Barry Unsworth's Sacred Hunger

The Oxford Dictionary defines power as “the capacity or ability to direct or influence the behavior of others or the course of events.” When a group of people collectively holds power over the other, the power gains legitimacy and gets reified into legitimate practices and traditions that could be replicated by other members of the group. During the eighteenth century in Europe and Africa, the race of a person often dictated fate of the person. In Sacred Hunger, Barry Unsworth illustrates the power disparity between the white slave traders and the African slaves by depicting the reality of slave trade in the 18th century slave trade.

The power disparity at that time was so immense and absolute that even extreme measures of violence by the white slave traders were considered as part of tradition. In Chapter 29, Captain Thurso treated the slaves as if they were animals. The cells that were provided to the slaves in the ship were barely big enough to house a single person. Living conditions were so poor for the slaves that they would rather have died than have survived the journey. Also, Thurso forced the slaves to perform an old tradition known as “dancing the slaves”. The chained slaves had to dance until the ship crew were satisfied. By the time the crew was satisfied, the slaves’ ankles were bleeding and

raw. There was no exceptions in this “dancing” tradition, whether the slaves were too weak, ill, or old. None of the slaves questioned or objected this tradition.
In Chapter 31, Thurso, Paris, and Barton had a conversation while having a drink.

Thurso described his experience when the slaves started to kill themselves because they thought that was the only way to go back home. He said he cleaved the heads of those who killed themselves in front of all the slaves. This instilled fear in those who were contemplating if they should jump off the ship and ultimately stopped the slaves killing themselves. Thurso wanted them to know that they would be “going home” without their heads. This illustrate again shows the power disparity between the two races and how deeply it was ingrained in the minds of the people at that

time.
Since the eighteenth centuries, the world has changed for better in this power disparity between races. Nowadays, people strive to eradicate any and all practices traditions of the power disparity. However, there are still some obvious practices of unfairness that are tied to one’s race. According to Walter Williams from Richmond Times, unemployment rate for black citizens is 9 percent higher than that of white citizens. Unemployment rate for blacks stands at 17 percent, while whites are at 8 percent. The United States’ average unemployment rate is 9 percent. Also, the blacks who are employed, are usually paid less than whites who are employed with the same job. Such employment practices may not be intentional for employers; yet, the studies provides firm evidence that the practices persist and the differentials are drawn at the race of the people. Differences in job status and wages are inevitably correlated with socioeconomic status of the person. The whites in modern days do not exert physical violence anymore, but some practices of unfairness still survive and influence negatively the lives of the people of color.
These unfair practices indirectly testify that the people of color are still discriminated and treated unfairly. They may be subtle and inconspicuous, but evident enough to be shown as statistics. Such discrimination may be stemming from the difference in power that White people have historically assumed over these groups, which could be traced back to the time of Sacred Hunger.