Did you see Douglas Blackmon’s (author of the powerful book I’m currently reading, Slavery by Another Name) October 17 article in the Wall Street Journal titled “Two Families Named McCain?” This is exactly the kind of history–John McCain’s family’s shared history with black descendants of people his ancestors once owned–that led to the creation of the Coming to the Table project a few years ago (which I’ve previously written about in this blog).
Abby Ferber, a professor in the Department of Sociology and Women’s and Ethnic Studies at the University of Colorado-Colorado Springs (who I met at this year’s White Privilege Conference in Springfield, Massachusetts), has written an article for the Huffington Post Blog: “Does it Matter that McCain’s Family Owned Slaves?”
Abby asks important questions that all white folks should ponder if we want to understand history and its impact on our place in the world today.