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You are here: Home / Civil Rights / Racial Justice / Kiss My Black Ass / Arkansas Republican Jon Hubbard (R-Grand Wizard) Thinks Slavery Was A Blessing

Arkansas Republican Jon Hubbard (R-Grand Wizard) Thinks Slavery Was A Blessing

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You know, I don’t even have a comment for this nonsense. I just want to point out that this asshole thinks that slavery was a blessing, that black people don’t contribute to society, and that Obama is walking us down the path to Hitlertown.

Jon Hubbard, a Republican member of the Arkansas House of Representatives, has written a new book in which he says slavery was “a blessing” for African-Americans, among other questionable statements.


[read full post at ABLC]

Reader Interactions

122Comments

  1. 1.

    Chris

    So, by this logic, does this mean that Jews should thank Hitler for the Holocaust because without it, they’d probably not have gotten their own, Most Wonderful homeland?

  3. 3.

    debbie

    Wasn’t there a Michelle Bachmann-backed group trying to get the various candidates to voice support for this idea?

  4. 4.

    Mr Stagger Lee

    I would say to Mr Hubbard, after a swift kick to his nut sack.
    And what does God say about his vile ilk who wanted to keep Black people in chains and spent the years trying to get them back in chains! I wish the ghost of Abraham Lincoln would come into his dreams and go Vampire Killer on his ass!

  5. 5.

    RedKitten

    And yet, they think that the only reason Obama is getting virtually the ENTIRE black vote is because he’s black too, and therefore, the black folks are the REAL racists.

    Whatever helps them sleep at night, I guess…

  6. 6.

    JGabriel

    __
    __
    HuffPo:

    Jon Hubbard, a Republican member of the Arkansas House of Representatives, has written a new book in which he says slavery was “a blessing” for African-Americans …

    You know, it’s one thing to unthinkingly say something stupid and racist to a reporter, or an audience, or among acquaintances or supporters.

    It’s whole ‘nother step entirely to publish it in your, ostensibly edited by your publisher, book.

    What the fuck is wrong with that guy, and his publisher?

    Edited to Add:

    Hubbard, a first term Republican from Jonesboro, Ark., makes a series of racially charged statements in the self-published book …

    Ah. Well. That explains that, at any rate.

    .

  9. 9.

    Villago Delenda Est

    I do believe that Jon Hubbard needs to spend some time in the cotton fields. With no pay, and no escape.

    Then we’ll see how much that sort of forced labor is a “blessing”.

  10. 10.

    Elisabeth

    from the link:

    Hubbard says on his website. “Regardless of one’s religious beliefs, if we as a nation continue to turn away from those Christian principles and values upon which this great nation was founded, we will have truly lost everything worth saving!”

    How does that work?

  11. 11.

    danielx

    Jon Hubbard (R-Dickweed).

    “I’m not saying you’re a racist asshole, but…I can’t think of a way to finish this sentence.”

    h/t Bart Simpson

  13. 13.

    The Republic of Stupidity

    Ya know…

    If you pair this guy up w/ Broun from Georgia (‘All that stuff I was taught about evolution and embryology and Big Bang theory, all that is lies straight from the pit of hell’)…

    You’ve got the perfect matched bookends for Teh Stoooopid Shelf at the library…

    Really… are all their clothes fixed with velcro, so they can dress themselves in the morning?

  15. 15.

    Jim, Foolish LIteralist

    @Hill Dweller: ABL is playing the race card by noticing.

    I was thinking that this country’s getting worse, but it’s not. Pat Buchanan said pretty much this ten years ago or so. When I was in third grade and Roots was on TeeVee, our teacher told us to remember while watching that most slaves were actually better off than most white factory workers in the north. I guess I just thought we’d have progressed a little. And we have, some. More people are probably offended by this than would have been thirty, forty and so on years ago. But we also have Tom Brokaw (and most of his ilk, hats off to Tweety) denying the racial dog-whistling of the welfare ad, people not even asking about the connection to that ad and Scott Brown Fauxcohontas campaign. We have gotten to a point where racist trash has to be this obvious for people to notice, and our overwhelmingly white media, as white as I am, only notice racism to scold people for being so impolite as to mention it.

  16. 16.

    ? Martin

    Mechwarrior Online says he’s now gotta vote for Republicans for two elections because ABL continues to make everything about racism.

  17. 17.

    Draylon Hogg

    Stupid comment to make. Slavery is abhorrent but it was not confined to whites. Plenty of Afro-Carribeans were willing slavers.

    @Hill Dweller: Similarly, racism is not as simple as black vs. white either. West Indian immigrants in the UK would denigrate African immigrants by calling them “jungle bunnies”.

    Also here in the UK there is a lot of racism directed at Irish Traveller and Roma communities. I have personally heard someone of dual heritage use the pejorative term “Gypo”.

  22. 22.

    wrb

    There is a great song on A Prairie Home Companion right now about Romney’s inconstancy- to the tune of “Will You Love Me Tomorrow.”

  25. 25.

    Corner Stone

    @raven: Which, oddly, reminds me that the dad of some friends of mine used to go elk hunting every year. And you want to talk about butter? A nice elk filet on the BBQ pit, wrapped in a bacon slice and spiked with a fresh jalapeno at the end.
    Damn, that was Heaven.

  28. 28.

    piratedan

    hmmmm…. polled twice today, first by Ras secondly by the R congressional campaign (Barber(D) vs. McSally(R)) guess AZ is suddenly a battleground state afterall

  29. 29.

    Corner Stone

    @raven:

    I left a perfectly good “commitment ceremony” for this?

    Is that like a Daddy/Daughter Purity Ball?

  30. 30.

    raven

    @Corner Stone: When I was still drinking I broke out in hives a couple of time when I was fucked up and eating red meat. When I quit I that up too but I always wondered if something “natural” like that would do me the same way.

  32. 32.

    jwb

    @raven: I discovered a way to self delete. You simply edit your comment and then add one of the bad words that nukes the comment into the spam filter. (“R3ality Ch3ck” spelled correctly will do it.) No more comment.

  36. 36.

    Corner Stone

    Oh, that is no good for Georgia.
    COCKS!

    Love it when my Cocks split the coverage and go all the way to the Promised Land!

  38. 38.

    MikeJ

    @wrb:

    There is a great song on A Prairie Home Companion right now about Romney’s inconstancy- to the tune of “Will You Love Me Tomorrow.”

    Romney is the candidate that comes closest to the views that you hold, no matter who you are. This site will ask you what you believe and give you Romney quotes that agree with you.

  40. 40.

    Amir Khalid

    @Draylon Hogg:
    True enough, but what’s your point? There are no doubt plenty of black people in Africa who are racist towards other black people. I could show you plenty of Asian-against-Asian racism here in Malaysia. Jon Hubbard’s racism, which Imani is highlighting, is that of a white man directed against black people. That there are other kinds of racism doesn’t change the nature of Hubbard’s kind or make it any less heinous.

  41. 41.

    suzanne

    If it’s such a blessing, I’m sure he’d be willing to submit to it himself. We should offer it to him.

  42. 42.

    Mnemosyne

    @Amir Khalid:

    That’s the second fight that the troll has tried to pick in two different threads, so I vote for pushing the Ignore button. Unless you’re extremely bored, that is.
    :-)

  43. 43.

    quannlace

    Yup, slavery was just the same as having to eat your vegetables. You didn’t like it at the time, but it was good for you in the long run.

    Fuckin’ hell.

  46. 46.

    RepubAnon

    Maybe Jon Huntsman needs to spend a few years receiving such a “blessing.” We can put him to work at a heavy metal recycling facility in Bangladesh for a while, but that wouldn’t give him the full blessing experience.

    I expect what he’s saying is that without slavery, the African-Americans that survived the middle passage wouldn’t have been baptized into a Christian religion, and thus would not have been eligible for getting into heaven. (Let’s leave for another day the idea of a “just” God who refuses heaven to people because said God hadn’t gotten around to telling those people the prerequisites.)

    My thought is that any God that seriously thought such an experience was a blessing does not deserve to be worshiped, and anyone that does worship a God to whom they attribute such behavior should receive an emergency mental health intervention.

  48. 48.

    Jim, Foolish LIteralist

    @Jim, Foolish LIteralist: Buchanan’s comments were much more recent than I thought, 2008, but I’m sure he’s said this more than once

    folks on the right like Pat Buchanan just laying it on the line with this kind of mind-blower .
    “First, America has been the best country on earth for black folks. It was here that 600,000 black people, brought from Africa in slave ships, grew into a community of 40 million, were introduced to Christian salvation, and reached the greatest levels of freedom and prosperity blacks have ever known. Wright ought to go down on his knees and thank God he is an American.
    Second, no people anywhere has done more to lift up blacks than white Americans . Untold trillions have been spent since the ’60s on welfare, food stamps, rent supplements, Section 8 housing, Pell grants, student loans, legal services, Medicaid, Earned Income Tax Credits and poverty programs designed to bring the African-American community into the mainstream.
    …We hear the grievances. Where is the gratitude ?

    Edited to get the “untold trillions” in there. Was this what finally got crazy Uncle Pat bounced from MSNBC?

  49. 49.

    1badbaba3

    I’m waiting for the usual suspects spewing their usual ‘I don’t see what’s racist about blah blah blah – blah nigger blah. I mean why are all you people so sensitive?’ crap. But I’m gonna pull a DougJ and say “I wish a motherfucker would ask if it’s racism”.

  50. 50.

    MikeJ

    @RepubAnon:

    I expect what he’s saying is that without slavery, the African-Americans that survived the middle passage wouldn’t have been baptized into a Christian religion, and thus would not have been eligible for getting into heaven.

    Many christians believe that people who have never heard of Jesus get a free pass since they didn’t know any better. Which makes you think that the absolute worst thing you could do is to tell them about it.

  57. 57.

    blahblah

    Call it a mixed blessing? I mean, it’s shitty about the ripping people away from their homes and families and erasing entire clans of people, but Africa is pretty shitty too, honestly.

    Hunger, civil war, ridiculously high mortality, child soldiers…

    If I were a black American I suppose I’d probably be pretty pissed off that my ancestors went through all of that pain, and pissed off at inequality, but still fairly happy to be an American.

    There’s no denying the evils of the slave trade, but there’s also no denying the relative opportunity of America.

  58. 58.

    Corner Stone

    @efgoldman: I disagree. I like what the Cocks are doing in all 3 phases right now.
    And Geno Smith may as well be named Gino Torretta.
    UT is a boring and talentless program.

    GOAL LINE STAND!

    Excuse me going all PO there.

  60. 60.

    jazzgurl

    @draylon hogg…what foolishness you speak Sir. Which of the West Indians you know that call Africans jungle bunnies??. Do not speak of what you do not know and do not make such stereotyped statements.
    FYI-In the early years West indins suffered at the hands of Anglo-saxons who called them jungle bunnies,etc.

  63. 63.

    Amir Khalid

    @blahblah:
    Wrong. Just make your argument to any African American and see how they respond. That black Americans are generally better off than their distant relatives on the old continent doesn’t justify the centuries of slavery, or the decades of discrimination thereafter, in the slightest.

  64. 64.

    Midnight Marauder

    @blahblah:

    Call it a mixed blessing? I mean, it’s shitty about the ripping people away from their homes and families and erasing entire clans of people, but Africa is pretty shitty too, honestly.
    __
    Hunger, civil war, ridiculously high mortality, child soldiers…
    __
    If I were a black American I suppose I’d probably be pretty pissed off that my ancestors went through all of that pain, and pissed off at inequality, but still fairly happy to be an American.
    __
    There’s no denying the evils of the slave trade, but there’s also no denying the relative opportunity of America.

    I always enjoy comments like this that just oh-so casually glide over the brutal and incredibly pervasive effects of colonialism on Africa’s stability over the centuries.

    Mighty privileged of you.

  65. 65.

    RSA

    Hubbard’s book is on Amazon, and some parts of it can be read. Here’s part of it:

    In their quest for turning America into a socialist state, liberals have employed a systematic program to gradually chip away at the very fabric and core values and traditions our founding fathers understood… we were also a very compassionate people. When liberals learned that they could bond this compassion with the strong guilt of slavery they had been encouraging within this nation for years, this combination would become the perfect formula for the successful transition of this nation into a socialist state…

    This is the product of an unbalanced mind.

  67. 67.

    Yutsano

    @blahblah: How bout no. Africa in fact had several relatively advanced civilisations before colonial exploitation destroyed many of the native institutions. And yes there was slavery among them but the image of Africa being a backwards savage jungle is just rampant Western imperialism. Not to mention causing massive psychological trauma to those unfortunate enough to be caught up in the enterprise of the slave trade cannot ever be apologised for. We have no idea what would have happened to Africa if colonisation had not occurred. But suggesting they’re “ultimately better off” is ludicrous.

    @Midnight Marauder: Or wot u said. :)

  68. 68.

    blahblah

    I’m not completely uneducated, and I’ve in fact lived as a minority. I don’t pretend to understand the entirety of the African-American struggle, or inequality, but I think there’s something to be said for America.

    Probably in a more eloquent way than this senator has said it, but I can be pretty eloquent.

    I’m not sure that everyone here really understands how terrible the quality of life is when you aren’t living in the first world.

  70. 70.

    blahblah

    Nobody can erase colonialism. Is it better to live in terrible conditions as an exploited colony or to have a shot in America?

    Ultimately, it’s better in America today.

    I’m not saying don’t be pissed off, but Africa is not some wonderland. Even today, people die of disease from their drinking water, or of malaria, or of a terrible AIDS epidemic.

  76. 76.

    Midnight Marauder

    @blahblah:

    Nobody can erase colonialism. Is it better to live in terrible conditions as an exploited colony or to have a shot in America?
    __
    Ultimately, it’s better in America today.
    __
    I’m not saying don’t be pissed off, but Africa is not some wonderland. Even today, people die of disease from their drinking water, or of malaria, or of a terrible AIDS epidemic.

    Listen. The problem with your initial comment, and subsequent explanations, is that you are lamenting the effect without addressing the cause. The reason Africa is such a miserable place to live is that all of its resources were plundered and exploited by colonial invaders, who brutally oppressed and exploited the native population. So much so that the continent’s inhabitants are nowhere close to recovering from the horrific treatment they received.

    The entire comparison is insulting in its premise. For you own sake, let it go.

  77. 77.

    Corner Stone

    What’s going on with the site tonight? Is there a debate going on I missed hearing about?

  79. 79.

    Spatula

    Don’t really get why you folks are publicizing this maroon’s book of scratchings for him.

  80. 80.

    blahblah

    America not importing slaves would not have changed the European colonization of Africa to any major degree.

    Africa isn’t a hellhole because it’s run by black people. Perhaps I’m ignorant but I’m not a racist.

    Is there any doubt that life in Africa today is worse than in America today? Regardless of the reasons, I’d rather be here.

    Now if you’d like to go back hundreds of years and kill all of the colonial invaders of Africa I am willing to say that it could be every bit as good as America.

    But you can’t, and it isn’t, and it’s stupid to pretend otherwise.

  81. 81.

    blahblah

    I am serious about this. Can any of you even imagine not being able to rely on your drinking water? Have you ever foraged for food in a drought, or indeed at all? Can you imagine the conditions in a diamond or gold mine in Africa today? It must be hellish.

  84. 84.

    Chyron HR

    @blahblah:

    So are you glad that your ancestors were brought to America as slaves, since it means that you get to live in this great country?

    Or did you somehow magically get to live in America without your ancestors being enslaved, in which case why do you think that that black people couldn’t have done the same?

  87. 87.

    blahblah

    Would you like to take your chances at living in a handful of places on one continent with clean drinking water, plenty of food, and modern healthcare? Or would you rather live here?

    And my ancestors were shoveled out of ovens, but if you’d care to debate which situation is sadder I’d be happy to at any time.

  91. 91.

    Yutsano

    @blahblah:

    And my ancestors were shoveled out of ovens

    So were mine. What the fuck does that have to do with the slave trade? Nice man of straw, shame should someone light a match…

  93. 93.

    Woodrowfan

    OK, let’s make a deal. You agree to be kidnapped, tortured, beaten, raped, worked until you die, and the same thing will happen to your wife, your kids, and your descendents for roughly 200 years. For the next century after that conditions are a bit better, but you still get mostly the shit jobs and you and your family can still be raped, beaten, and killed with relative impunity. In exchange for this, some of your great-great-great-great grandkids (not all, just some) will live a better life.

    I dunno, seems like a raw deal to me…. I doubt any of these “slavery was for the best” clowns would accept it…

  95. 95.

    Midnight Marauder

    @blahblah:

    Would you like to take your chances at living in a handful of places on one continent with clean drinking water, plenty of food, and modern healthcare? Or would you rather live here?
    __
    And my ancestors were shoveled out of ovens, but if you’d care to debate which situation is sadder I’d be happy to at any time.

    …are you even advancing an argument anymore?

  99. 99.

    blahblah

    @Woodrowfan: Why? We are where we are. Do you expect me to defend slavery? I’m not a Southern politician and couldn’t do that and still keep my dinner down.

    If I could press a button and change the history of the world I would, but it seems to me that everyone who is here now should appreciate it.

    Honor the past, but appreciate the present, and fight to eliminate inequality wherever it still lives.

  100. 100.

    Tehanu

    @blahblah:

    “Call it a mixed blessing? I mean, it’s shitty about the ripping people away from their homes and families and erasing entire clans of people, but Africa is pretty shitty too, honestly. Hunger, civil war, ridiculously high mortality, child soldiers…

    Christ, I hope I’m not the only WHITE person on this thread who will point out what a stupid remark this is. I don’t know what Africa was like before the last 250 years of European invasion and exploitation, but I do know that sucking the resources out of a continent and refusing to do much of anything about repaying the inhabitants after your colonial ventures finally curl up and die just MIGHT be responsible for the horrible conditions you leave behind.

    Oh good, it’s not just me. Thanks MM (and others).@Midnight Marauder:

  101. 101.

    The Fat Kate Middleton

    I think we all need to look up at the rotating subhead that’s been running all through this:

    Lighten up, Francis.

    It's a tell.

  102. 102.

    Midnight Marauder

    @The Fat Kate Middleton:

    No, DOUGJ (or who ever) really isn’t. But I’m still laughing so much I hurt.

    I get it. When you read this:

    Would you like to take your chances at living in a handful of places on one continent with clean drinking water, plenty of food, and modern healthcare? Or would you rather live here?

    you can only laugh to keep from crying.

  103. 103.

    blahblah

    This isn’t about politics or colonialism to me. It’s about the indisputable fact that the first world is a damn lucky place to be born in indeed.

    None of your children will be forced by people with machetes to take up arms when they’re 9 years old. None of them will die of cholera.

  109. 109.

    Matt McIrvin

    I always think of this line of argument as the Horowitz Troll. Back in the 1990s or so, David Horowitz tried to take-out full-page ads in a bunch of campus newspapers arguing that black Americans should be thankful for slavery, so he could rile people up if they ran the ads and whine about political correctness gone mad if they didn’t.

  110. 110.

    Midnight Marauder

    @blahblah:

    This isn’t about politics or colonialism to me

    “Hey, I’m not saying anything about colonialism, but listen to all this stuff I have to say about why Africa is in such rough shape.”

    Amazing.

  111. 111.

    Svensker

    @blahblah:

    And the guy who was ripped away from his family, shoved on a boat and sold into slavery 200 years ago cares about conditions in Africa now, why? The individual slave doesn’t matter, only his (supposed) racial destiny?

    Seems kind of collectivist thinking, to me. (Besides being totally stupid and screwed up, of course.)

  113. 113.

    Forum Transmitted Disease

    Is there any doubt that life in Africa today is worse than in America today?

    @blahblah: Doug, I was in northwest Somalia last year. The worst thing about the place was the climate. But Africa ain’t that bad. And hell, if you’re black – which I’m not – it’s probably safer than large portions of the deep South, an area with which I’m unfortunately far too familiar.

  114. 114.

    blahblah

    Does plentiful food and drinking water count for nothing? Can opportunity and freedom be ignored completely?

    Drink tainted water for a day and lecture me on colonialism as you throw up.

    Do you think an African man who is dying of HIV with no treatment at 25 cares for the struggles of his ancestors?

    You lecture me on privilege from a position so privileged that you can’t even comprehend the alternative.

  115. 115.

    Brendanyc

    @blahblah:
    it seems from your tone that you really do not understand how racism can lie at the very foundations of our culture and does not usually have to show its presence by shouting niggah.
    let’s take your depiction of Africa for instance. Africa is a huge continent, and an exploited one, so it is hardly surprising that there are some areas where drought or disease or just crushing poverty have made a terrible mess. But there are entire countries in Africa and many regions or cities of other countries doing as well as Asia, Latin America, or Applachia (what?! oh, America , too? yes). the northern and southern thirds of the continent are especially unlike what you describe. The middle third, not so much. It varies, in other words.
    i was so glad to see Botswana mentioned since my friends from South Africa (where the worst problem is crime, sort of like Brazil, or NYC 20 years ago) love to vacation there — even though they live as well as most working Americans do back home in S. Afr–a country as beautiful as Montana.

    You, however, see the entire continent, and i dare to guess the entire black population, as living in hovels, starving through the latest drought, or worse.
    this is an example, a good one, of racism built into our very foundational assumptions. all the thinking that builds on these foundations will be racist, but none will have meant ill. no one is yelling names at anyone. but an entire people is defamed. And it leads to loopy, even diseased conclusions like that these people are lucky so many of them were knocked down, chained up, kidnapped, and mostly, died in passage to a country where it would be two or three centuries before their people begin to achieve what we love about America.

    Das racist.

  116. 116.

    Brendanyc

    @blahblah:
    And i really am sure you meant no harm, and harbor no hate. This is the secret sin of so many of us: we believe if we did not mean to do harm,no action or words of ours can be racist or bigoted. but we are wrong to imagine that.
    this is one of the reasons we see obvious racists outrage to be called that. They meant no harm, so how can someone possibly call them those terrible things?
    But it is a deeper thing than they want to believe.

  117. 117.

    Corner Stone

    Man. My Cocks are just slapping the Dawgs around.
    I would say it’s sad…but I’m not going to.

  118. 118.

    0whole1

    @blahblah:

    Does plentiful food and drinking water count for nothing?

    That sounded assertion-y, so I briefly googled “slavery+malnutrition” and found this: http://books.google.com/books?id=gXdbikvSXJMC&pg=PA84&source=gbs_toc_r&cad=4#v=onepage&q=malnutrition&f=false

    I look forward to reading that.

    Also, with this line of reasoning, it could be argued that Western Europe would have been scads better off if the Umayyads hadn’t turned back at Poitiers in 732. I hear they knew a thing or two about water usage and healthcare.

    All that said, I’d personally find the unwilling trade of a minimal food allotment for the constant threat of rape, etc, unsatisfying. But maybe that’s just me.

  119. 119.

    Cacti

    Whenever I hear about a politician saying something bugfuck crazy or horribly offensive, I always kind of hold my breath and hope they’re not from Arizona.

  120. 120.

    The Republic of Stupidity

    Aw geeeez…

    Please, take blahblah’s shovel away from the poor soul…

    That hole just keeps getting deeper and deeper…

  121. 121.

    redshirt

    The difference in historical slavery to American (or Western Hemisphere) slavery is enlightening of the change that occurred with the “discovery” of the New World. Race became “a thing”. Not to say it was irrelevant before, but it was far less a factor in humanity.

  122. 122.

    Another Halocene Human

    @Jim, Foolish LIteralist:

    When I was in third grade and Roots was on TeeVee, our teacher told us to remember while watching that most slaves were actually better off than most white factory workers in the north.

    That, of course, as I can confirm from some research of my family history, is a lie, but canal workers were, in a sense, considered lower than slaves because they were disposable people, their lives passing unnoticed by the canal investors (including G Washington) whereas slave represented a monetary investment.

    The canal workers were paid in rations of alcohol and the owners would deliberately throw together men from different parts of Wales (on the B&O… one of my ancestors was Irish and worked on a canal north of there) so that when they got their ration they would fight. So they had nothing to show for their labor and no will to fight the owners.

    They’ll tell you all about this if you visit the B&O canal museum on the Potomac River on the MD/VA border.

    Of course, “northern” is a bit of a misnomer here: there was slavery in colonies as far north as Massachusetts Bay Colony before the revolution (abolished 1790s) and Maryland was a slave state until the end of the Civil War. And although there were teenage workers in Lowell the South was the epicenter of child labor in the United States. One constant is that there’s a lot of lying going on about the history and sociology of the Southeastern United States.

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