The top elected official in the United States today is part African American. Yet after seeing the movie “12 years a slave” Washington DC councilman Marion Barry seems convinced that discrimination against black Americans is nearly as great today as it was 200 years ago:
Re 12 Yrs a Slave: and to see Black people psychologically enslaved to not help one another for fear of their own lives resonates today.
— Remembering Barry (@marionbarryjr) October 27, 2013
Re 12 Yrs a Slave- & 2 know people r no longer sold 4 $1k ea but $26k ea a YEAR TODAY thru racist prison industrial complex hurts even more
— Remembering Barry (@marionbarryjr) October 27, 2013
12 Yrs a Slave wld h/b more digestible if this were our past. But the vestiges still live.Gains we made, locally &nationally, being reversed
— Remembering Barry (@marionbarryjr) October 27, 2013
I think of how we could NOT get a maj of DC council 2 support anti-discrimination of returning citizens 2 help ppl get jobs…
— Remembering Barry (@marionbarryjr) October 27, 2013
If you choose to work in a low-wage job you are paid “slave wages,” according to Barry:
I think of how we fought for living wage as opposed to slave wages—it too defeated by our own. This fight for equality is alive & well…
— Remembering Barry (@marionbarryjr) October 27, 2013
But Blk people have forgotten the struggle. Some feel it is a new day. They are so naive. Or just dont care, as long as they have their's.
— Remembering Barry (@marionbarryjr) October 27, 2013
When you are carrying other people's water, forsaking the need for water in your own community, you are still nothing but a water boy.
— Remembering Barry (@marionbarryjr) October 27, 2013
Tupac had a line in Keep Your Head Up: "Marvin Gaye had u feeling like Black was the thing to be" What happened to our pride & solidarity?
— Remembering Barry (@marionbarryjr) October 27, 2013
& I'm thinking of someone from DC Chamber of Commerce who considered it a high note 2 retire after defeating living wage.This is where we r.
— Remembering Barry (@marionbarryjr) October 27, 2013
TWELVE years a slave? I ask if we (as in ALL of us, not just the token few) really have broken free from the vestiges of slavery?
— Remembering Barry (@marionbarryjr) October 27, 2013
To sum up: If you work at Burger King or oppose an increase in the minimum wage, you’re basically a slave. Or something.
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