This story on National Public Radio today, archivist Reginald Washington shares what he has found about the African Slaves who build the White House from documents found in the National Archives.  Audio and transcript of the story will be availalble on www.npr.org by 6pm EST.

My thoughts when I heard this immediately took me back to a middle school trip my class took to Monticello, Thomas Jefferson's home .  We 12 year-olds wondered what those "other little houses" were for in the back and the perky young tour guide informed us those were for "servants."  "You mean SLAVES!" A friend of mine had said.  The historical erasure of enslaved Africans from our most "American" of places is commonplace I think, and some of the callers to the audio show today reflected surprise that in fact, yes, slaves built the White House!  As activists and social justice advocates, I think it is crucial for us to be always vigilant in naming the history, and remembering that if we don't continue to work for justice, history can and does, repeat itself.

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January 14, 2009 9:46 PM

[0+]  TheBrawn said:

Here here. We demand that domestic violence, sexual assault, and sexism get called what they are, and this is no different. Naming -- "calling it what it is" -- is such a huge aspect of social activism. Thank you for bringing this up!

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April 6, 2009 5:04 AM

[0+]  bedroom furniture said:

I'm not sure if this is sexism. People who live close to college take their laundry home bedroom furniture all the time. It's making fun of college students for being lazy more than anything else.I guess you could argue it's bad because it implies that the mother is always the one who does the laundry, but I can't think of an alternative that doesn't sound awkward. Do they also have "Hi, Dad" bags?

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