Communism and the Civil Rights Movement

[RZehr]

A transition to tenant farming (where farmers can barely eke a living and all profits go to distant landowners) does not bode well. No farms, no food.

It’s a continuation of “factory” type farms. Today almost all of the beef, dairy, chicken, pork, and egg production is not done on a small family farm and sold locally. Almost all of these are done on large operations and produce under a contract. While the guy raising the animals is owning his barn and land, he isn’t selling it on the open market.
He is in some similar way a “tenant” raising the farm products for a distant “owner”.

Grain farming is evolving its own little twist on the same “tenant” style economic system. Beef also has its own little differences.

But by and large, the farmer is losing a bit of his autonomy either through the land ownership, the contract production, or the equipment companies. I’m not sure it’s all bad, considering the increase in national food efficiency, and fewer variables and risks to the farmer. But even with these upsides, it does seem to have serious downsides.

But to tie it to the OP, at least their farms aren’t being confiscated by a communist government. And as far as civil rights, no one is being forced to work in agriculture for no pay.

[ken_sylvania]

But to tie it to the OP, at least their farms aren’t being confiscated by a communist government. And as far as civil rights, no one is being forced to work in agriculture for no pay.

Yes, it's gone the other way now, hasn't it. Instead of working for no pay, now we can "no work" for pay.

[Bootstrap]

But to tie it to the OP, at least their farms aren’t being confiscated by a communist government. And as far as civil rights, no one is being forced to work in agriculture for no pay.

Yes, it's gone the other way now, hasn't it. Instead of working for no pay, now we can "no work" for pay.

I think that's a different concern. We do need incentives for people to work, we also need to balance budgets. I don't see either party doing a great job of that right now, and I don't see them working together with a clear eye toward building the right kinds of policy.

But that's entirely different than confiscating the farms, confiscating private companies, etc. And that's the problem with shoehorning everything into a narrative that says a Communist revolution is right around the corner and we all need to be alarmed and armed. It takes our eyes off of the real dangers. The conspiracy theories about who is contributing to politicians in order to influence them distracts us from looking at the people who actually are contributing to politicians in order to influence them. Colorful rumors distract us from actual facts emerging from investigations. Insisting that "our side" stands for all that is good, right, and true and the other side is demonic and dangerous tells our elected officials we want them to play power games and play to the masses instead of working together to understand and solve problems.

It's like the man who got hit by a car running across the freeway to escape a dragon. The dragon wasn't the real threat. The United States is not full of Communists who are poised to topple the government. It is, however, full of politicians who have learned that playing the divisive partisan rancor game is a great way to get attention, money, and power, and full of lobbyists who know how to take advantage of that situation.

We should be calling for transparency and accountability and working together to govern responsibility. Instead, we clamor for a champion to defeat "the other side" - which means the other elected officials they should actually be working with.

[temporal1]

Page 2:

HondurasKeiser:
.. Perhaps the question of "Was King an erstwhile Marxist?" is a little passée
but the broader question of Marxian influence in the Civil Rights Movement is, I think, of great importance and sheds quite a bit of light on our current moment
and indeed has great import for the Church and its conception of what is and is not the Gospel. ..

hoping for more from HK on this, and on that quote about Gramsci, Page 1.

[ohio jones]

This thread is NOT in Politics. Some of the recent posts are, though.

[Bootstrap]

... and indeed has great import for the Church and its conception of what is and is not the Gospel. ..

Could we start there?

Suppose you are living in a world where blacks are not allowed in white schools, white restaurants, white bathrooms, in the white section of buses, living in a world where blacks are terrorized by groups like the Ku Klux Klan and local law enforcement and other officials just might be members of the KKK. Suppose members of black churches ask you, as members of white churches, to support them in seeking to be treated equally. You know that's a threat to the status quo, it would disrupt the way of life you and your neighbors have grown used to.

How do you respond to that? How does that relate to the Gospel and the relationship between white Christians and black Christians?

[Soloist]

... and indeed has great import for the Church and its conception of what is and is not the Gospel. ..

Could we start there?

Suppose you are living in a world where blacks are not allowed in white schools, white restaurants, white bathrooms, in the white section of buses, living in a world where blacks are terrorized by groups like the Ku Klux Klan and local law enforcement and other officials just might be members of the KKK. Suppose members of black churches ask you, as members of white churches, to support them in seeking to be treated equally.

How do you respond to that? How does that relate to the Gospel and the relationship between white Christians and black Christians?

We could start by asking why there is a black church and there is a white church...

[Bootstrap]

We could start by asking why there is a black church and there is a white church...

Would you propose merging churches in your town? If you were the white pastor, would you invite the black pastor to co-pastor a church together with you? Would you join their church, or expect them to join yours? Would you still support them if they wanted to remain in their own church?

My father told me about the time when Methodists elevated a black pastor to be bishop, moving into the bishop's residence in a very white, very prosperous Amherst New York. It freaked people out. Some people left Amherst. Some people left the United Methodist Church.

[Ken]

... and indeed has great import for the Church and its conception of what is and is not the Gospel. ..

Could we start there?

Suppose you are living in a world where blacks are not allowed in white schools, white restaurants, white bathrooms, in the white section of buses, living in a world where blacks are terrorized by groups like the Ku Klux Klan and local law enforcement and other officials just might be members of the KKK. Suppose members of black churches ask you, as members of white churches, to support them in seeking to be treated equally.

How do you respond to that? How does that relate to the Gospel and the relationship between white Christians and black Christians?

We could start by asking why there is a black church and there is a white church...

Obviously it was systemic racism and white supremacy. Across the south white denominations like the Southern Baptists and Southern Methodists spun off from their parent denominations over the issues of slavery and secession. And then after losing the civil war spend the next century fighting to establish racism and Jim Crow segregation into every aspect of life.

[Bootstrap]

This sign is particularly relevant to this thread. Integrating schools was seen as Communism, a scary word used to imply that treating blacks the same as whites was closely related to a Communist overthrow of our government. And to imply that Christians who thought blacks and whites should be treated equally were a Communist infiltration in the church.

I suspect there were more KKK members in Southern churches than Communists seeking to overthrow the government. And the vast majority of church members were neither. But I also suspect that church members here in the South would have told law enforcement about any Communists in their church who posed a real threat to anyone. Telling law enforcement about KKK members? Not so much.