Mitt Romney: A Modern-Day Slave Owner

When I was a child, one of the first things I learned about American history is that we used to allow some people own other people. It was called "slavery," and it was abolished in the 19th century -- first by President Lincoln via the Emancipation Proclamation, and then more comprehensively through the 13th Amendment to our Constitution. From that time forth, any ownership of one person by another was illegal.

Except there is a loophole. What? A "loophole" in the ban against slavery, you ask? Yes, one large enough to drive a cotton gin through! It is enshrined in our Constitution, in the very Amendment that supposedly outlawed slavery. Here is the text of the 13th Amendment:

Section 1. Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist within the United States, or any place subject to their jurisdiction.

Section 2. Congress shall have power to enforce this article by appropriate legislation.

Did you catch the exception to the no-slavery rule? Slavery "shall exist" as a punishment for crime, as long as the person in question has been "duly convicted."

What does this have to do with Presidential Candidate Mitt Romney? Well, we have a curious relationship between prisons and private corporations in America. Increasingly, states are turning their prisons over to private companies, who not only profit from the contracts themselves, but also profit from the forced labor of the prisoners they house (never mind the exorbitant rates they charge for a phone call to a loved one). So it's a good investment. And who do you think might have invested in such a grand scheme? That's right -- Presidential Candidate Mitt Romney.

"On August 26, 1998, BCPF [a Romney-owned company] acquired 5.21 percent of [Corrections Corporation of America] Realty Investors... By December 31, 1998, BCPF owned 7.13 percent of CCA Realty Investors" (http://crooksandliars.com/karoli/mitt-romneys-undisclosed-relationship-priva)

Once you peel back the layers of legal documents and shell companies, you have an entirely legal framework (the 13th Amendment) in which a person (Mitt Romney) can own other people (mostly dark-skinned), and profit from that ownership for the duration of their criminal sentence. Throw in the fact that our criminal code and the enforcement of our laws are skewed heavily against African-Americans and other minorities ("Black males have a 32% chance of serving time in prison at some point in their lives; Hispanic males have a 17% chance; white males have a 6% chance" ~Bureau of Justice Statistics, 2008), and you have a perfectly legal back door to modern day slavery.

To be fair, Candidate Romney did not own shares in CCA Realty Investors for very long. Filings show that all shares in CCA were sold sometime between January 8 and June 30, 1999 -- so less than a year in total. He wasn't looking to own people, he just didn't mind doing so for a time in pursuit of a quick buck.

Aside from the questions this raises about our legal code and how it is used to enslave and disenfranchise minorities and the poor, this adds a whole new wrinkle to the Presidential race, because according to Ancestry.com President Obama is most likely a descendent of an African-American slave -- not through his father, who was a Kenyan citizen, but through his (mostly) White mother.

In 2012, 147 years after slavery was officially "banned" in the United States, we have a Presidential election between a White former slave-owner, and dark-skinned, bi-racial, direct descendent of African-American slaves. Will wonders never cease?