Racism

[Christie insb]

Yes, but not as bad as some people. My life was never ever in danger. But I have experienced some opposition because I have gotten blamed for what other African Americans have done.

I have always found this strange. How can you be responsible for others' foolish behavior?

 

[Introverted1293]

I have always found this strange. How can you be responsible for others' foolish behavior?

Good question

 

[Ana the Ist]

I have always found this strange. How can you be responsible for others' foolish behavior?

It does seem silly doesn't it? Our justice system doesn't punish the son for the deeds of the father.

Yet, when you look at arguments about reparations for slavery...that's exactly what a lot of people want.

 

[Christie insb]

It does seem silly doesn't it? Our justice system doesn't punish the son for the deeds of the father.

Yet, when you look at arguments about reparations for slavery...that's exactly what a lot of people want.

Well... except that slave labor contributed to the wealth and treasure of their owners and if it were a physical thing, there would certainly be a case for the people who continue to benefit from this family money to reimburse the heirs of those who performed the work. I cannot say how this should be done but our society is a long way from trying to figure it out.

 

[Ana the Ist]

Well... except that slave labor contributed to the wealth and treasure of their owners and if it were a physical thing, there would certainly be a case for the people who continue to benefit from this family money to reimburse the heirs of those who performed the work.

There wouldn't be a case for it. It wasn't "paid work"...it was slavery. We view slavery as wrong, and evil, and rightly so...but it wasn't back then.

Just like any other law we pass...we don't retroactively apply it to people who committed those deeds in the past. For example, in the 80s you could buy several kinds of fully automatic guns. Once we passed a law saying "this is illegal" we didn't round up the people who bought them when it was legal and throw them in jail.

That would be an injustice.

Not to mention, who do you hold accountable anyway? If you had one slave owner in your history....some great great great grandfather....does that make you accountable? Does it make all his progeny accountable? What about the African slavers who sold the slaves? What about free blacks who owned slaves?

I cannot say how this should be done but our society is a long way from trying to figure it out.

It shouldn't be done.

If a black man robbed a bank of 50,000$....and got away with it, grew old and died....would you expect his grandchildren to pay for it if we somehow solved the case today? I would hope not....and that's for something illegal when it happened.

 

[OldWiseGuy]

Well... except that slave labor contributed to the wealth and treasure of their owners and if it were a physical thing, there would certainly be a case for the people who continue to benefit from this family money to reimburse the heirs of those who performed the work. I cannot say how this should be done but our society is a long way from trying to figure it out.

We have figured it out.....it ain't gonna happen.

Southern wealth created by slaves was virtually destroyed by the Civil War. That's what Reconstruction was all about. Foreign countries benefitted from the production of southern cotton more than America. While southern wealth was vested more in the slave labor force the north was outpacing them in nearly every economic and technical metric without slave labor. Even without the Civil War the industrial revolution would have displaced slave labor and the southern economy would have collapsed under it's own archaic weight.

story (U.S. National Park Service)