--Several million black slaves captured by blacks, sold to whites, and used by whites for the rest of their lives. They were "broke mentally, physically, spiritually." All in the course of several hundred years.
Compared to:
--One million black Africans murdered by their own people in Rwanda in the course of one year.
--Countless Jews tortured, enslaved, dispersed, murdered in the course of 4000 years by Persians, Babylonians, Egyptians, Romans, Nazis, etc.
--Tens of millions of Native Americans slaughtered by Spaniards, French, English and Americas, (and each other too). Resulting in the virtual destruction of their numbers, culture, language, way of life, etc.
--Many tens of millions of innocent civilians dead in the short wake of WWII, Stalin's reign, the Chinese Civil War.
Geez, compared to all these others, the Americans looked like little saints. Not literally, but if you're gonna say the European slave trade was the worst atrocity in human history, you'd better get out of that cave on Mars.
Originally posted by FistOfThe North
Whites aren't either. The thing is, is that they pretend they aren't.
That said, as a whole, neither whites nor blacks can claim they're guiltfree. Then again, american indians and asians can't say that they never practiced slavery either. Slavery was simply a part of the world. And most whites had nothing to do with it.
Originally posted by KinnearyExactly.
Whites aren't responsible. Not a single white in America is responsible for slavery. Some of white people's families had a hand in it, but even then, most [b]didn't. Hell, mine wasn't even here. Does that make me responsible for slavery?That said, as a whole, neither whites nor blacks can claim they're guiltfree. Then again, american indians and asians can't say that they never practiced slavery either. Slavery was simply a part of the world. And most whites had nothing to do with it. [/B]
And none who are alive today from either the side of the enslaved or the slavers are alive today. People should learn from the past, condemn it as wrong by today's standards only, and let it go.
Originally posted by FistOfThe North
... African Americans were stripped from there land, forced to enter a cold, foreign one, and work for free for half a thousand years in the u.s...
Although not trying to downplay the atrocities of African American Slavery, I feel that you are uninformed in your pursuit of message board justice. Giving you the time periods of 1619-1865, that is 246 years, less then half what you originally claim. Taking it a step further, The United States didn't become a nation until 1776, so this then takes slavery being generally accepted to 89 years. Which in the grand scheme of things is incomparable to the length of time that slavery was and still is legal throughout the world.
The point I'm trying to make here is are you jaded due to your ancestry or do you really care about the plight of the slaves? If you are trying to prove a point or even gain a following I suggest you come prepared with facts other then randomly throwing out inflated numbers just to get a crowd reaction.
Originally posted by Bandito
Although not trying to downplay the atrocities of African American Slavery, I feel that you are uninformed in your pursuit of message board justice. Giving you the time periods of 1619-1865, that is 246 years, less then half what you originally claim. Taking it a step further, The United States didn't become a nation until 1776, so this then takes slavery being generally accepted to 89 years. Which in the grand scheme of things is incomparable to the length of time that slavery was and still is legal throughout the world.The point I'm trying to make here is are you jaded due to your ancestry or do you really care about the plight of the slaves? If you are trying to prove a point or even gain a following I suggest you come prepared with facts other then randomly throwing out inflated numbers just to get a crowd reaction.
First off, i do really care. What i don't care about are crowd reactions or gathering a following. I could be alone on this matter for all i care and i'd still keep going. Slavery is affective to me. I'm very passionate about it. Or more like pissed the fcuk off about it.
2ndly, when i said the u.s. i meant u.s. soil. And while you're saying i'm inflating numbers, you're actually deflating them. Do you honestly think African-American slavery in the u.s. ended in 1865? If you do then i feel you're the one who is uninformed, sir. The Emancipation Proclamation wasn't effective for a while after it was officiated. And thirdly the African-American slave trade started years before 1619. Stop trying to downplay things. Typical.
Originally posted by FistOfThe North
First off, i do really care. What i don't care about are crowd reactions or gathering a following. I could be alone on this matter for all i care and i'd still keep going. Slavery is affective to me. I'm very passionate about it. Or more like pissed the fcuk off about it.2ndly, when i said the u.s. i meant u.s. soil. And while you're saying i'm inflating numbers, you're actually deflating them. Do you honestly think African-American slavery in the u.s. ended in 1865? If you do then i feel you're the one who is uninformed, sir. The Emancipation Proclamation wasn't effective for a while after it was officiated. And thirdly the African-American slave trade started years before 1619. Stop trying to downplay things. Typical.
That's my point. Be mad about slavery, get pissed about it, but ALL slavery is wrong. More importantly you need to at least seem intelligent enough to argue. You started this entire thread talking about the founders of this country, not the settlers of the land, furthermore once the emancipation proclamation was enacted then yes, slavery was abolished, any slavery that occurred after, was illegal.
EDIT
Let me quantify that I am not calling you unitelligent, but the way you are arguing is combative, not based in reality, and offensive to anyone who has any sense of history. If in fact you do want to just lay it on thick, and troll the board then by all means don't let me step in the way.
I also don't understand this whole terminology of ''whites are responsible''. I don't share guilt, being white, of what Anglo-Saxons did to Africans, in the time my people were enslaved for 500 years.
I am, of course not an Anglo-Saxon anyway, nor do I share any history with West Europe at any point, but I am none the less white.
The matter of the fact is - African slavery was bad. It was extreamly bad just like every other slavery on earth, and it was no worse than other attrocities of slavery around the world. And there were many, and there continue to be many today.
Being in America, you have the right to voice your opinion and spit on the country and its founders for what they did to you. And thats great.
However, if you went through what you went through in any other country arond the world, would you hell be allowed to even mention financial reparations from the heads of those countries.
The recent outburst for demand of financial compensation is your privilage, not because your savery was worst than others, but beacuse you're in America.
Originally posted by lil bitchiness
.The recent outburst for demand of financial compensation is your privilage, not because your savery was worst than others, but beacuse you're in America.
Yet no compensation, not even an apology by the federal gov't, whom played the biggest hand in African-American slavery, has been handed out. Our compensation is the racism dished out by most Whites in this country, daily.
I'm mean, the Japs received compensation from the federal gov't over the whole thing with the u.s. nuking the shite out of 'em in wwii. While, during the time, Black-"American citizens" were literally spat on, punched in the face, discriminated hard against, humiliated, & hanged by Whites everyday, all over the u.s., over having a different skin hue.
And the same BS still goes on today in this stupid country with this ****in' majority, with their sh*t American values everyone has to fcukin' conform to. It's just now their racism is a little more indirect or not as blatant towards Blacks now. But it's still there; with it not ever, ever going away.