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Short Story: Reparations (Patreon)

Published:
2019-06-17 17:47:59
Edited:
2020-09-19 15:30:16
Imported:
2026-06
Tags:

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Content

Whew! OK, so let me say up front, my intention is *not* to be political, and while the title is certainly a political buzzword in modern American politics, I don't think this story does anything to take a stand. Still, if you're easily agitated or triggered, feel free to sit this one out and I promise the next one will be disclaimer-free. :)

That said, this piece is about a young white girl whose rich dad, upon learning his ancestors had enslaved people, decided to make amends by giving up his eldest daughter to a family descended from slaves for a week, using a lamentably fictitious control chip to coerce her into going along with it. Some good old multi-ethnic shenanigans ensue.

Full disclosure: this story was inspired by my own sister's genealogical investigations, which recently turned up... well, you guessed it. I'd always figured my family had dodged that particular historical bullet, which on my dad's side is true. They immigrated from Germany in the late 1800's (post Civil War). I always used to joke that we'd done it exactly right, karmically speaking -- too late in America for slavery, quick enough out of Germany to be clear of Nazism. (Ha. It's funny because those things were horrible.) Then we found out that my mom's side... yeah. They've been here trifle longer.

None of that is to outline any particular moral framework or political perspective on the subject of the story's title. I know my own personal reaction to the news was to feel some amount of baseless guilt, much as when that same research turned up an ancestor who served in the American Revolution (Valley Forge and everything), I felt some amount of equally baseless pride. Ancestry is a weird thing, where we get that attachment to all those deeds we never did, and in many cases probably couldn't have done (for good or ill), and so jotting down this weird little story was just on my mind as I was processing this recent revelation of some very old stuff.

Anyway, I promise the next one will be... well, not normal, because fuck normal, but normal for me? :) More to come!

Comments

Aetheranduril

Holy shit that ending, damn. lol

WDB

I cannot believe you'd tell us all about your family's genealogy, but you haven't told us what character class you played (of if you DM'd) from your "week o' D&D". You coward!

Ferrum1

I've never understood why anyone would feel guilty because some ancestor owned slaves. Similarly, I don't understand why someone would feel "baseless" pride over an ancestor fighting in a battle. It just doesn't make sense. To the first point -- it was the norm. For all of human evolution, slavery was the norm. It was only with the introduction of America that the norm was changed. Every culture in the world practiced slavery of one kind or another, and many still do to this day. Being embarrassed or feeling guilty about that would be akin to me feeling guilty my dad ordered a pizza or went to a ballgame. To the second point, being proud that your ancestor stood up for something is a good thing. It took courage and conviction to fight in a battle no matter which side you were on. The underlying motivations for the war are outside of the average soldiers control, but that doesn't strip him of his own achievements. And, yes, that applies even to the "evil" forces we smacked down over the years. Kind of odd how we celebrate vikings - a group that routinely slaughtered innocent people, raped women and carried them back home, while also filling their pockets full of treasure from the monasteries they looted.... but feel guilty about someone owning a slave.