By 1947 employment in the steel industry had declined by 80 % since 1887.
I heard this @NPR story on the radio and I had to give a quick snapshot of what I heard. When you compare steel industry to slavery, more specifically the business of American Blacks as a comparative over the same amount of time – you get an interesting result. The title of NPR’s article as written by John Ydstie is “Protection For the Steel Industry Is As Old As America.” The title rings with a little nostalgia – however my counter question is where has there been legislation as consistent as protecting the progression and success of the steel industry where the American Black is concerned? And how is it that tariff protection is a concept that in theory protects an industry that is vital to the national interest – when imported Africans literally fueled the American economy creating wealth not seen in other nations – how is it those people and their descendants, the skilled laborers when removed from the institution of slavery left land owners literally trying to figure out how to “do the job” lacked protection under the law through 1965. This is an American tragedy.
In the 1790’s there were tariffs on imported horseshoes and nails to protect the fledgling industry from foreign competition – America was still importing and enslaving Africans. Congress abolished the slave trade in 1808, in 1820 the import of slaves was punishable by death yet in 1858 “New York Yacht Club Member William Corrie and Charles Lamar purchased a ship in order to smuggle the last documented slaves into the United States of America (The Last American Slave Ship – Christopher Klein.) After the Civil War higher tariffs were being championed while the so called Negro had become free. The industry leaders in the known world were a human resource designated to lament. Fast forward a quick 100 years to 1965 Civil Rights Laws were written to supposedly equalize the American Dream for American Blacks after a century of Jim Crow laws, red lining, lack of FHA loans and arbitrary discounted property valuations by the FHA, terrorism by White Extremists otherwise known as the KKK , mob lynchings, bombing Black Wall Street – the industry and wealth leaders had been relegated to a second class life of poverty in America.
By the 1970’s the steel industry was failing because the industry had not modernized production, they failed to invest in new technology – the United States government comes to the rescue. According to Ydstie’s article ‘Just about every president has renewed or extended special import quotas or voluntary export restraints or various extra, above, and beyond the tariff, [ways] of protecting the domestic industry.” From 1865 – 1970 American Blacks were qualified American Workers that were once America’s highest valued commodity. So valuable that the life of an enslaved American Black’s very life could be insured by companies like AIG, JP Morgan Chase, Wachovia Bank aka Wells Fargo and Aetna and could even be used to collateralize loans. Yet somehow freedom devalued American Blacks to the point where there is almost no protections under the law and where there historically has been insufficient restitution.
The article goes on about the lament of the industry through the 1990’s under the first Bush and under Clinton – the same president that created the term “super-predator,” the same president responsible for the highest incarceration of American Black Men in any presidency, under the guise of a “war on drugs.” Fast forward to the second Bush and the tides change for the steel industry again finding favor with the United States Government.
The article quotes Roger Newport, CEO of Ohio based AK Steel as saying tariffs “ensures there’s a level playing field.” And Trump is quoted as saying “Steel is steel. You don’t have steel, you don’t have a country.” Well truer words could not be said about American Blacks, specifically enslaved Africans and their descendants – you do not have a country without them. So again my question is where is the legislative calvary that will shorten the wealth gap created by centuries of laws to perpetually keep American Blacks at the bottom of the poverty line? Where is the legislative actions in 2018 so as Roger Newport put it “ensures there’s a level playing field,” for the American Black? If you think about it The United States Government has done America a disservice by creating racism and relegating blackness to poverty. In any organization the human resource is the most valuable resource and America has gone through great lengths to quite literally waste what has historically been one of it’s hardest working, most productive resources to perpetuate racism and inequality. Had America legislated fairly for the American Black over the course of the last century – the nation as a whole would be wealthier and stronger – the brain power that could have been engaged in commerce, technology, government, education, and industry has simply been wasted over the last century due to prohibitive laws.
When I heard this story this morning it simply reminded me of what the American Government can do when it is willing. The question becomes what is the American Government willing to do for American Blacks?
Unapologetically,
The Real Friday Jones