It’s auction season. Young people from Springfield to Sweden are taking part. Instead of artwork or memorabilia, they are bidding on humans.
Recently, Springfield High School held a student auction as a fundraiser for Children’s Miracle Network. According to Diana Jordan, the school’s office manager, the event consisted of bidding on people to serve children for a day. This service would include things like carrying books and other needs a child might have during school hours. Paul Stevens, the teacher who organized the event, didn’t respond to requests for an interview.
A source within Springfield High, who wished not to be identified for fear of repercussions, says students were calling the auction “Slave For a Day.” However, he says the students didn’t see a problem with the idea of kids getting a slave in the name of charity.
Jordan, sounding visibly bothered by the “Slave For a Day” notion, echoes this sentiment. She says she hasn’t heard a complaint in her 14 years at the school and that every school in the county holds a similar auction.
I’m sure the event was not intended to be seen as slavery, but why does it take the prospect of getting a servant, albeit temporarily, to make people donate to a fundraiser?
Are we that uncreative, or has the nation not come as far as we think?
Although the student auction was a seemingly harmless event, imagine if a black person was bid on to serve a white child. Would it be all right to call foul then, or does the fact that this servitude only lasts a day cancel out the obvious historical power dynamics at play?
The situation at Springfield High comes amid a rash of mock slave auctions in the news.
In a not-so-harmless event, on April 1 Virginia fourth grade teacher Jessica Boyle took the black and mixed race kids in her class and had the white students take turns buying them, according to Time. A similar lesson, where the class was divided into slaves and masters, was held in an Ohio fourth grade class the previous month.
Even more disturbing, two student groups at Lund University in Sweden were reported for having “jungle parties,” which included mock slave auctions and blackface, according to United Press International.
While the circumstances surrounding these events are different, they all seem to treat slavery as a joke.
Could you imagine Boyle making Native American children walk from class to the nearest desolate area to teach the Trail of Tears or making Japanese children go to detention for a week to illustrate internment?
Would those Swedish students be as willing to turn the heating system all the way up and hold a “gas chamber” party as they were to conduct mock slave auctions in blackface?
Chances are, they wouldn’t. So why is the lack of seriousness afforded to slavery so acceptable?
Part of the problem is the way slavery is taught in schools.
There’s an African proverb that goes, “Until the lions have their historians, tales of the hunt shall always glorify the hunter.” In the case of slavery, we’re taught from the master’s perspective.
We’re told to believe that slavery happened a long time ago and that we can overcome any emotional scars suffered by our ancestors if we just pledge to all get along.
Behind misguided doctrines like colorblindness or “post-racial” America are efforts to tap dance around the context of slavery.
Why is it not taught as a historical crime with visible effects today?
The wealth and liberties enjoyed by many white families directly corresponds with the forced labor of slaves, riots designed to intimidate black communities and the denial of jobs and loans to blacks from Reconstruction to the present.
For example, what we now know as Wall Street was the first free black settlement from the 1830s to the 1860s. Many blacks were forced to flee because of the draft riots of 1863. The rest is history.
When I look at my Facebook news feed and see that a friend is attending a “Bloods and Crips” party, it might as well be called a “Making Fun of Impoverished Kids Coping with Generational Poverty” party.
When we look at slavery through this lens, the jokes become less harmless because white people can’t distance themselves from history.
Perhaps there should have been “white collar” gatherings along with the “jungle parties.” People could put on whiteface and hold mock neighborhood gentrifications or mock job interviews that don’t matter because your dad’s friend owns the company.
Would the joke still be funny then?
Teaching slavery without context leads to embarrassing events like mock slave auctions and generations of students who see slavery as viable as long as it’s for a good cause.
Slavery in any form, no matter how harmless, should be addressed within the context of history. In our efforts to heal the wounds, many have sidestepped the issue, creating a cycle of ignorance.
We have to take a hard look at ourselves when we think dangling the carrot of servitude is the best way to raise money in 2011.
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