Harriet Tubman is a famous anti-slavery activist, credited with helping slaves escape the south, with the Underground Railroad. She will now be honored by the US treasury by putting her face on the $20 bill, replacing Andrew Jackson. Cenk Uygur and John Iadarola (ThinkTank) hosts of The Young Turks discuss.
Do you support Harriet Tubman being on the $20? Let us know in the comments below.
Read more here: http://www.theguardian.com/commentisf...
“Today the US Treasury has made their long-awaited announcement of the change to our nation’s currency. We have known for months that a woman was going to replace one of the old white dudes on one of our bills (originally discussed as the $10 bill) but we now have confirmation: Harriet Tubman will be replacing Andrew Jackson on the $20 bill. Much of social media is filled with celebratory posts and memes, but I for one, am not celebrating.
Yes, I do get some joy from knowing that white people have to look at Harriet Tubman’s proud and defiant black face every time they reach in their wallet. But the image of Tubman on our currency as some sort of corrective action for centuries of oppression and subjugation, or as a symbol of how far we’ve come in ending racism, is more symbolic of our fundamental misunderstanding of race in America.
Slavery in America was, at its core, an economic system. Slavery was about free labor to quickly grow and cheaply maintain white wealth. Racism was born, not of intrinsic hatred or bigotry, but as a moral justification for the immoral means of production that this nation relied upon to prosper. After the abolishment of slavery, institutional racism continued to be motivated by profit from cheap labor. From sharecropping to our prison industrial complex – it’s always been money.”
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