About

Fox's "Slavery Banned" Graphic refers to a post tweeted by Memphis, Tennessee's Fox 13 branch announcing a motion to ban "slavery" passed in the 2022 United States midterm elections. The post and graphic used in the announcement led to some jokes from people who felt it meant that the enslavement of Black people was still legal in Tennessee until the 2022 midterms, though that was inaccurate. The graphic also inspired parodies on social media in which users referenced the text in other humorous images.

Origin

Early in the morning of November 9th, 2022, Fox 13 Memphis^[1] tweeted a graphic announcing "SLAVERY BANNED" in the state of Tennessee (shown below). The tweet gained over 7,000 retweets, 15,000 quote-tweets and 45,000 likes in less than 12 hours.

The tweet, though technically accurate, proved misleading for many viewers who mistook its meaning as slavery in general. Slavery in America was abolished in 1865 with the passing of the 13th amendment.^[2] However, Tennessee's state constitution was one of 47 that had a loophole allowing for "slavery and indentured servitude … as punishment for a person who has been duly convicted of crime." In essence, the closing of the "slavery" loophole meant the abolishment of unpaid prison labor.^[4] Notably, California has resisted calls to close the same loophole in its constitution, arguing that paying prisoners a $15 minimum wage would cost taxpayers $1.5 billion a year.^[3]

Spread

As the Fox 13 Memphis tweet rapidly accumulated significant engagement throughout the day on November 9th, 2022, many people expressed their shock to discover that "slavery" was still "legal" in Tennessee until that election night. Many seemed under the impression that the slavery loophole was unique to Tennessee, and chided the state, believing the loophole was a holdover from its time in the Confederacy.

For example, on November 9th, Twitter user @brat2381^[5] seemed surprised Tennesee had only just decided "slavery was bad" in 2022 (shown below, left). Others chimed in to provide the proper context to FOX13Memphis' tweet. For example, user @OliverJia1014^[4] attempted to clarify that the proposal was specifically referring to unpaid prison labor, gaining over 50 retweets and 460 likes in less than one day (shown below, right).

Others joked about the graphic itself, as well as posting parodies of it. On November 9th, Twitter user @LukeIsAmazing^[6] posted a Dark Souls parody of the graphic, gaining over 180 retweets and 1,300 likes in less than one day (shown below, left). Around the same time, user @MikeBeauvais^[7] posted a Sam Darnold Graphic parody, gaining over 140 retweets and 960 likes in a similar timeframe (shown below, right).

Various Examples

Search Interest

Unavailable.

External References