Georgia’s Voter Suppression Bill Signed Into Law While Slave Plantation Painting Hangs In Background
S E E D E D C O N T E N T
A dding insult to injury, Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp appeared to metaphorically thumb his nose at his Black critics in particular by signing the state’s voter suppression bill into law while seated in front of a painting of a “back-breaking” plantation that “thrived” from slave labor.
Kemp signed the bill Thursday evening amid national outcry at the restrictions the new law would disproportionately place on Black and brown people, who are now expected to have a much harder time voting than in past elections. The Georgia State Patrol even forcibly arrested Democratic State Rep. Park Cannon — a Black woman — for demanding transparency by knocking on Kemp’s closed office door while he was signing the bill.
So already, things were bad enough, optics-wise, at least.
But then Will Bunch, a national opinion writer for the Philadelphia Inquirer, posted a Twitter thread on Friday morning bringing attention to the plantation painting hanging on Kemp’s office wall that was so prominently displayed while the governor signed the bill.
Bunch’s revelation at once underscored terror evoked by the sheer imagery of a southern plantation while also harkening back to a sordid time in American history when Black people did not have a right to vote in the first place.
The Twitter thread pointed to a website that provided more information about the painting , but not necessarily about the plantation. The painting, named “Brickhouse Road (Callaway PLNT),” is named for the infamous Calloway Plantation, which another website describes in more — but not full — detail.
According to the Washington-Wilkes Historical Foundation , the Calloway Plantation remains home to “The Brick House,” in which the Calloway family lived from 1869-1910 — “the time period when the plantation thrived.”
Also on the plantation grounds was the Dally Slave Cabin, quarters that were built in 1840. That is conspicuously the only reference to slavery on that website.
“The promotional sites gloss over the fact that by the time of the Civil War, the Callaway Plantation only thrived because of the back-breaking labor of more than 100 slaves who were held in cruel human bondage,” Bunch accurately points out in his Twitter thread.
Bunch cited a genealogy website that documented the oral life history of a woman who was born into slavery on the Calloway Plantation. Mariah Calloway’s “narrative” addressed some of the harsh realities at Calloway Plantation, including what was effectively a jail for slaves the master “had to punish” for trying to escape.
The bill was signed in front of the plantation painting at a time when there has been a purported racial reckoning and widespread efforts to remove symbols of white supremacy from government property. Georgia in particular has been resistant to removing such imagery, including Confederate monuments.
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Why does the governor of Georgia have a painting of a slave plantation hanging on his office wall?
He probably planned it for years just to see which liberals would cry about it.
It is a painting.
BFD
You know, it’s funny. The pyramids were built by slaves and nobody has a problem with calling them “wonders of the world,” or with the multi-billion dollar tourism industry that thrives on them.
That's a good point.
If they aren't hypocrites, should we expect a seeded article about how horrible the pyramids are and how they should be razed?
It’s a simple moral choice. Is slavery right or wrong? Should we appreciate structures built by slaves or not? The White House was built - in part - by slaves. We put that building on our money and we have tours of the place every day.
There’s a very popular Democrat living there now. Think he’s sorry? I doubt it. You want we should tear it down?
Does it matter that the pyramids were built 3000 years ago? Does that make it better? You know the United States outlawed slavery before Egypt did. I wouldn’t be so quick to be forgiving of them.
Sure, but let’s not get in a big freak out over something that isn’t going to happen. We are in no danger of bringing back slavery or Jim Crow. No one longs for their return, either. It’s ridiculous to imagine that they do. Getting bent over this picture kind of implies that.
Should we really make something out of this picture? Something about Republicans in Georgia? I’ll bet it’s been hanging there for a long time. Republicans have only been governors of Georgia since 2003. Before that, it was solid Democrats going back 130 years. If this picture hung anywhere in the building during that time, does that say Democrats want to bring back slavery?
Two things: First, that people get selectively outraged over mundane things when it suits their politics. My discussion of other great structures erected by slaves proves that.
Second, this bill isn’t remotely connected to slavery, Jim Crow, or really anything racial. At least so far, I have seen no evidence to convince me otherwise.
What I have seen is that Democrats think that the current state of election chaos benefits them. Maybe it does. Maybe it does so in ways that are legitimate, but maybe also in ways that are not. So they react in kneejerk fashion to every conceivable voting regulation as racist.
If it was the occasional regulation, they might be worth listening to, but now it’s every single one. And there’s no data or reason offered. It’s just “clear.” And if you don’t agree without question, you’re racist, too. That’s just not reasonable.
And if we eliminate all reference to it, how exactly are people to know and understand what happened?
I've been called racist on this forum by unnamed individuals.
I found I had to ask my son if he felt I was racist. His reply is going to be my standard go to response to the rabid race baiters.
"Dad, how can you be racist? My sister and I and by extension our children are the product of you a white man and our black mother. Plus the fact that you current wife (*his mom died of cancer.) is a Latino woman. You taught us well to accept people for who they are regardless of their appearance and to never reject them, but simply avoid them if we disagree."
The painting probably precedes him.
Kemp signed the bill Thursday evening amid national outcry at the restrictions the new law would disproportionately place on Black and brown people, who are now expected to have a much harder time voting than in past elections.
Why would they have a harder time voting? Isn't it true that Voter ID would make it easier for those folks to vote
Do you know when the civil war was?
Do you?
Yeah... it ended before the pictured house was built.
Not if the rabid left has it's way.
I would really like an intelligent answer as to who is being suppressed, or how any one person is being treated differently.
Love all the answers!!
LOL!
I actually hope everybody here follows your link to read that ridiculous story. It doesn’t explain at all how the law will suppress voting in any way, much less in a way that would be favorable to Republicans. It only makes the claim that while they have no idea how it could hurt anything, if it hurts anyone, it will be Democrats. Why? That old chestnut: it’s clear.
omg, that’s lame.
A mere opinion piece.
Not responsive to what was asked, of course.
Ok, I think someone needs to explain why that would be so.
They simply can't do it.
Doesn't matter. One party needs more voter participation and the other party does better when it is in a position to choose the voters.
Two thing here also.
a. Is it better for the voters to choose their politicians?
b. Is it better for the politicians to choose the voters?
x. Isn't this what this is all about?