Elon Musk tried to play history teacher on his platform X last week, but his bogus narrative on slavery backfired in spectacular fashion.
In a post dripping with misplaced confidence, the billionaire mogul claimed Monday that slavery “was standard practice throughout Earth until it was almost entirely ended principally by Anglo-American forces in the 19th and 20th centuries.” He added: “I’m not suggesting Britain was purely angelic, but, nonetheless, this is true.”
But it isn’t true, and Musk’s critics were quick to let him know, accusing him of cherry-picking facts and dressing them up in colonial nostalgia. A parade of voices called Musk’s post laughable and overly simplistic. One person even likened Musk’s statement to “burning down a house and asking for a medal because you brought a bucket of water.”
A majority of commenters called Musk out in real time for attempting to elevate Britain and America as the heroes of a story they spent centuries writing in chains and bloodshed. Both countries independently established the most brutal slavery systems the world has ever seen.
The subject itself remains a painful chapter for most Black Americans, especially when right-wing figures like Musk try to whitewash it by recasting white enslavers as the heroes of abolition. Some of the loudest voices on the thread accused Musk of deflecting blame from the systems of oppression that singularly enriched Anglo-Saxons. But Musk would have you believe they were morally enlightened figures who ended a global scourge—while downplaying centuries of resistance led by enslaved people.
The acknowledgment that “Britain was not purely angelic” served only as a preemptive defense, but Musk easily glossed over the brutality and profits of empire. His mention that slavery still exists in parts of the world today shifted the focus away from the savage legacy of slavery—like systemic racism and economic disparities, and subtly suggested that the moral burden now lies elsewhere. Ultimately, critics concluded it was a political statement—red meat from Musk—masquerading as historical clarification.
Slavery wasn’t invented by Europeans. It existed in every corner of the globe—in Africa, Asia, the Middle East, and the Americas—long before the rise of the Atlantic slave trade. Ancient civilizations like the Sumerians, Egyptians, Greeks and Romans, all relied on slavery. Islamic empires also practiced and regulated slavery for centuries, often in the context of religious conquest and trade.
But beginning in the 15th century, European colonial powers industrialized slavery, transforming it into a global system of racialized exploitation for profit. The transatlantic slave trade, launched by the Portuguese and later dominated by the British, French, Spanish, and Dutch, forcibly removed millions of Africans to the Americas, separating entire families forever. The American empire rose on the backs of human bondage—one that fed sugar plantations in the Caribbean, tobacco farms in Virginia, and cotton fields in the Deep South.
By the time Britain passed the Slavery Abolition Act in 1833, it had already built massive, generational wealth from the trade. And rather than compensating formerly enslaved people, the British government paid the slaveowners instead.
In the United States, abolition came only after a long and bloody civil war. Before that were centuries of resistance against slavery, and the tireless struggle of abolitionists and formerly enslaved people to live free. Even after slavery ended, it was replaced by a patchwork of systemic racial oppression, such as segregation and Jim Crow laws, mostly designed to keep Black people in place while promoting white power.
One user responding to Musk’s post summarized the flaws in his logic as a “tu quoque fallacy”—a rhetorical trick that attempts to downplay Western guilt by pointing out that other societies also practiced slavery. Another criticized his selective crediting of Anglo-Americans, noting the omission of revolts, Haitian independence, and anti-slavery movements in Latin America, Africa, and beyond.
Another commenter tried to praise Britain’s abolition effort, noting that the government spent £20 million to “buy freedom” for the enslaved. But others were quick to point out that this was less a noble sacrifice and more a financial bailout for slaveowners, not the people they had held in bondage.
“Weird how the woke mob never seems to want to mention this,” the man added, trying to throw Musk a lifeline from the far-right playbook.
Still, Musk was out of his depth—pushing a selective version of history shaped to fit his own biased viewpoint. In trying to sound authoritative, he exposed his blind spots and wound up getting schooled by those who actually know the history.
By casting Anglo-Americans as the primary liberators, critics said, he erased the resistance and resilience of enslaved people and overlooked the global, collective effort it took to dismantle slavery. Abolition was the result of centuries of struggle, rebellion, and moral reckoning—driven largely by the resistance of the enslaved themselves—not the outcome of a moral crusade led by a handful of enlightened white men, which is the oversimplified narrative Musk was selling.
And while legal slavery has mostly ended, its legacy—and its modern-day offshoots—remain.
Today, an estimated 50 million people worldwide are trapped in modern forms of slavery, including forced labor, sexual exploitation, debt bondage, and forced marriage—many in regions shaped by the same colonial powers Musk casually praised.
According to Anti-Slavery International, modern slavery is often hidden in plain sight, affecting people who make our clothes, serve our food, clean our homes, or pick our crops. Victims are frequently coerced through violence, threats, crushing debt, or the seizure of vital documents.
Children make up roughly a quarter of all victims. Of the 27.6 million people in forced labor, 17.3 million are exploited in private industries, 6.3 million in commercial sex work, and nearly 4 million under state-imposed conditions. Another 22 million are trapped in forced marriages—many of them as children. Migrant workers are particularly vulnerable, and the COVID-19 pandemic only deepened the conditions that allow modern slavery to thrive.
Modern slavery takes many forms, from human trafficking and child slavery — such as on cacao plantations in Ivory Coast and Ghana — to domestic servitude and descent-based slavery, where people are born into bondage. Though the systems look different today, the exploitation remains deeply embedded in global economies—making it clear that the fight against slavery is far from over.
Great Job A.L. Lee & the Team @ Atlanta Black Star Source link for sharing this story.
