This past week Montrezl Harrell, an NBA player, was under criticism for calling another NBA player, Luka Don\u010di\u0107, a \u201cb****-ass white-boy\u201d during their game. Harrell ultimately apologized two days later before their next game, but in those two days I saw a number of posts on social media saying things like \u201cimagine if it was the other way around\u201d and claiming that there is a double standard. I think this ties into what we saw in the readings this week with Irish Americans claiming they were enslaved and had it as bad as anybody but that “you don\u2019t see them complaining”. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 The similarity between the two situations lies in the power to prevent another person from doing something. Don\u010di\u0107 being called a white boy isn’t the same as Don\u010di\u0107 using a derogatory remark towards Harrell because the term white boy has never restricted the rights of a person. The situation in Barbados was similar with the rights of the enslaved being much more limited than the indentured servants. The majority of indentured servants served 3-7 years whereas slaves served a lifetime. The servants had the opportunity to start their own life after their contract while slaves saw no such liberty. Servants also had protection from harsh treatment by the hands of their landowner. It’s impossible to classify the indentured servants and enslaved as equal because of these differences. Overall, I think this falls into the larger problem of people responding to cries of discrimination with something along the lines of \u201cHey we were also discriminated against, you don\u2019t see us complaining\u201d which does nothing but focus attention elsewhere. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
This past week Montrezl Harrell, an NBA player, was under criticism for calling another NBA player, Luka Don\u010di\u0107, a \u201cb****-ass white-boy\u201d during their game. Harrell ultimately apologized two days later before their next game, but in those two days I saw a number of posts on social media saying things like \u201cimagine if it was … <\/p>\n