“When are black people going to stop blaming white people for slavery?” – Deb
If white people aren’t responsible for slavery, then who is? I’m not sure what some white people want. Is it some white people’s contention that white people are not responsible for slavery? Is it some white people’s contention that they have done enough to undo all the damage done to the black community during , the same damage that continues to manifest itself in the black community today, that they no longer deserve a finger pointed in their direction?
A lot of people make shortsighted statements like no white person alive ever owned a black person and no black person alive has ever been a slave. That little statement might be true. But nevertheless, the black community has never been properly compensated for the unequal treatment that it suffered through America’s institutionalized slavery or through the era of blatant racism that continued long after a law was passed to subject the black community to its substandard status.
Slavery ended years ago. But the conditions that were caused by institutionalized slavery, where the white community enriched itself by not compensating black people for their labor, where the white community could establish programs to educate its population while the education of the black population was neglected, where members of the white community were allowed to accumulate wealth and pass that wealth down from one generation to another, where the black community in general was not allowed to participate in the accumulation of wealth and had nothing to pass down through its generations, continue to exist today.
When will black people stop blaming white people for slavery? I’m sorry but white people are solely responsible for America’s era of institutionalized slavery. I know some people like to promote the idea that black people were capturing other black people and putting them on those slave ships. But it was white people who established that trade with black people and it was white people who sailed those ships across the middle passage. It was white people who enriched themselves in the trade of black people. It was white people who packed black people like sardines into the bowels of slave ships, where black people had to defecate on themselves and each other, making it easier for disease to spread and infect everyone within the hold. It was white people who would toss black people over the rail like a sack of dirt, into the waiting arms of the ocean, when one of the pieces of cargo got sick.
It was white people who created the market of supply and demand that led to America’s institutionalized slavery. It was white people paying for black people at auction. It was white people who kept black people in rickety shacks and on sustenance unfit for white people’s consumption. It was white people that kept black people from learning. It was white people who broke up black families.
It was white people who put laws in government books that made it legal to consider black people nothing more than white people’s property. It was white people who passed laws making it legal to consider black people only three fifths human. It was white people who stood idly by while other white people would whip an enslave black a person within an inch of his or her life. It was white people who were willing to look the other way as black women were raped at the white man’s whim. It was white people who invited other white people like Willy Lynch to develop processes to separate black people from their land, from their families, from their community, from each other, from their culture, from their spirituality, and from any hope that they would ever return home and any hope to be made whole again.
I know there are many who would prefer to absolve the racially generic dominant community that just so happens to be predominantly white of any and all responsibilities for the condition of the black community. But the simple fact is that the white community worked for generations to destroy black people, the black family unit, and the black community. And after America came to its senses and realized that this blatant form of racial discrimination was in fact cruel and intolerable, it was white people who spread the myth that just passing a law to make slavery and racial subjugation illegal was all it took to make restitution to the black community. White people who worked so hard to subject black people did nothing to restore black people. Slavery was white people’s fault and no one else’s. White people were the ones who benefited the most from slavery. Black people were the ones who suffered the most under slavery.
Hey, everybody who was alive during that time is now dead so no one is obligated to do anything to repair the damage that white people have caused. More of the dominant community’s propaganda. The hijackers of the planes that terrorized America on September 11, 2001 died with their passengers and with all the other people who were killed. But that didn’t stop America from taking her wrath out on the Taliban and the rest of Afghanistan. America even held Iraq partially responsible even though the evidence against Saddam Hussein was transparent to a blind man. The perpetrators and the victims were both dead. Yet, America is still there, six years later with four thousand dead troops and a trillion dollar bill for war to show for it.
White people will hold fast to the idea that they’ve done enough to repair the damage to the black community. Black people have welfare, isn’t that enough? If anyone were to ever take an honest look at what race benefits the most from welfare he or she will see that white people are, once again, the biggest benefactors of the various welfare programs. Trust me, if black people were the ones benefiting the most from the welfare programs they would have been terminated a long time ago.
When will black people stop blaming white people for slavery? I’m sorry but white people are responsible for those pages in the America’s history book. The idea that we can change the history of slavery if we stop looking at it is a popular one among many who wish to protect the status quo. The proper question a lot of people should be asking is, when will America take responsibility for the damage it caused, and continues to cause, the black community?
afrospear.wordpress.com 
Well said.
I hope the negroes who say “But Africans had a hand in slavery” are reading this. They are the worst kinds of apologists.
From what I learned, a punishment in tribal warfare was indentured servitude. The tribal war victors unknowingly gave their indentured servants (i.e., tribal war losers) to slave traders thinking that they would carry on with the indentured servitude practice.
If I’m wrong, I will stand corrected.
America has never taken responcibility for segregation which was much more recent. There is a much better chance of taking responcibility for things which have occured in the lifetime of the individuals directly responcible. Slave profiteers, owners and masters are all dead but I believe that they are getting paid back for their evils.
BP: While I completely acknowledge the historical fact of white responsibility …how long do we wait for white folks to change? And what do we get out of continuously speaking truth to someone who can’t hear?
We have so much changing and growing to do ourselves yet have the time to muse on when the drunk will finally put the plug in the jug and stop. It may likely never happen.
Whites have no incentive, NONE, to change. What’s the downside of racism/white supremacy for them? It is our people who need to change because Plymouth Rock rests on us – those of us who can change that is – and we need to ally ourselves with anybody who is “truly” conscious….whatever that means.
“Organization presupposes unity,” so said Kwame Nkrumah. We need to organize and let those other chips fall where they may.
What is our vision for a new world? Where are we going? What do we want to do? “Appealing to the moral conscience of white folks,” who have neither morals nor conscience according to Malcolm, seems like a futile exercise, no matter how much truth we invest in the telling.
Well said.
I believe that American will take responsibility for slavery once African Americans A) have a clear understand of the institution and why it was an attrocity B) have communicated a set of boundaries and guideliness for what mentions and representations of slavery constitute an acceptably reverent approach to depicted this national tragedy.
In short, the U.S. will not take responsibility for slavery until African Americans as a group have uniformly decided and communicated our own feelings and conclusions about slavery, slaves, and the impact of this institution not only on the lives of our ancestors, but on on our pwn lives as contemporary black men, women, and children.
Until that time, the U.S. has no motivation to take responsibility for slavery. Why should the nation take responsibility for something when those most deeply shaped by its negative effects do not even understand why there is something to take responsibility for?
What about Jesse? Were his comments racist? Could don Imus have said that?
http://www.zookersradio.com
Dr Amos Wilson gave the perfect answer to this question. He said that if you receive stolen goods from a criminal, even if the criminal dies, as long as you continue to live off the proceeds from his criminal activities, then you are indeed responsible for the crimes he committed.
That is what white people are going to have to do. They are going to have to return the stolen goods from the criminal activities of their ancestors before they can be absolved of their crimes.
Hort
You can blame the white people of yesterday for slavery, but you cannot blame the white people of today for it. We had nothing to do with it. Stop living in the past. Instead, why don’t you just focus on making the future a better place?
You want equality, but you insist on bringing up the past any chance you get. It’s ridiculous. Black people have come so far even since the 60s. Why not be proud of that and move on from this slavery crap? People like Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton need to do just that, instead of using “racism” against the white people any chance they get. I happen to think they are racist against white people…hypocrites.
Deb,
It is totally interesting that you a white person will sit here and talk about how whites of today had nothing to do with slavery blah, blah, blah. But, then turn around and pat yourself on the back for writing the declaration of independence, freeing the slaves or enacting civil rights. Then all of a sudden you feel such pride in what you all have accomplished.
Not to mention when the hell have blacks been complaining about slavery? Where is this happening? And the last time I looked black people still have a long ways to go. So is it your contention that we have come so far so shut up and just be happy about that?
Blacks make 78% of what their white counterparts earn. Should I be happy about this little fact? Black people are unemployed 50% more than white people. But hey, we’ve come a long way right? Blacks are three times as likely to get substandard medical care or no medical care at all. Yet, we should shut up and just enjoy these facts.
This is the main reason why these disparities exist is because people such as yourself will sit here and refer to one of the lowest points in American history as crap. Would you feel the same if Muslims were to refer to 9/11 as that trade center crap that you white people need to stop crying about since it is the past. And no Muslims that flew planes into the trade center are even alive so let it go already. You and so many others would lose their minds.
But when it comes to the injustices that blacks SUFFER, not suffered in the past. So many white people as yourself will relegate it all to just a bad time and that since some gains have been made we should be happy with how things are. And you show me the instances where Jesse Jackson, Al Sharpton or any other black for that matter kept white people from getting jobs. Or used racism to make sure that white people earn only 78% of what blacks earn. Are they keeping white people from enjoying the same health care as others?
You need to educate yourself on the injustices that blacks suffer today instead of living your ignorant life in the past. Most blacks are talking about the hypocrisy of whites in TODAYS world not from yesteryear. Also, until white people are no longer living off of the ill gotten gains of slavery will it be a thing of the past.
Thanks BrotherP.
No one blames the racially generic dominant community that is predominantly white for initiating America’s era of institutionalized slavery. However, it should be noted that even generations after America closed that ugly chapter of history, the dominant community continues to tolerate blatant racial disparity and has done very little to institute true racial equality in this country. White people want to say get over it because it happened so long ago. But as theblacksentinel said, America embraces each and every moment of its history and wears patriotism on its proverbial sleeve but refuses to even acknowledge this sordid part of its slave history that still reverberates in the black community today. And judging from most white people’s reaction, will continue long into its future.
It is white people who brings up the subject of slavery at the drop of a hat. It is white people who cling to the unsubstantiated belief that what happened in the past stays in the past when it comes to America’s black population. Pull yourself up by your boot strap and quit playing the race card is white people’s rote reply whenever anyone makes the suggestion that the black community deserves some type of reconstruction plan. Truth be told, it is the dominant predominantly white community that needs to exercise some form of responsibility and needs to quit hiding behind a racist wall of irresponsibility and inertia anchored by a total lack of compassion for black people.
Peace
Deb –
Your comments are indicative of most whites who do not make the connection of how the past is inextricably tied to the present…and the future.
Privilege is hard to see for those who were born with a peculiar access, right or immunity that is made concrete through laws and societal parameters. White privilege is an social, institutional, and psychological set of benefits granted by white people who dominate powerful resources, positions and institutions. These resources and institutions were established through various systems (economic, religious, and governmental) decisions and laws that affected groups of people of color differently…or should I say indifferently? You have earned, without any effort of your own, that peculiar privilege without even being socially or psychologically aware of it, as a matter of fact, you’ve taken it for granted because its as common as breathing or blinking your eyes.
Your comments echo a profound ignorance of many in the white community as white privilege has been bestowed by institutions established by a “manifest destiny” of white/anglo superiority. History is filled with grants, laws, treatys and examples of purposeful construction of a system that grants undeniable privileges to white people and witholds them from others.
Many whites believe, erroneously, that they don’t have a problem with race or the issue of racism. Whites are able to live their lives knowing very little about the experiences of people of color…even though people of color deal with structure of white supremacy and privilege daily. White privilege allows you to see race in others but not in yourself. As a white person, you have the privilege…which you quite easily exercised here…to discount the worth, perspective or insight of an individual of color, altering them too, based on YOUR assessment of what we need to get over or get pass. One of the most disrespectful things that most black folks can think of is some white person making a glib or off-hand comment regarding racism and how we need to get over it. In the last 4 decades, whites have been deluded into thinking that people of color, particularly blacks are just lazy and uninterested in the hard working ethics of their patriotic white bretheren and therefore his community’s problem is one of morals and values…or a lack of them. Simplistic propaganda and rhetoric of racist media pundits, stereotyping and signifying, sending a certain message to white america that identifies blacks, immigrants and Islam as “our” problem. In reality, white supremacy oppresses whites as well as others as it operates as a means of controlling wealth and power according to arbitrary notions and false theories of biological difference.
Whiteness and “race” an idea or means of identification were constructs invented by white males scientists and archeologist to validate the mistreatment of people of color, thus it requires deconstructive interpretation and analyses.
Race is a specious classification of human beings created by Europeans to assign worth and social status…using “white” as the model of humanity and height of achievement for the purpose of establishing and mainataining privilege and power. White people was a legal concept established by colonial slave owners to seperate poor European servants from Africans, giving legal privilege to whites and descendants, while constructing a legal system of chattel slavery…out of this we have:
Racism…and it ain’t going nowhere as long as folks like you remain in a state of denial.
We have a hierarchy in this country and those at the top of this hierarchy use many subtle and not so subtle methods to maintain their control. To say the race card is played frequently by white people would be an understatement. Many times they deal from the bottom of a stacked deck. Anyone who denies this is either incredibly ignorant or dishonest. There are many, many examples.
In 1976, I saw a black man beaten by six policemen outside a Seven Eleven store on the corner of South Second and Winnsboro Road in Monroe, Louisiana. He was beaten long after he passed out on the ground. He had no weapons. A few days later, the man’s representatives brought him by in the back end of an old station wagon. He was lying propped up on a makeshift bed in the back. I didn’t recognize him. They asked if I knew the person in the car. I told them I did not. They asked if I had ever seen him before. I told them I had never seen anyone who looked anything like that. One of them said, “That’s my brother. That’s the man the police beat the other night.” He had been a very thin person. His face and head were now swollen up over twice their normal size and covered with lumps. I couldn’t distinguish any of his features. If you had never seen him before, you might guess that he now weighed over 300 pounds instead of around 150. He looked like a black whale. They asked me to help. I told his representatives I would tell the truth about what happened. His lawyer said, “That’s all we’re asking,” and left. The police came by too. They sent the Monroe Police supervisor to that store where I worked the night shift. He told me that I needed to help them out on this. He reminded me that the Monroe PD had caught a robber who robbed me a few months before. (His trial was pending at the time). The police supervisor told me that my robber was black and they had helped me. The man they were accused of beating was black as well, he said, so I needed to help them. I did not follow his logic and told him as much. He kept saying, “You’re going to help us out on this aren’t you. We helped you.” I would only say “I’m going to tell the truth,” each time he pressed for an answer. He became visibly angry. His coercion continued up to and including the day of court. During a break in the beaten man’s hearing, the police supervisor came to me in the hallway outside the courtroom. He played the race card to the hilt right there in the packed hallway of the courthouse. He reminded me again of the fact that both the armed robber and the beating victim were black. He asked me again to reconsider helping the police. He threatened me; he said it was going to be real hard for me if I didn’t help them. He said that I had counted on help from the police before and I would need it again. He said I better help them or I would be sorry I hadn’t. I repeated that I was going to tell the truth. When we went back in and reconvened, the judge called me to the front. It was time for me to testify. He told me to leave the courtroom. I refused. I told him I wanted to testify. He ordered me out. The beaten man’s lawyer jumped about two feet off the ground and started yelling. There was nothing I could do. They escorted me out of the courtroom.
A short time later, the man who had robbed me at gunpoint, was walking the streets a free man. He never stood trial. Even though he was out on parole after four armed robbery convictions when he was caught, plus he had been on trial seven times and had been a suspect many other times, they still set him free. The prosecuting attorney had said that the case against the armed robber was rock solid. He would never see the light of day as a free man, the prosecutor said. Since the robber was 38 years old and had so many convictions, another one would have kept him in jail for the rest of his life. The prosecutor crudely stated that the robber had messed up; he said that since Louisiana did not have the death penalty at the time, the robber had planned to kill me. “He should have,” the prosecutor said. There would have been no down side to doing this. In short, at this point in his career the robber had everything to gain and nothing to lose by killing his victims, according to the prosecutor, but he lost his nerve; “He’s a p—–“, the prosecutor said. “He didn’t have the guts to pull the trigger.” After he got all the money, the robber made me get on the floor and held the gun to the back of my head for what seemed like an eternity. He began to shake and tried to speak, but he was stuttering so much I couldn’t understand him. He finally stammered, “You better not get up.” Then he left. I guess that’s when he “lost his nerve.”
A serial armed robber and potential murderer went free because he became more valuable as a tool to punish someone for having the audacity to stand up for one of the system’s victims in a seemingly unrelated case. You see, my race will punish their own when they cross the color line to help a fellow human being who has been wronged. That’s one of the reasons you don’t have more white people admitting the obvious truth about what your race continues to suffer. They make examples of those who admit the truth. They give them a taste of the very same justice your race lives with every day.
I have been told that police representatives, judges, and prosecutors must all agree if charges are to be dropped against someone after they have been charged and preliminary hearings have been held. This is part of our legal systems’ built in checks and balances, I am told. It seems our system was unanimous in its assessment that this robber needed to go free, despite all his previous convictions and the fact that the prosecutor called him a “p—-“ for not killing his robbery victim. The system was unanimous in its decision regarding the beating victim’s case as well. It took a lot of skilled and organized legal maneuvering to get an eyewitness out of that courtroom and prevent him from testifying about the actions of the police. The players on the winning team worked together like a well-oiled machine in the courthouse that day. This was not their first winning game. And it would not be their last. They’ve been on a long run that has stretched back since long before the Civil War. As bad as what happened back in 1976 was, it isn’t a drop in the bucket compared to all that has gone on around here and continues to this day.
Lady Justice is supposed to be blindfolded. She is not. In fact, she has a very discriminating 20/20 vision. She carries the sword in one hand and a set of scales in the other. Keep your eye on the sword, but don’t be fooled; she can rip the living hell out of you with those scales, too.
This “Lady” is a tramp.
Michael
“…But Hell, sleek Hell, hath no freewheeling part…”
“Nothing In Heaven Functions As It Ought”
X.J. Kennedy
Hi, I’m new here!
I have to agree with thefreeslave on the fact that those whites in power and reaping the benefits of slavery and white supremacy have no incentive to change, so at this point it’s really pointless to continue hoping for it. We may have friends on the individual level who empathize and try to understand the situation, but when it comes down to it, we have to stop feeling like our future happiness depends on white people suddenly “getting it” and righting all the wrongs done.
It is a fool who doesn’t recognize that the effects of slavery and systemic racism are still affecting our people today, but it is another fool who will continue to sit and hope to make the racists or those who’ve benefited from that racism ‘change their minds’ about everything. We have to recognize the problem, identify the root of the problem, then help each other out because no one else is going to. It’s funny, I was just discussing this on my own site and I decided to look around to see what other people have to say on the subject, it’s good to see that we are still discussing this issue and what steps have to happen next.
Peace
Wouldn’t it be a bit more progressive to open folks up to the idea of a human race, as opposed to a multitude of races.
At this point in our society, we all share similar goals, and we most definitely share a common enemy..
The snakes in our gardens have created these walls and windows, to keep ignorance and distance between people..
.. i look to character and inner color.. true color.
can we maybe send a care package to all white homes..
some Sun Ra, works of Dr. Shabazz, and a copy of Behold A Pale Horse. They shouldn’t be given negativity, only an alarm clock.. let’s wake some people up.. enough ants can move an elephant
Hi there!
I was watching a video online where the former leader of the Black Panthers, Elaine Brown, was giving a lecture at a university.
She said that when it comes to the issue of slavery being discussed among whites, the usual reaction is:
“so you were slaves? when can we let that go….”
Hmmmmph.
Lisa
There is no doubt that prejudice continues to proliferate in today’s world. I am of mixed race (of both the Cherokee nation and European descent). I have personally experienced prejudice from members of my own family (both sides). My mother’s side of my family calls my sisters and me half-breeds. My father’s side of the family calls us their “white cousins.” It’s as if there is no place in the world for us. I’m sure it is the same for mixed race people of African and European descent. Our own families do not accept us, so what does that say about the chances of people learning to accept that people are all the same? What does that say about hope for the world to become “one big happy family?” My dream is for people to recognize that we are all the same inside; if you cut us, we all bleed the same crimson hue. I pray that everyone can learn to set aside their prejudices and learn to love others, all others, to stop bickering and arguing and seeing the world in terms of “us and them,” and start seeing the world in terms of “us.”
I saw “ZERO” acknowledgement of the “WHITE” abolitionists who devoted and any many cases gave thier lives for the abolition of slavery. People like William Lloyd Garrison, John Greenleaf Whittier, John Brown and Harriet Beecher Stowe.
Lumping all white people together in responibility for slavery is incredibly small minded and “RACIST.” Many of the ancestor’s of white people in this country now were not even in the United States yet at the time of the Civil War.
Also, the Democratic Party, which the vast majority of Black Americans support, was ENTIRELY supportive of slavery and still, through its welfare system and intitlement programs, insists that the Black American is inferior and incapable of sustaining him or herself. The Republican Party was founded on the concept of halting the spread of slavery and letting it die in the south.
As a concluding thought to those African Americans of the Christian faith I submit this idea. Out of 31 million people in the United States in 1861 more than 600,000 died in the Civil War and the South was utterly devasted economically.
OUR NATION PAYED FOR SLAVERY IN BLOOD AND IF BLOOD IS NOT PAYMENT ENOUGH FOR YOU THEN WOE BE TO YOU ON JUDGEMENT DAY.
You can continue to use slavery as an excuse for under-acheivment, but it’s only “A STUPID WASTE OF TIME!”
Do you realise how rare it is and how much I rejoice when I meet a young black man that doesn’t have his pants down below his butt and and use “MF” every other breathe even in front of the ladies. I witness this everyday on my blue collar job. Tighten up black folks! Raise your kids right! You don’t have any excuse! The President of “OUR” nation is African American. Ask God to help you! We (white folks) want you to succeed! And throwing bales of money at you, that we don’t have, has not helped and is not going to help. Something has to happen in each individual heart, a resolve to study, work hard and challenge oneself. We’re all in this together. We’re all going to the grave. Lay hold on success while you live and breathe and pass it on to your children.
very well said to all. but deb, really if it’s not the whites to blame, then who?? not saying we should hate whites today, but i dont understand the fact that white ppl now aday’s can still be raciest. like u said it’s in the past, but not for everybody. they way i see it is kinda like, ok they beat us, they raped us, and they killed us, but some of ya’ll are still mad at as?? does that make any sense?? i’m not saying all of you guys are, blacks are even racist towards their own, but you cant be so one minded. unless you’ve been threw what we (our ancestors) been threw, experienced what we experienced you can’t really say anything about it. just like the Holocaust. but that, in all, is another long story…
not to gang up on u or anything.
fyi- i’m not raciest, i believe in equality between all races!
-sh3irriah {means the law}lol
11th grade,and still learning
and for you “jeffery” i see you like to stereotype. not all “black folks” are like that. just the one’s u encounter in the area were YOU LIVE!!!!! try moving around some time, you’ll be amazed. the only reason SOME black ppl act that way is because of what ppl have been putting on the tv for so many years, ppl have formed their thoughts around the tv. you making that stereotype comment, just proved my point. by you saying that, it’s ok for other to say Chinese are all horny freaks, Mexicans only party or Asians are wild. it’s the same thing. you may not off come off like that, but that what i got from it, so next time choose your words very wisely, if possible. =) i completely get were your coming from, but try and not to be so… blunt? i guess, cant really think of another word. but again to you dont be so one minded. a lot of “white folks” wear pants below their but, so do Mexican and Asians, but just because it’s not on tv doesn’t mean it doesn’t happen. it’s just not as bold, i guess, or out their as the blacks are. don”t get me wrong Blacks are lazy, and so are whites, Mexicans, and Asians etc.. everybody has alil lazy in them… an that comment you made: OUR NATION PAYED FOR SLAVERY IN BLOOD AND IF BLOOD IS NOT PAYMENT ENOUGH FOR YOU THEN WOE BE TO YOU ON JUDGEMENT DAY.
You can continue to use slavery as an excuse for under-achievement, but it’s only “A STUPID WASTE OF TIME!”
really now, really?? did they really?? lol your funny.our nation, is full of S***! they care nothing for 4 us. our nation is just a pimp, and where their hoes, that’s all it is. only a fool would think that… not pointing any fingers or anything.. do u really believe our nation paid?? no wait ur right they did pay with blood, but who’s blood do u think they paid with? come on, it’s ok to say it. It wont hurt you.do u really think whit ppl worked back then?? no, the got the Chinese and Mexicans, and the blacks to do all the work for them, while they took credit. you know i’m right. you know everything that happened, wasn’t in ur history book. and it’s not a waist of time. if the same thing happen to ur race, what ever that maybe, do u think you would have the same response you gave above? do ya? do ya really??
again not raciest, just don’t like when ppl stereotype…. =)
-Shirriah
– 11th grade and still learning
Oh yes, the white man did it. And even today where an American of African decent (since there is no such word as African American; and why would any other ethnicity come first when describing an American, either your an AMERICAN or your not) become President, we still have these quams. Even now in Africa there are Africans dominating other Africans (i.e Darfur) and yet people of African decent here are trying to blame someone else for all the black mans problems. Slavery hits people of all ethnicity, and it has been on the african continent long before the white man sailed to the west coast of africa. So when the people of the world sees themselves as humans only vice all these racial divisions, stop pointing fingers and start solving the issues with a helping hand.
I know this is old but this article is quite offensive. I agree that AMERICA needs to take responsibility of slavery but your logic, although quite praised, is quite flawed. Your entire article is simply racist. There are many white people who live in America today who moved here from other countries and after slavery was abolished. There are white foreigners moving here every day. There are white people who lived here during slavery and opposed it and gave themselves to the movement against it. There are many black people who live in this country who have no ties or blood lines related to slavery in America because they are not of African decent. The idea that the color of ones skin automatically means they are a descendant or have blood lines leading back to slavery is as racist as you can get. Using that logic in an article such as this only confirms that racist stand in others. Assuming anything about anyone because of the color of their skin is basic racism. Assuming that a black person or their ancestors have been affected by slavery because of their skin color is also racist and offensive. You do not speak for “your people”, and anyone following the ideas that all the white people you see around you are living off your ancestors suffering simply because of their skin color is disgusting and all people of any race should denounce anyone stating as such. You actually seem like a smart person but your racist stance hasn’t allowed you to see your mistake in not stating that… those families who are directly related to slave owners should have to pay restitution to those families who suffered because of slavery in this country NO MATTER WHAT COLOR EITHER PARTIES SKIN IS. Then you might have an article that isn’t hateful and racist. You have no right to scold white people in this country as a whole for the heinous crimes of American slavery.