Learn who the real race baiters are
We have all seen comment threads, headlines, and news scrawls with the term "race baiting" or race baiters". We have had to endure the sound of many conservatives using the term. It's a buzz word now used to trump the older term "Race card." It is infuriating to most people who have even a modicum of historical knowledge concerning race and racism in America. Matthew Cooke is a filmmaker. He's a pretty damn good filmmaker. He has made a short film called
Race Baiting 101 and it has been making the viral internet rounds. If you haven't seen it you should. It's a moving piece of activism on his part. He breaks down the history of "race baiting" in America, drawing mostly from
Howard Zinn.
To become a slave in the ancient world was not based on skin color but the result of being on the losing side in a war. White indentured servants four hundred years ago were seen as more or less the same as African slaves.
As Cooke points out. This was a problem because:
They also made easy alliances, raging against greed, unfair taxes, oppressive land use regulations. In the 1670s one of those alliances nearly burned Jamestown to the ground. And the last to surrender were a hundred men: 80 black and 20 white.
A law enforcement system was created to give whites slightly more privileges and force a separation in their contact with blacks.
Go below the fold to watch
Race Baiting 101. You won't regret it. Share it with a friend. It's about 10 minutes and it will inform you, infuriate you, and invigorate you.
You can also comment on GreyHawk's diary about the Cooke film here.
You can go and see other Matthew Cooke shorts on his Facebook page here.