THE TKC SUNDAY SPECIAL!!! KANSAS CITY CALL JOURNALIST ERIC WESSON FACT CHECKS TOY TRAIN STREETCAR OPPOSITION ON SLAVERY REFERENCE!!!



Tonight the TKC blog community needs to take note of rhetorical tactic among Kansas City Toy Train Streetcar TDD phase deux opposition that has finally been met with a full scale SMACKDOWN.

To wit . . .

IN AN EPIC FACT CHECK, KC CALL JOURNALIST ERIC WESSON RESPONDS TO A TRAGIC SLAVERY REFERENCE FROM STREETCAR OPPONENTS!!!



The debate starts with an e-mail that was recently sent out which references a candidate forum over the weekend. But more importantly, this political fact check seems to be an indication that the tense alliance betwixt East side politicos and Missouri conservatives in order to defeat the TDD may be a rough truce at best.

Better than Barb Shelly's embarrassing prattle about racial issues . . . 

Mr. Wesson offers a more informed perspective on the dynamics of urban core discourse.

First we'll feature Mr. Wesson's fact check, then after the jump take a look at the offending e-mail FIRST AND EXCLUSIVELY ON TKC . . . Check it:

Eric Wesson Response To Streetcar Opposition E-mail

First of all Eric Wesson didn't have a candidate forum, The Call newspaper did.

Second I am offended that you think it is okay to equate a political tax and conversation over a streetcar with the brutal and psychological effects of slavery. I think that is extremely insensitive of you or anyone else to try to make that connection because guess what. If an individual doesn't pay the tax they aren't going to be killed, beat, limbs cut off wife and daughters raped kids snatched from them and sold to other families in other parts of the country. My grandparents and great grandparents were slaves, in my conversations with them I can't equate anything that's been discussed with what they went through and are still physically go through today as a result of being shot in the back.

So please remove me from this silly ass conversation about equating a tax to slavery as you try to appear to give a damn about what is happening in the black community. Where is your bandwagon speech about the senseless killing in the black community, the failed educational system the lack of basic services the lack of banks therefore people are forced to go to payday loans stores and pay to cash their checks? The lack of viable grocery stores and decades of neglect by the state federal and local governments. Where is your soapbox on the lack of job training avenues for men and youth? Black male unemployment hovers around 16 percent in Kansas City and among black male construction it's even higher. Where do you buy your groceries? Certainly not at Wild Woody's or Leon's.

So bypass me with the "you care about black people routine." By the way I own 16 properties in the tax district 7 of them will be in the area of the proposed streetcar and I don't mind the property tax increase it comes with growth and progress.
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And here's the e-mail that started this conversation . . .



Are we headed back into slavery thru new taxes???

Friends, Saturday as I sat in the Gregg Klice Community Center taking in Eric Wesson’s Candidate forum, I began to think. I was listening to people talk about how difficult it is for some to meet their monthly expenses, the difficulty they were having with school aged children and many other problems plaguing our City including the City’s lack of response to many of their calls. A majority of those in attendance were black voters from the Eastside. It took me back, i thought about how some of these people’s ancestors must have suffered the torments and tragedies of slavery in this country, it’s like it never ended for some. They are shackled with poverty and see no way out. It made me think if we continue to allow our City, State and Federal Government to pile taxes upon taxes on the middle class and poorer classes of our citizens, we will all become enslaved to the government. The City wants to take a bigger share of our paychecks every year through sales and property taxes.

NEW TAXES:

Tuesday, August 5th the City wants us to approve a TDD (Question “A”) on the ballot, this is a new taxing district which will eventually create a 1% sales tax on everything including medicines and groceries. The only exemptions are vehicles, boats and utilities. Plus it will generate property tax increases for the poorest section of our City, the Eastside. All this to fund a streetcar many of our citizens will never use.

IN ADDITION:

The City and State want us to approve Amendment “7”, the road tax. This is the largest tax increase in State history and if it passes it will the first time our state constitution was amended to generate a sales tax. It will add .75% sales tax almost everything we purchase. The silent kicker on this sales tax is it will funnel $124,000,000 to that same streetcar. Everybody wants our roads and bridges maintained and improved but there is a better way. We need to take this idea back to the drawing board and throw the streetcar portion out!

Please get out and vote on Tuesday, August 5th. Take your neighbor and your friends. Make some calls! If we band together we can defeat both these burdensome, unjust unfair sales taxes!

VOTE “NO” ON QUESTION “A”

VOTE “NO” ON AMENDMENT “7"

Citizens for Responsible Government
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Developing . . .

Comments

  1. This campaign season has been brutal, no telling what is going to happen on Tuesday.

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  2. No doubt he got special rock bottom property tax adjustments on his 16 properties no one else will get to shill for A.

    S'Lies been pounding the pavement over there cutting deals at the last minute recently.

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  3. Hmm according to a Jackson Count Tax record search there is only one Eric Wesson and he owns only one house.

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  4. I predict if the rosy projections fall short (62 million per mile) the shortfall will come from the general fund to make up the difference. That kc will be a tax burden for everyone. North, south, brookside, ward parkway etc. Who will repossess the street car? No one.

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  5. These anti-streetcar people wilt at real talk. Keep it up Eric. Everybody ain't for sale, over here, and a lot of us is itred of never getting shit from the city. Now they talking about investing millions in services we use, and a couple of you knuckleheads got paid off to say it a kind of slavery or its a kind of Jim Crow. We get to vote on it, dumbasses. That pretty much means its the opposite of Jim Crow and ain't a damn thing like slavery. Freedom done lost its fucking mind chasing that white man's money.

    60% of people over here agree with me to, and that's why you motherfuckers have resulted to this type of shit.

    I was undecided on this shit, but know listening to a parade of white folk come around and talk about how much they care about poor people and black folks is ridiculus. We ain't never seen none of you motherfuckers before.=, and we know we aint never gone to see you again if yall put down the streetcar. all yall lies about better buses will be gone like a fart in church.

    Vote YES.

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  6. I attended the forum and I didn't remember hearing anyone say they couldn't afford their monthly expenses. I do remember hearing the presenter tell us we are all living in poverty on the east side. Statements like 100 percent of the people living in zip codes are living in poverty is so untrue since Dr Walker doesn't know 100 percent of the people's financial status. That crap Freedom sent out was disgusting saying the tax was Jim Crow.

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  7. I believe the short fall will come from the general fund thus essentially taxing every resident in the city.

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  8. @... Hmm according to a Jackson Count Tax record search there is only one Eric Wesson and he owns only one house.

    Certainly he couldn't be lying could he?

    LOL

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  9. Eric is a slave. He is a whore to those who pay him. He is scum.

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  10. @7:07 Maybe the properties are listed under a company name. A person can purchase properties under a non for profit for tax purposes to qualify for the properties that Wells Fargo gave away to eliminate blight in the urban core. The properties had to be donated to a company not an individual. Those who received the properties have about two years to renovate and bring up to code. Unless you know the company name that was used you wouldn't be able to determine who the owner of the property is through the search of Jackson County tax information.

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  11. If they pass this the white fuckers who ride it must be punished brutally and in public. Strip them and make them cry and beg!

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  12. Nice civil, and intelligent response he offered back there. Of course knee jerk reaction and defensiveness is about all the toy train crew has offered this year no surprise there.

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  13. brutality is the answer. punish the crackers

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  14. The last motherfucker anybody needs telling them about slavery is a white man who live in a mansion in Sunset Hill.

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  15. Consultant Eric Wesson (One Goal Consultants) lists Mayor-elect, Sly James, as one of his clients along with the Kansas City School District and the city of Kansas City itself. His market focus is promoting goods and services to the black consumer.

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  16. Any merits the streetcar issues might have had have been lost in lies, threats, payoffs, promises, and who knows what else long long ago.
    It's like watching a Godfather movie and trying to decide which Mafia family you're going to root for.
    The vast majority of metro residents who DON'T live in KCMO are more grateful than ever for their wise choices.
    What a pitiful carnival!

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  17. When all else fails blame whitey.

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  18. 7:11 and others can't discuss an issue without throwing out MF'S and durrogatory comments. That is exactly what's going to happen with ridership. All taxpayers will lose. Even the good people on the Eastside.

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  19. Owns 16 properties huh? Doesn't look like it.

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  20. March 03, 2005 The Pitch

    Since last summer, Cleaver has paid Wesson $2,500 for work, including writing scripts for Cleaver's phone canvassers in the run up to last year's election. Wesson continued to write about Cleaver for the Call, often in glowing terms, without revealing to readers that he was on the candidate's payroll.

    It doesn't take a journalism degree to see that Wesson's actions weren't kosher.

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    Replies
    1. The last thing the anti transit league wants to do is talk about conflict of interest:

      Sue burke regularly used grand street as a loading dock, blocking traffic for hours at her first warehouse, that's why she against the streetcar.

      Sherry Dejanes owns property partially built on the ATA right of way in brookside.

      Patrick Touhey and Patrick Ishmael work for the failin pr wing of a right wing anti government group, who's founder is very close associates and major financial backer of St. Louis mayor Francis slay, who is seeking federal money for 2 St. Louis streetcar projects

      Dan Coffey and Jim nutter are ideologically opposed to transit for the oi polloi.

      Delete
    2. And of course, it goes without saying: Freedom Inc got bought off by nutter and sinquefeild $$

      Delete
  21. A STREETCAR NAMED DISTASTER.

    I can only hope that those so fervently in favor of it today are around to show their faces in two years when the thing in just another taxpayer-funded failure in this town.

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  22. Wasn't Wesson on KCPT saying the streetcar sucked, was an idiotic idea, and there was zero interest in it among East Side residents earlier this year? Let me see if I can find it.

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  23. The Power & Light was built for the benefit of black people, just like the streetcar is. Remember Wayne Cauthen was black, so Sly can be trusted.

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  24. I'm against the streetcar, I'm a white lady in Brookside, and I agree the Citizens For Responsible Government letter reprinted here is insulting and derogatory. Gad. I feel slimy and gross just reading it. What idiot wrote that?

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    Replies
    1. Only one person rights the citizens for responsible government stuff...

      Be careful who you lie down with, because the anti-transit folks are really showi their true "colors".

      I feel bad for you lady. You got fooled.

      Delete
  25. LMAO nice try 8:12

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  26. I got this email and was disappointed with the rhetoric. I'm not sure who we were trying to win over because it doesn't resonate with anyone besides Tea Party Conservatives

    As atrocious as the TDD is, it doesn't come close to the horrible act of slavery. Good for Eric Wesson for calling bullahit on this.

    I know Dan Coffey. I like him and agree with him on a lot of things. This was an unfortunate email.

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    Replies
    1. The tiger can't change his stripes...

      Delete
  27. Was it a fake? Knowing the streetcar crew there is no low to what they will do to railroad this farce down the peoples throats?

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  28. I don't see anything offensive in it. Fact is this streetcar will turn everyone into slaves-debt slaves and it doesn't matter what color your skin is. Debt doesn't discriminate.



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  29. Star could do something with this and in the process lift their skirt to reveal soiled underwear.

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  30. It sounds like to me that it is generally correct. I didn't see it equating taxes with slavery but expressing the fact that any sales tax increase is going to have a disproportionate impact on those with less income, a fact that Mr. Wesson, landlord, cannot deny!

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  31. Scalp the white ones in front of their families if they ride that lightrail. FIGHT

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  32. Yet, he published absolutely no facts on the East Patrol project. He asked BlightMeKC why the rest of the council wasn't being recalled pertaining to that project. All of the data published by the team handling that project point to the Third District Council members, the Mayor and City's Capital Project's Department. Jermaine should have been recalled; as should Melba Curls.

    While I agree that the reference to slavery goes overboard pertaining to the Streetcar (besides the fact the argument is flatly wrong), The Call paper rarely publishes anything that isn't biased (or politically slanted; one-sided).

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  33. OK, now just wait a COTTON PICKING MINUTE here!

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  34. I'll gladly suck some slave cock for a ride on the choo choo!

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  35. “Lastly Cordish like all jews they look at money not black or white.”

    Did Mr. Wesson hope everyone had long forgotten this e-mail of his?

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  36. Django Uncircumcised8/3/14, 9:18 PM

    Come and get it Moe.

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  37. Dumb comment. the thing missing that would help the eastside is jobs. No jobs, no money. I not from here but I have listened to the BS from downtown for more than thirty years about there going to do this or do that for the eastside. The got programs and this and that but, no jobs. They keep talking about it but do nothing that includes Cleaver Barnes, Collins, Cauthen, James and the rest.

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  38. this whole thing stinks to high heaven, better to put the brakes on and reevaluate!

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  39. Probably got a juicy promise developers would pay him handsomely for his 7 properties while everyone will be forced out by eminent domain land grab trying to save their homes.

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  40. The city using Diebold voting machines for this election?

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  41. Check it:

    For the record I was invited to the meeting by the protesters and without their knowledge brooks invited battle. It was good information shared and what would be the most effective way to handle the situation. I don't think picketing is because Cordish doesn't care they would welcome the free advertisement. Second what is the platform because some of the clubs do play hip hop and the crowd was majority white so a racism claim would be shaky. They did lie but is that enough to spark this much interest. Lastly Cordish like all jews they look at money not black or white.

    Sent via BlackBerry from T-Mobile

    Now I know who sent this e-mail and it contains more than a dozen addresses of prominent African-American leaders so there's no question that A LOT of people know I'm not just making this up.

    It kind of pisses me off because I was under the assumption that fighting discrimination and divisive sentiment with hate was totally unproductive . . . Or at least that's what I keep hearing when I talk to people and they condemn this dumbass blog for joking the news and bikini photos which are cheeky and awesome and not hate-filled at all.

    Anyhoo . . . So many discussions involving diversity take this tone and it's ultimately what keeps any progress from happening . . . Maybe.

    I'm gonna make a few calls on this and report back . . .

    Developing.
    POSTED BY TONY AT 6/11/2009

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  42. We're already debt slaves to the water and sewer department, the TIF's and tax abatement's even without this toy train fiasco.

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  43. Where is your bandwagon speech about the senseless killing in the black community, the failed educational system the lack of basic services the lack of banks therefore people are forced to go to payday loans stores and pay to cash their checks? The lack of viable grocery stores and decades of neglect by the state federal and local governments.

    He really should be asking these questions to S'Lie.

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  44. LOL really don't think this one justify's the A-Bomb pic.

    A pic of someone dozing off would have been adequate.

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  45. Please vote no Tuesday.

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  46. Regardless of the BS, IF THE streetcar TTD Passes KC(Black and white) will be paying through the nose for the next twenty five years or longer. NO on this A question. Sales Taxes going over 10% bad.

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  47. VOTE NO on the toy train scam. The entire city shouldn't have to fund the toy train that will only appeal to a small contingency of urbanite wannabes.

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  48. Mr. Wesson was born 1976. There were no blacks born slaves alive in 1976 or 1970 etc.

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  49. Mr. Wesson was more in the 50's or 60's. He's old and bald; and has been that way for years, nearly decades.

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  50. "My grandparents and great grandparents were slaves"

    Could we have some sanity here? There were no slaves after 1865. Does Mr. Wesson expect us to believe his grandparents were born before 1865? Come on! I'm in my 60s, and my grandparents were born in the 1890s and my great-grandparents were born in the late 1860s. Is Mr. Wesson stretching the truth just a tad here? And if this is a fib, how seriously can we take his other fake outrage?

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  51. 7:11 is Mensa boy in his black male persona. He's getting more convincing, but only partially writing in the black vernacular just doesn't cut it. Sorry, Mensa boy.

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  52. "Where is your bandwagon speech about the senseless killing in the black community, the failed educational system the lack of basic services the lack of banks therefore people are forced to go to payday loans stores and pay to cash their checks? The lack of viable grocery stores and decades of neglect by the state federal and local governments. Where is your soapbox on the lack of job training avenues for men and youth? Black male unemployment hovers around 16 percent in Kansas City and among black male construction it's even higher. Where do you buy your groceries? Certainly not at Wild Woody's or Leon's."

    And where are Mr. Wesson's solutions? This whole post reminds me of Sarah Palin's fake outrage over the President's "putting lipstick on a pig" statement.

    Phony. Phony. Phony.

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  53. "The last thing the anti transit league wants to do is talk about conflict of interest"

    Are any of them termed out northland council members and desperate enough for a job they'll push through a boondoggle outside their district just to secure future employment?

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  54. "Decades of neglect from governments?" FUCK - all government has done is to try to prop up the nigras. If they're too fucking stupid and worthless to do something with it that's their problem.

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  55. What a pile of talking dung.

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  56. I dont understand this... everything being said, the school system, economics, people, murder and crime when you look behind the curtain, its the majority of black folks behind it all, steering the ship into the reefs and some how or another you find a way to blame everyone but your self for this. You have Cleaver who has brought millions upon millions of dollars into Kansas City ... where did it go??? certain blacks get richer and the community continues to suffer, what about your black mayor? what about all of the black programs in KC? what about Black Clyde McQueen and Shelley who push for jobs at fast food rest. rather than cultivate actual jobs that people can make a living at, they have tiff, wia all kinds of training dollars but they send you to school for CNA to learn to wipe someones ass for 9.50 an hour and that whole $6000 of training .. went into a middle mans pocket and a handful of nurses who teach the class, placing people as chefs at a company that umbrellas McDonalds, Churches and Hardees but because they cant spend money on fast food they label it "McNamara LLC" and dont put in there that its really a burger king .. KCMO is corrupt and its corrupted by the black community .. did I mention that Clyde came from Texas? at Cleavers request? so fuck you and the blame game ..

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  57. Definition of Crazy8/4/14, 10:18 AM

    9:11 AM
    FTW

    There's been no neglect of the Third or Fifth District. There's been plenty of money and folks like Wesson have been at the trough feeding and pushing their way to see who the most "important" Negro is. Instead, the money made available never actually reaches the people it was actually intended for. Then, folks like Cleaver get to infuse their campaign literature about how much money they've brought to the table but when you do a drive-by through those areas, there's no evidence of any money. Keep electing folks like Cleaver, listening to folks like Wesson (who attend's Cleaver's church) and well, they at least will keep you chasing your tail.

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  58. Eric got paid to support the street car. As an ex-felon, he drives a Range Rover, dresses like Baptist Preacher, and owns 16 properties all from the wage of a writer of a local weekly. Now that's a success story!!!!

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  59. Eric got paid to support the street car. As an ex-felon, he drives a Range Rover, dresses like Baptist Preacher, and owns 16 properties all from the wage of a writer of a local weekly. Now that's a success story!!!!

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  60. I would vote for a light rail to the airport and the plaza but there's no way I'm voting or light rail in Linwood and Independence avenue. And I'm never paying for a bus on prospect. Let those people pay for it themselves.
    The city has already paid to much attention aka money to those peoples neighborhoods.

    They need to build light rails and also more roads up north, where the people are.

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  61. "My grandparents and great grandparents were slaves, in my conversations with them I can't equate anything that's been discussed with what they went through and are still physically go through today as a result of being shot in the back."

    Is he discussing this with them via Ouija board?

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  62. "My grandparents and great grandparents were slaves, in my conversations with them I can't equate anything that's been discussed with what they went through and are still physically go through today as a result of being shot in the back."

    One of his grandparents is more than 150 years old and still in pain from being shot in the back?

    Alert the media! Oh, wait. He IS the media.

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  63. There certainly were slaves after 1865!I know many of you believe that after Lincoln so called freed the slaves you figured they stuck around and volunteered to pick cotton? You think they were allowed to just walk off of the plantations? Do you think they were offered a salary to stay? White folks got a lot to learn. My grandparents are in their 90s and they were slaves. So it is very possible that Wesson could have talked to his grandparents growing up.

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  64. One more thing its not a really big deal to be able to afford a 2005, or 2006 Range Rover (Knowing Range Rovers I think that Wesson's is one of those years). You can pick them up anywhere in town for under 20 grand. They have them on 76 and Wornall for about 16 grand.

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  65. The Re-Enslavement of Black Americans from the Civil War to World War II, by Douglas Blackmon, received a 2009 Pulitzer Prize, the 2009 American Book Award, the 2009 Mississippi Institute of Arts and Letters Non-fiction Book Prize, and the 2008 Gustavus Myers Center for the Study of Bigotry and Human Rights Book Award. It was on the New York Times Bestseller List. Douglas Blackmon, -winning book by Blackmon. Slavery by Another Name challenges one of our country’s most cherished assumptions: the belief that slavery ended with Abraham Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation of 1863. The documentary recounts how in the years following the Civil War, insidious new forms of forced labor emerged in the American South, keeping hundreds of thousands of African Americans in bondage, trapping them in a brutal system that would persist until the onset of World War II.

    Based on Blackmon’s research, Slavery by Another Name spans eight decades, from 1865 to 1945, revealing the interlocking forces in both the South and the North that enabled this “neoslavery” to begin and persist. Using archival photographs and dramatic re-enactments filmed on location in Alabama and Georgia, it tells the forgotten stories of both victims and perpetrators of neoslavery and includes interviews with their descendants living today

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  66. Or maybe they just worked minimum wage jobs at McDonalds and called it slavery.

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  67. Nathan Beford Forrest IV8/4/14, 7:12 PM

    One thing you got to say for slavery. It solved the problem of black crime and unemployment.

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  68. 2:26 i remember world war 2 quite vividly and the two decades leading up to it. you are quite mistaken.

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  69. You're quite right, 8:04, but why should Mr. Wesson let facts stand in the way of a good soundbite?

    Note he's not deigned to explain how his grandparents managed to be slaves. He's left that to emancipation deniers to it for him.

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