Reflective Ethics

The institution of slavery stated, quite matter-of-factly, without words, that blacks were not humans for which the owners had any responsibility to treat better than livestock. But the reality of the situation erupted through the veneer of institutionalized brutality: Blacks were as much human as the Big House masters, possibly more human. While the slave-masters used humans as a means to an end, the slaves were chastised, in the corporal sense, for occasionally doing the same thing. The masters were making a comfortable living on the backs of slaves. But on occasion, the slaves found themselves so hungry and weak that their only choice was to take food from the Big House. Consider this account from a former slave named Sarah Fitzpatrick:

"Niggers didn't think dat stealin' wuz so bad in dem times. Fak' is dey didn't call it stealin', dey called it takin'. Dey sa, "I ain't takin' f'om nobody but ma' mistrus and Marster, an' I'm doin' dat 'cause I'se hongry!"

When crime against humanity is institutionalized either in government, business, or religion, crime is legitimized throughout all of society. When we are complicit in crimes against humanity through the institutions in society, we may not take offense at crime in any part of society. Malfeasence among the powerful legitimizes crime among the powerless.

We must examine our social institutions unceasingly to prevent the clandestine crimes of the powerful from becoming the actionable offenses of the powerless.

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