Reading the "Story of the Negro Peon" outraged me, but I found it unsurprising. I know that such things happened after the Civil War and, unfortunately, something similar still occurs today. Because the narrator of this lifelet is a poor black man, he has few rights, and due to a lack of literacy, he is tricked into signing away what small rights and goods he possesses. People take advantage of him and he is essentially placed back into slavery. This happens today as privatized prisons strive to fill their cells, mostly with poor black men with little education, and make profits. They are still used for cheap or free labor and the recidivism rate is rising. They are trapped in the system with few options, just like the negro peon in The Life Stories of Undistinguished Americans.
Here's an article about it if you're interested:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/john-w-whitehead/prison-privatization_b_1414467.html
We discussed why we wrote our family history papers and I think that part of the impetus in knowing our past is to improve the future. It has been said that those who do not learn their history are doomed to repeat it. We have a responsibility to learn from the atrocities of the past and use this knowledge to correct the wrongs in modern day.
What troubling aspects of these stories persist today? What can we do about these issues? Conversely, do you think we're not responsible to make the world better for marginalized groups? Why?
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