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We\\u2019ve talked about gold miners, we\\u2019ve talked about ancient sailors, we\\u2019ve talked about cowboys, soldiers, and poets. Today we\\u2019re going to get into something a little heavier, and we don\\u2019t mean Iron Hearts.

Since practically its inception, denim has had a role in institutional racism in the United States. As we mentioned a few episodes ago, one of Levi\\u2019s earliest selling points was that it was \\u201cthe only brand made by white labor.\\u201d Well today we\\u2019re going to be talking about the other kind of labor, non-white and often non-paid, which is a very euphemistic way to say slavery, human bondage, and other forms of exploitation.

Listen on to hear about denim was forced on enslaved peoples in the American South as well as how Black Civil Rights leaders of the 1950s but ultimately accepted as a unifying source of identity in the early 1960s. Special thanks to Miko Underwood for lending the voice of her lived experience working in denim to this episode, you can check out her brand Oak & Acorn - Only for the Rebelles launching later this month.

Citations:

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• DeSante, Christopher D. "Working Twice as Hard to Get Half as Far: Race, Work Ethic, and America\'s Deserving Poor." American Journal of Political Science 57, no. 2 (2013): 342-56. Accessed February 5, 2021. http://www.jstor.org/stable/23496601.
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• Ford, Tanisha C. "SNCC Women, Denim, and the Politics of Dress." The Journal of Southern History 79, no. 3 (2013): 625-58. Accessed February 5, 2021. http://www.jstor.org/stable/23795090.
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• Lopez, German. \\u201cHow the Voting Rights Act Transformed Black Voting Rights in the South, in One Chart.\\u201d Vox. Vox, March 6, 2015. https://www.vox.com/2015/3/6/8163229/voting-rights-act-1965.
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• Mads Jakobsen. \\u201cAn Introduction to the Indigo Dye Styles of Western Africa.\\u201d Heddels, 9 May 2018, www.heddels.com/2016/09/an-introduction-to-the-indigo-dye-styles-of-western-africa/.
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• \\u201cCivil Rights Martyrs.\\u201d Southern Poverty Law Center. Accessed February 5, 2021. https://www.splcenter.org/what-we-do/civil-rights-memorial/civil-rights-martyrs.
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