We're often quick to glorify politicians that are the antithesis of those politicians we don't like. But it is important to subject the politicians we like to the same level of critique we apply to those politicians we don't like.
It's not just the image politicians portray to the public, but their actions that matter.
Such is the case with Hillary Clinton, whose 1996 book It Takes A Village contains some alarming information.
This Tuesday, activist and Bernie Sanders supporter Jeanette Jing posted a two-page excerpt of the book to her 33,000+ followers on Twitter.
In re-reading the book, Jing came across a passage in which Clinton reminisced over her time as first lady of Arkansas beside her husband Bill Clinton, who served as the state's governor from 1979 to 1981 and 1983 to 1992.
Via a report from Newsweek, the particular excerpt highlighted the fact that the Clintons used black prison laborers as staff at the Arkansas governor's mansion. She followed the initial tweet with a string of tweets warranting Clinton side-eyes.
Maher said "house n*" and Clinton used prison labor at her mansion for ten yrs bc it was "a longstanding tradition which kept down costs." pic.twitter.com/EXPrVRjJ7G— Jeanette????Corbynista (@JeanetteJing) June 6, 2017
“When we moved in, I was told that using prison labor at the governor’s mansion was a longstanding tradition, which kept down costs,” Clinton wrote in the book. She added that she became “friendly” with a few of the workers, most of whom were convicted murderers and who “had already served 12 to 18 years of their sentences.”
Friendships with the Clintons offered the prisoners scant protections, however.
Clinton portrays herself as a harsh taskmaster, writing, “We enforced rules strictly and sent back to prison any inmate who broke a rule.”
Our almost-president also took it upon herself to claim that the black workers did not have “inferior IQs or an inability to apply moral reasoning,” instead classifying them as “emotional illiterates.”
Ummm, I must’ve missed all those psychological degrees or certifications on Mrs. Clinton’s resume!
Clinton didn’t confirm whether or not the black men received any money for the work they provided to her and her husband.
The Centre for Research on Globalization reports that between the years of 1980 – 1994, prison labor wages could range between $1-2 an hour. Still, a 2016 Mother Jones article notes that “some state states, including Texas, Arkansas, and Georgia, do not pay inmates at all.”
Jing put it all in plain terms via her tweet, stating that “Hillary Clinton was a direct participant in what [activist, data scientist and policy analyst Samuel Sinyangwe] @samswey correctly described as modern slavery.”
Of course, Twitter wasn't having any of this mess and certainly chimed in with thoughts!
Hillary's shittiness doesn't negate Trump's shittiness. Both are simultaneously true.— Taheerah????Barney (@fleshandbrand) June 7, 2017
Hillary never cared about blacks. All she cared about was the black vote.— Terry (@xebec78) June 6, 2017
According to the thirteenth amendment, that is exactly what prison labor is…slavery. pic.twitter.com/JF5fvMcb7M— Amanda Guthrie (@whattheplucked) June 7, 2017
And Sinyangwe himself summed it up perfectly with his tweet:
2016 was a choice between a white woman benefitting from black prison labor and a white man campaigning on sending black people to prison.— Samuel Sinyangwe (@samswey) June 7, 2017
All of this really just adds another “tick” to the column of problematic actions and words on the Clintons’ record.
Even though Hillary Clinton attempted to reach out to the black community during her presidential campaigns, we can’t forget her infamous “superpredator” term, the coke/crack cocaine disparity during Bill Clinton’s term and Hillary Clinton’s outward support of her husband’s controversial 1994 Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act, just to name a few.
Overall, no need for glorifying when the truth is just an open book away.
