To the Editor:
The Nov. 6 article "Study: Slavery's effects lasted just 2 generations" explaining Professor Sacerdote's study on the ramifications of that institution could have been called, "Study: Racism caused free blacks to be as oppressed as former slaves in just 2 generations." Sacerdote, by attempting historical analysis, mocks his own profession. He reasons that because after two generations descendents of free blacks and descendents of slaves were at equal economic levels the effects of slavery have disappeared. Historians of postbellum American society would surely agree with Sacerdote's numbers. In fact, anecdotal evidence makes his study useless. Unlike a trained historian though, Sacerdote misinterprets both causes and effects. Free blacks suffered during slavery as racism kept most illiterate, under-employed and often starving.
After the war the situation only worsened as original free blacks faced increased competition for menial jobs from recently freed slaves. Furthermore the main thrust of white racism during the "Redeemer Era" aimed to destroy the hopes of upwardly mobile blacks and to make clear that in the aftermath of Reconstruction there was no room for blacks at the table. Slavery's cultural and economic ramifications clearly reverberate today, in every American community. All Sacerdote's study shows is that emancipation transferred the horrible effects of slavery to the descendents of free blacks as well, with the whole African-American community only regaining a political voice in the Civil Rights movement. Sacerdote's unconscionable conclusion shows either blatant racism or, I would hope, complete ignorance. Thanks to his brilliant science every Klansmen listening to right-wing radio will be once again "redeemed" knowing that impoverished African-Americans have only themselves to blame.
