Asheville

Well…indentured servants earned freedom after 3 to 7 years, and Europeans bought by fellow Europeans as slaves were often able to buy their own freedom by doing extra work. My Alsatian “French” ancestor came to NC as a slave and died there as a rich, old business owner. Some African slaves also enjoyed the privilege of earning freedom and even wealth, but laws were set up to make it much more unlikely for them.
I recommend everyone read Robert Turner’s Creating a Culture of Repair. I don’t agree with him that anyone deserves reparations for belonging to any ethnic group. I think reparations should be collected during the lifetime of the person to whom they are due. Turner makes a good case for individual, realistic reparations being due to some Black Americans still alive today. That is worth reading, as are his suggestions for things White Americans can do to show good will.
But are these shows of preference seriously being proposed as laws, or only as recommendations? In practice, would a city bus driver have time to verify a pregnant woman’s ethnic identity, or any woman’s pregnancy? Would pregnant women who qualified for free rides be issued special passes? Or would the driver simply tell anyone who looks ready to pop “You don’t have to pay,” just as routinely as any gentleman (or able-bodied lady) would stand up and offer her a seat?