February 26

Today make a year since tha state of Mississippi After 148 years has “officially” abolished slavery by ratifying tha 13th amendment.  We can assume that what took policymakers so long was tha historical and present day desire to make sure white privilege was so ingrained that formal slavery was no longer needed. Mississippi policy makers, tha moneyed elite and at tha time tha vast majority of its minority white population were all in agreement on how to proceed in this important task. Tha historic sequence of outright terror and new systems of servitude launched against tha Black population included mass killings, lynching’s, rape, sharecropping, prison labor and forced flight that decreased tha majority Black population of Mississippi to a minority.

This all sufficed in ratifying a political economy of white dominance well in place through tha 1950 and 60s. Even after tha civil rights and black power movements killed off tha last of de jure segregation in Mississippi a new consensual de facto supremacist system still rules. This system embraced  by far too many of Mississippi’s now majority white population, its policy makers, moneyed white leaders and now quietly endorsed by tha Magnolia’s State new Black elite. 

One example of tha current behavior is tha prison system. Mass incarceration was created to ensure continued peonage for Mississippi plantation owners. It has continued today where Mississippi now has tha second highest incarceration rate in tha country, with over 75% of those imprisoned being black and still providing cheap labor.  An added benefit of course is that after having to give up on poll taxes and grandfather clauses to suppress voting rights, tha state is still successfully disenfranchising 14% of its Black population from voting through felony disenfranchisement laws .This is done without much of a stir from elected Black politicians who don’t want to look soft on crime and from Black elites who actual enjoy having access to free labor for their own events.

Poverty has also been ratified in Mississippi as a major national study ranked Mississippi lowest in overall human development and among tha four states with tha largest disparities between whites and blacks.Tha study found that black Mississippians, who make up close to 40% of tha population, are worse off than blacks in most other states in tha nation, ranking second to last on tha health and income index (just ahead of Louisiana) and last in education. A black male born in Mississippi in 2010 can expect a shorter lyfe span than tha average American in 1960. Tha ranges of earnings for whites are nearly double that of blacks. Again no movement has emerged to shift resources to tha Black community.In tha capital city of Jackson, another majority Black city, these race and class disparities are painfully evident. Blacks make up approximately 75% of tha city’s population but are 90% of tha its poor. On average, black families in Jackson earn 40% less in annual income than whites.  Tha black unemployment rate is double tha rate of whites, and tha recent economic downturn has left many once thriving black families with very little disposable income.

What gonna be even more shocking tha city itself has been led by Black mayors since 1997 and tha state is 40% Black however tha entrenched and ratified conservative policies of tha state benefit developers, business elites and state workers who work in Jackson but live outside of it. Tha recently constituted black elite includes elected officials, ministers, non-profit and community “leaders” offer no effective progressive to militant counter weight to organized conservative policies. Insider conversations seem to be tha tactic of tha day.

Tha fight for worker rights, for criminal justice system reforms or for redirection of public spending on infrastructure is fought more through lobbying efforts than building a critical mass of people to challenge conservative orthodoxy. Mississippi law makers and  tha privileged elite in 1865 could not have hoped for a better result. Officially ratified or not tha 13th Amendment has not shown itself to be more durable than tha power of white supremacy just thought you should kno......