BlackCommentator.com April 28, 2016 - Issue 651: Here’s looking at you, Harriet Tubman - The African World By Bill Fletcher, Jr., BC Editorial Board

April 28, 2016 - Issue 651

Here’s Looking at You
Harriet Tubman

"Harriet Tubman is the revolutionary face
that we need on the currency today and
the revolutionary face we will need on the
currency when there is a a fundamental,
and progressive social transformation of
this territory known as the United States of America."

I am not known as a fan of capitalism, but i must say that i am thrilled by the announcement that Harriet Tubman’s picture will be the new face of the $20 bill. There is a special irony in her picture replacing that of Andrew Jackson.

Andrew Jackson who oversaw wars of aggression against Native Americans; broken treaties with Native Americans; and then ordered the notorious Trail of Tears expulsion of Native Americans from the southeastern United States. Added to this, Andrew Jackson became the ideological founding father of the conservative populism that we have lived with ever since. The conservative, and frequently right-wing populism, that insists that the USA is a white republic that must look out for the common (white) man. This is the right-wing populism that we see in full display in the Trump and Cruz campaigns at the national level, as well as any number of local candidacies. Good-bye, President Jackson!

For sure, Harriet Tubman’s picture is symbolic and does not represent a fundamental defeat of right-wing populism, nor a recognition on the part of the USA of its crimes against Native Americans. It also does not represent an apology for slavery. But its symbolism is, nevertheless, important, and as such is a victory in the battle to redefine US history, removing the myths that we have been sold since 1783.

Harriet Tubman is the revolutionary face that we need on the currency today and the revolutionary face we will need on the currency when there is a a fundamental, and progressive social transformation of this territory known as the United States of America.

BlackCommentator.com Editorial Board member and Columnist, Bill Fletcher, Jr., is a Senior Scholar with the Institute for Policy Studies, the immediate past president of TransAfricaForum, and the author of “They’re Bankrupting Us” - And Twenty Other Myths about Unions. He is also the co-author of Solidarity Divided: The Crisis in Organized Labor and a New Path toward Social Justice, which examines the crisis of organized labor in the USA. Other Bill Fletcher, Jr. writing can be found at billfletcherjr.com. Contact Mr. Fletcher and BC.