I get what he's saying. Abolitionists were the front line of freedom for enslaved blacks, risking life and limb to save lives and fight the cause of freedom. The commodification (past and present) of the black body by America is not understood by most Americans. On one hand, it would be amazing for Harriet Tubman to be in everyone's pocket. On the other, her presence on the very thing that served to make her body a source of income for the American economy is the conundrum that seems to have engendered this article. It's uncomfortable. Insulting and totally contrary in his mind.
As the recent event in the US have brought race relations into the nation's living room, hopefully more people are beginning to understand that biases are historical and systemic, not just purely personal feelings.
Every kid in America is supposed to have learned about Harriet Tubman and the Underground Railroad, but the history of slavery in our country is not taught well enough in every school and in in every state for that to be a given. In the amazingly expensive prep school I taught in for four years, the children were given this lesson in middle school (year 6 or thereabouts) by their teacher who thought the South should have won the Civil War (he flew the flag in his classroom) and were given a scavenger hunt game to play in which they moved a person from hideout to hideout; hardly a way to take on the topic with any serious thought. That.
It would be something for those who don't know who she is to see her in their wallet, wonder, and maybe even ask a question.
Signed,
An American living in London for seven years now.