On the "great evil" of slavery in America
The great evil of American slavery wasn't involuntary servitude. It wasn't forced labor. It was this idea, this narrative, that black people aren't as good as white people, that black people aren't fully human. [That] black people aren't evolved. [That] they can't do this, they can't do that. And that narrative created an ideology of white supremacy. And for me, that was the true evil of American slavery.
We passed the 13th Amendment that prohibits involuntary servitude, enforced labor, but it doesn't say anything about ending this narrative of racial difference, and because of that, I don't think slavery ended in 1865. I think it evolved. And this wasn't a narrative we had actually articulated.
After the Civil War, there were 100 years of terrorism and violence. Black people were pulled out of their homes, beaten, drowned, burned, tortured and lynched. And the law did nothing. Communities did nothing. The nation did nothing. And then when we got to the civil rights movement, we had this heroic moment. But that narrative of racial difference, this presumption of dangerousness and guilt continued past that era — and we're still burdened with it today.
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