Knowing Better
4 HN recommenders · recommended in 11 months, 2022–2026
1:16:56 · 6.2M views · Apr 4, 2022
A long documentary-style video arguing that slavery in the US effectively continued through convict leasing and the prison system until around 1942. It covers the constitutional carveout and the history of neoslavery.
Recommended in threads on prison labor and American history as a thorough account of the post-Civil War period.
11 comments from Hacker News
Knowing Better on YouTube produced a really good documentary answering "when was the last slave freed?" [^1]. His argument is that it didn't end until 1942, a mere 80 years ago. A big part of the reason why was the prison system and legal system, which was structured around criminalizing blackness, and using this to fulfill an economic need. Articles like this make me think perhaps 1942 may be a bit optimistic, after all, we still rely heavily on prison labour without allowing incarcerated people to earn sufficient funds to support themselves after their rehabilitation, and we're still fighting the war on drugs that started under Nixon. That said, I'm not sure how non Americans feel about US politics being discussed here, since I rarely see news about domestic issues in other countries. [^1]: this video
There's no reason for scare quotes given the specific carveout for slavery which exists in the Constitution. If you have an issue with that verbiage, take it up with the 38th United States Congress and Abraham Lincoln. > do murderers get to walk free? You're arguing against an extreme position that nobody actually holds. Most reasonable people would probably point to criminal justice as implemented in many European countries as exemplifying a more humane model which produces better long term results. The carveout for the enslavement of incarcerated people also created a perverse incentive which played out predictably in the wake of Reconstruction's failure. If you're interested in the long and painful history of this fact here's a useful resource: this video
>classed as being marginally racist, usually they do not really mean the things they say. As someone that moved to a very very racist part of the US in their teens (near a sundown town), this is by far the most scary statement you could write. I believe you would be far more concerned if you understood the enormity of it when you look at it in the converse. This person you mention that creates an exception 'for one of the good ones' will also create an exception for their buddy when they lynch someone and they just forget to tell the police about it. I recommend 'Neoslavery' by Knowing Better as a little chunk of more recent American history a lot of people would like to erase. Racism runs very deep in some places. this video
YouTube's algorithm recently recommended me a video which presented a compelling case that US slavery truly ended in 1942. It included references to this book. Here's the link, for anyone curious: this video
I believe one of the reasons why so many people get away with the black culture dog whistle is American history kinda ignores the entire period between the end of the civil war and the start of WWII. We learn some about the Jim Crow era, but it's kind of neglected that slavery didn't stop at all . If you say 'Slavery actually ended in WWII", I do believe most people would be surprised. And it reframes the argument from slavery ended a long time ago, to things were really still total shit until your (black) grandparents generation (and not much better till the civil rights movements after that). Neoslavery this video Now, turning this back to Russia, is seemingly Russia has always had the idea that it's outer population is a gigantic meat shield to protect Moscow. There are a number of authors and videos on this topic and I'm not going to link any particular ones. This said in the current war with Ukraine we see this in practice, as huge amount of the soldiers being used are not from the Moscow area, but the more minority areas farther away from the capital.