2nd Amendment has it ideological origins in English common law and predates the United States and its institution of slavery. Only six states fail to protect the right to keep and bear arms in the U.S. And of the 18 states which entered the union after 1865 ALL OF THEM protect the right to keep and bear arms.

    Charles CW Cooke demolished this bullshit six years ago.

    https://www.nationalreview.com/2015/10/2nd-amendment-southern-slavery-atlantic-essay-response/

  18. Battles of Lexington and Concord.
    Why were the British, under command of LTC Smith, doing? What were his orders?

    To seize the ‘Arms’ (includes cannon and powder) from the people.

    The 2nd Amendment has nothing to do with Blacks or Slavery of that time. The author and many like her seem to think it’s all about them and their ancestors. It’s not.

  19. The democrat party was born in racism and has been obsessed with skin color ever since.

  20. I’m not seeing slavery. Unless you want to consider how big tech has turned everyone into slaves through social media, smartphones, and IOT.

    I’m seeing the black race becoming beggars to their own demise through drugs in the home and fathers NOT, through a never wavering submission to whatever the democrat party wants them to do, and through black-on-black crime. No one ever really seems to want to discuss just how much abortion has kept black population levels under control. Blacks are being used. But so few of them can see that fact.

    More black people (male and female) have assumed positions of power in this country than ever before, to include the president. They always say that they don’t have the power they need, well they are getting it. What are they doing with that power? They are burning everything down, looting, killing, and generally acting crazy. Most of them never get a clue. THAT is why the left is so terrorized of blacks having guns. Democrats are directly responsible for creating all the things that could in any way keep guns out of the hands of blacks. There is absolutely racism involved in this but it comes from the left.

    It is not Republicans, conservatives, or even Trump that keeps the black man down. Its the liberal democrats when it isn’t blacks themselves. Republicans don’t generally do themselves any favors by being more concerned about how they look and less concerned about the damage the left does. Some on the right are waking up to all this but so few and so slow that it might be too late to stop any kind of civil war.

    We ARE at war and it is about civility. Its happening all over this country and lives are being takin. Our so-called leaders in Washington have failed to keep the peace and “promote the general welfare”. Washington is run by cowards that want permanent power over all of this by virtue of what they consider to be what they and they alone are entitled to. Trump as president will come and go just like Biden. People like Pelosi, Feinstein, Clinton, etc. are the real threat. The lifers that feel they can do ANYTHING they want. Its the ones that act with impunity that need to go. These are the ones that create the problems that are so very hard to correct. Never forget that if anything happens to Biden, Harris becomes president.

    • Gun Control is Anti Freedom and a Tyrant will Say and/or Do anything necessary to deflect from their intent for it’s Implementation.

  21. When the BORs came into being, most whites here in the colonies had never seen a black man. The people fearing slave revolts were those in power that mistreated their slaves, they were out in the country on a plantation.
    The 2nd was written so that the state could not take away our weapons and grocery getters. Later, certain states limited ex-slaves gun rights. That is opposed to what the 2nd said.

  22. “How long till this, our second war for Independence, goes hot?”

    1. already happened; next one will be version 3.0
    2. don’t hold your breath

    Waco was worse than the Boston Massacre or Lexington/Concord; nothing happened after Waco.

    • Waco quite literally burned an image in the minds of many. Even as most had no idea of what they were really looking at. We never forgot it.

  23. “Waco…We never forgot it.”

    But nothing was done. The founders threw off a King for less.

  24. A black rights activist at a weekend rally in Tulsa, Oklahoma, said that a time would come when black Americans would need to “kill everything white in sight.”… Maybe that’s what the hidden, super secret, slavery backing, White Sepremacy promoting 2nd Amendment message is really all about, affording a means of protecting ourselves from those radical individuals that spew such stupid fucking garbage… They do NOT want a race war, start killing everthing white in sight and everything black in sight will start dying as well and there is a whole lot more of us than them… Careful what you wish for…

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