Tizon 'My Family’s Slave' Connection to Current Issues and to "Kindred" by Butler

Response Paper
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My Family’s Slave
The article is a first-person story written by Alex Tizon, a journalist, detailing his family’s ownership of a slave. Tizon starts by describing how they came to have a slave named Lola. Lola was a ‘gift’ to his mother by her father when she was eight and Lola was in her early twenties. They stayed with Lola in the Philippines before emigrating to the united states. Lola had moved to the united states in the hope that she would be paid for her domestic work to support her family, but the author’s family never honored their promise. The family rarely talked about the relationship they had with Lola and for they feared the backlash of owning a slave. She overstayed her expired visa and continued to work without being paid until the author’s mother passed on. She took care of her master’s children even when she was mistreated, she treated them well. For most of her life, she was treated like a slave, berated, denied medication even when she needed it, rather she was accused of faking it. She was punched by the author’s father, and she was accused even for mistakes she did not commit; she once took a beating for the author’s mom's mistake. However, the author also describes the life of Lola, who stood up for his mom when her husband berated her and who became her confidant when his mother faced challenges.
In many ways, the story is similar to that of the slaves in Kindred. The slaves were mistreated by their masters and beaten. The slaves in the Kindred were punished severely for attempting to escape, and though Lola was never punished for escaping, she was threatened that she should never attempt to escape. In the Kindred, slaves like Sarah were tasked with domestic chores just like Lola. Additionally, Lola was denied to be with his relatives, just like the slaves who were sold or separated from their family by their masters in the Kindred.
Confederate Statues and ‘Our’ History
The article is a response of the author to a President Trump tweet. The tweet is anchored in recognizing the statues as part of history rather than perceiving them as signs of oppression or racial injustice. The author cites that the statues belonged only to some strong anti-abolitionists and, therefore, not representative of the historical era. They only belong to the people who supported confederacy and racial injustices especially against the Blacks in the south. The author, therefore, faults president trump for celebrating symbols of racial injustice and dispels the idea that the statues are part of American history. Thus, Foner claims that the statues honor a dark period that has no place in modern America. The statues say a lot and gratify the time they were erected rather than the historical era they represent.
This article is similar to Kindred in subtle ways but also show how racism continues to disfranchise the black community in the united states. In the Kindred, the black community was treated as second class citizens, and the slaves had a very low social status in the society. Kindred depicts a society intolerant of racial equality just like the article which seems to be attacking white ...