In the comments for the Attacking Obama... From the Left thread below, commenter 'natashacrk' brought up Sirius Left talk show host Mark Thompson, which reminded me of an interview he hosted with Douglas Blackmon back in April. I meant to post something about this at the time...
Blackmon is the author of the book, SLAVERY BY ANOTHER NAME, and it's truly an extraordinary work chiefly because it exposes something which not too many of us -- least of all me -- have ever heard about. Mainly, the continuation of Southern slavery... through the first half of the 20th Century... also known as "neoslavery."
As Blackmon documents through various individual accounts, Jim Crow laws and the like had basically made it illegal to be an African American in the South. As such, black Americans were either arrested on ridiculous charges like "vagrancy" or were outright abducted and sold into slavery until President Roosevelt's Justice Department shut down the practice at the outset of World War II.
I heard the interview with Blackmon at around the same time as the Reverend Wright fracas and couldn't help but to think that -- in this historical context -- "goddamn America" is rather appropriate.
More here.