Alabama state Senator Charles Davidson (R), a candidate for the U.S. Congress, has presented argument supporting the superiority of his state's former slave system. He revealingly claims that neither *he* or his forebearers personally held slaves (Unless Alabamans maintain what can be considered slavery today under some camouflage of deceit why would the good senator claim that he , a man of this time, holds no slaves personally?) and that no advantage to present day whites from slavery is now existent. However the benefit to whites of slavery transcended class barriers in that the poorest white even though he could not afford a slave was permitted a "status of the white man" which no black , slave or free could attain. The preservation of such status was the bedrock of the southern social system and outlived outright slavery being enforced by unconstitutional laws, terrorism, lynchings, riot and the more subtle methods now made necessary by World opinion."Preserving" the Status of the White Man
What could today's racial controversies share that links both this and earlier generations, both during slavery and in it's absence? Consider element 4 of the argument of J. D. B. Debow (a former Superintendent of the Census) in: *The Interest in Slavery of the Southern Non-Slaveholder*.1
" 4. *The non-slaveholder of the South preserves the status of the white man, and is not regarded as an inferior or a dependent.*
He is not told that the Declaration of Independence, when it says that all men are born free and equal, refers to the negro equally with himself. It is not proposed to him that the free negro's vote shall weigh equally with his own at the ballot-box, and that the little children of both colors shall be mixed in the classes and benches of the school- house, and embrace each other filially in its outside sports. ... No white man at the South serves another as a body servant, to clean his boots, wait on his table, and perform the menial services of his household. His blood revolts against this, and his necessities never drive him to it. He is a companion and an equal. When in the employ of the slaveholder, or in intercourse with him he enters his hall, and has a seat at his table. If a distinction is exists, it is only that which education and refinement may give, and is so courteously exhibited as scarcely to strike attention.
**The poor white laborer at the North is at the bottom of the social ladder, whilst his brother here has ascended several steps and can look down upon those who are beneath him, at an infinite remove.**"
Clearly unearned social status based on race remains a powerful tool. Choice economic opportunity can be apportioned to the "true human white caste" even though some whites are "more equal than others." The Black caste is then subject to a mutually enforced last class status to which no white can ever descend and no black can ever rise above. In those areas where meritocracy is alleged, blacks who are a living demonstration of white inferiority can be dealt with by the mutual white crediting of slander as fact and a willingness to use deceit to justify discriminatory methods ranging form pogrom and murder to educational sabotage and inequity of opportunity all under a transparent deceit of alleged"law".
1.DeBow, J.D.B.,"The Non-Slaveholders of the South", The Interests in Slavery of the Southern Non-Slaveholder. The Right of Peaceful Secession. Slavery in the Bible. Evans and Cogswell:Charelston 1860.