Guest Commentator

Jacqueline Bacon

Jacqueline Bacon is the author of The Humblest May Stand Forth: Rhetoric, Empowerment and Abolition (University of South Carolina Press, 2002) and has written articles on the media and African-American history for various periodicals. Her website is www.jacquelinebacon.com.

2 pieces

Commentary

Brighter Prospects? Ms. Bush and White America’s Rhetoric of Limited Alternatives

By Jacqueline Bacon Guest Commentator

Most of us are by now familiar with Barbara Bush’s assessment of the situation of poor evacuees from New Orleans transported to the Astrodome in Houston. Noting on American Public Media’s radio program Marketplace that “so many of the people in the arena here, you know, were underprivileged anyway,” the former first lady concluded, with…

Most of us are by now familiar with Barbara Bush’s assessment of the situation of poor evacuees from New Orleans transported to the Astrodome in Houston.…

Continue reading 7 min

Guest Commentary

Slavery, Reparations, and the Uses (and Abuses) of History

By Jacqueline Bacon Guest Commentator

In the wake of recent apologies by Wachovia and other corporations for past ties to slavery, we have heard angry tirades much like those from a few years ago, when reparations opponents denounced those who sought redress for slavery in often heated rhetoric. Then, as now, the accusations center on history. The well-publicized criticism of…

In the wake of recent apologies by Wachovia and other corporations for past ties to slavery, we have heard angry tirades much like those from a…

Continue reading 4 min