Should oppressed groups just "get over it" meaning oppression?

[Lik3]

I was reading up on how the Belgians treated the Congolese over a century ago. I can't speak for all Europeans at that time, but King Leopold was an evil monstrous person. I am sorry if I sound rather unChristian. What bothers me about some of this racism and other evils done is that the Jews and especially black people are told to "get over it". Why would anyone tell a Jew, Armenian, an Australian Aborigine, or an East Asian to get over it? To me, how can anyone just get over what happened to their ancestors? The roots of what has been done to our ancestors are being felt today. For thousands of years up until now, men and women have been oppressed and humiliated for whatever reason, but are not told to "get over it".

Why is it okay for some groups to "get over it" and not for others? Today, how should we educate people or learn from the past so that slavery and oppression will never happen again? It isn't just Europeans that oppressed people but East Asians, Middle Easterners and Turks who have been the oppressors as well. How is it that only the Europeans are the bad guys; have historians been whitewashing history, at those descendants of those groups deny history?

For instance, the Japanese decades ago have oppressed other East Asians. Should the Filipinos and Chinese get over it? That is just an example of groups who either have been told this, but their descendants as well. My question is should we deal with what is going on today and learn from the past? Should we learn and tell the truth about and expose what oppressive groups have done? Should black people, for instance, get over slavery and segregation? That is my view. Whatever the reason, I don't think that any people should be told, "get over it"; I just think it is rather rude. I am interested in your opinions.

 

[SkyWriting]

I was reading up on how the Belgians treated the Congolese over a century ago. I can't speak for all Europeans at that time, but King Leopold was an evil monstrous person. I am sorry if I sound rather unChristian. What bothers me about some of this racism and other evils done is that the Jews and especially black people are told to "get over it". Why would anyone tell a Jew, Armenian, an Australian Aborigine, or an East Asian to get over it? To me, how can anyone just get over what happened to their ancestors?

Mark 11:25
And whenever you stand praying, forgive, if you have anything against anyone, so that your Father also who is in heaven may forgive you your trespasses.”

Ephesians 4:32
Be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ forgave you.

Matthew 6:15
But if you do not forgive others their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses.

1 John 1:9
If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

Matthew 18:21-22
Then Peter came up and said to him, “Lord, how often will my brother sin against me, and I forgive him? As many as seven times?” Jesus said to him, “I do not say to you seven times, but seventy times seven.

Matthew 6:14-15
For if you forgive others their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you, but if you do not forgive others their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses.

 

[SteveB28]

I was reading up on how the Belgians treated the Congolese over a century ago. I can't speak for all Europeans at that time, but King Leopold was an evil monstrous person. I am sorry if I sound rather unChristian. What bothers me about some of this racism and other evils done is that the Jews and especially black people are told to "get over it". Why would anyone tell a Jew, Armenian, an Australian Aborigine, or an East Asian to get over it? To me, how can anyone just get over what happened to their ancestors? The roots of what has been done to our ancestors are being felt today. For thousands of years up until now, men and women have been oppressed and humiliated for whatever reason, but are not told to "get over it".

Why is it okay for some groups to "get over it" and not for others? Today, how should we educate people or learn from the past so that slavery and oppression will never happen again? It isn't just Europeans that oppressed people but East Asians, Middle Easterners and Turks who have been the oppressors as well. How is it that only the Europeans are the bad guys; have historians been whitewashing history, at those descendants of those groups deny history?

For instance, the Japanese decades ago have oppressed other East Asians. Should the Filipinos and Chinese get over it? That is just an example of groups who either have been told this, but their descendants as well. My question is should we deal with what is going on today and learn from the past? Should we learn and tell the truth about and expose what oppressive groups have done? Should black people, for instance, get over slavery and segregation? That is my view. Whatever the reason, I don't think that any people should be told, "get over it"; I just think it is rather rude. I am interested in your opinions.

You ask some valid questions, but there is also another side to the issue.

You are correct that it is often those of us who have benefited, in small coin and large, from the discriminative practices of the past who frequently admonish the persecuted that they "should get over it" and cease thinking about past evils.

But this assumes that the problem only affects those people. What of us....? Is it not just as important for us to remind ourselves of the things that were done poorly and unfairly, that WE might "get over it" as well? That WE might find better ways to deal with our fellow humans? Often times, the bully needs rehabilitation every bit as much as the victim does......

 

[Ana the Ist]

I was reading up on how the Belgians treated the Congolese over a century ago. I can't speak for all Europeans at that time, but King Leopold was an evil monstrous person. I am sorry if I sound rather unChristian. What bothers me about some of this racism and other evils done is that the Jews and especially black people are told to "get over it". Why would anyone tell a Jew, Armenian, an Australian Aborigine, or an East Asian to get over it? To me, how can anyone just get over what happened to their ancestors? The roots of what has been done to our ancestors are being felt today. For thousands of years up until now, men and women have been oppressed and humiliated for whatever reason, but are not told to "get over it".

Why is it okay for some groups to "get over it" and not for others? Today, how should we educate people or learn from the past so that slavery and oppression will never happen again? It isn't just Europeans that oppressed people but East Asians, Middle Easterners and Turks who have been the oppressors as well. How is it that only the Europeans are the bad guys; have historians been whitewashing history, at those descendants of those groups deny history?

For instance, the Japanese decades ago have oppressed other East Asians. Should the Filipinos and Chinese get over it? That is just an example of groups who either have been told this, but their descendants as well. My question is should we deal with what is going on today and learn from the past? Should we learn and tell the truth about and expose what oppressive groups have done? Should black people, for instance, get over slavery and segregation? That is my view. Whatever the reason, I don't think that any people should be told, "get over it"; I just think it is rather rude. I am interested in your opinions.

I've never heard any Jewish person I know blame their current situation on the holocaust. Whether they were successful or not, they took responsibility for their situation and kept moving forward.

This is in spite of the fact that there's a lot of anti-semitism still in the U.S. You only need to look as far as this forum to see many that virulently hate jews. Yet I've never heard any of them say that the "system" is to blame for their troubles.

So I think that's why when it comes to the holocaust, jews are given a pass in not "getting over it". They aren't using it as a scapegoat for their own failures...they simply want it remembered for what it was.

 

[Shiloh Raven]

I was reading up on how the Belgians treated the Congolese over a century ago. I can't speak for all Europeans at that time, but King Leopold was an evil monstrous person. I am sorry if I sound rather unChristian. What bothers me about some of this racism and other evils done is that the Jews and especially black people are told to "get over it". Why would anyone tell a Jew, Armenian, an Australian Aborigine, or an East Asian to get over it? To me, how can anyone just get over what happened to their ancestors? The roots of what has been done to our ancestors are being felt today. For thousands of years up until now, men and women have been oppressed and humiliated for whatever reason, but are not told to "get over it".

Why is it okay for some groups to "get over it" and not for others? Today, how should we educate people or learn from the past so that slavery and oppression will never happen again? It isn't just Europeans that oppressed people but East Asians, Middle Easterners and Turks who have been the oppressors as well. How is it that only the Europeans are the bad guys; have historians been whitewashing history, at those descendants of those groups deny history?

For instance, the Japanese decades ago have oppressed other East Asians. Should the Filipinos and Chinese get over it? That is just an example of groups who either have been told this, but their descendants as well. My question is should we deal with what is going on today and learn from the past? Should we learn and tell the truth about and expose what oppressive groups have done? Should black people, for instance, get over slavery and segregation? That is my view. Whatever the reason, I don't think that any people should be told, "get over it"; I just think it is rather rude. I am interested in your opinions.

I cannot recall how many times I have been told to "Get over it and stop living in the past" by non-Native Americans whenever I talk about the history of Native Americans in this country. They tell me to "Get over it and stop living in the past" while they insist that we "Never forget 9-11" or tell us to "Remember Pearl Harbor" or the Southerners who insist on memorializing the South during the Civil War, even though the South was defeated and humiliated or the memorializing and commemorating of any other tragedy or triumph in American history. The double standard and the hypocrisy of it all is so astounding, it is laughable. And they have the nerve to tell me to stop living in the past.

 

[LOVEthroughINTELLECT]

I was reading up on how the Belgians treated the Congolese over a century ago. I can't speak for all Europeans at that time, but King Leopold was an evil monstrous person. I am sorry if I sound rather unChristian. What bothers me about some of this racism and other evils done is that the Jews and especially black people are told to "get over it". Why would anyone tell a Jew, Armenian, an Australian Aborigine, or an East Asian to get over it? To me, how can anyone just get over what happened to their ancestors? The roots of what has been done to our ancestors are being felt today. For thousands of years up until now, men and women have been oppressed and humiliated for whatever reason, but are not told to "get over it".

Why is it okay for some groups to "get over it" and not for others? Today, how should we educate people or learn from the past so that slavery and oppression will never happen again? It isn't just Europeans that oppressed people but East Asians, Middle Easterners and Turks who have been the oppressors as well. How is it that only the Europeans are the bad guys; have historians been whitewashing history, at those descendants of those groups deny history?

For instance, the Japanese decades ago have oppressed other East Asians. Should the Filipinos and Chinese get over it? That is just an example of groups who either have been told this, but their descendants as well. My question is should we deal with what is going on today and learn from the past? Should we learn and tell the truth about and expose what oppressive groups have done? Should black people, for instance, get over slavery and segregation? That is my view. Whatever the reason, I don't think that any people should be told, "get over it"; I just think it is rather rude. I am interested in your opinions.

"Get over it" makes it sound like "it" is something cognitive only in people's minds.

Far from being something cognitive only in people's minds, "it" is in our laws, social structures, attitudes, material artifacts and historical documents, and painful emotions from past trauma.

No matter how any individual responds to "it", "it" will not go away until we collectively, honestly confront it.

One person's denial is bad enough. Expecting the victims who have suffered the most from "it" to live in denial is not only unrealistic, it is inhumane.

 

[Dave-W]

One person's denial is bad enough. Expecting the victims who have suffered the most from "it" to live in denial is not only unrealistic, it is inhumane.

OTOH - to NOT "get over it" keeps a person locked in their own life in unforgiveness.

 

[OldWiseGuy]

It's ok to not get over it, but don't beat others over the head with your angst who had nothing to do with "it".

 

[OldWiseGuy]

I cannot recall how many times I have been told to "Get over it and stop living in the past" by non-Native Americans whenever I talk about the history of Native Americans in this country. They tell me to "Get over it and stop living in the past" while they insist that we "Never forget 9-11" or tell us to "Remember Pearl Harbor" or the Southerners who insist on memorializing the South during the Civil War, even though the South was defeated and humiliated or the memorializing and commemorating of any other tragedy or triumph in American history. The double standard and the hypocrisy of it all is so astounding, it is laughable. And they have the nerve to tell me to stop living in the past.

We may have memorialized those events but we certainly have moved past them as a nation. That said I do have sympathy for native Americans. Many of you are out of time and out of place. It's a dilemma for sure.

 

[Soyeong]

I was reading up on how the Belgians treated the Congolese over a century ago. I can't speak for all Europeans at that time, but King Leopold was an evil monstrous person. I am sorry if I sound rather unChristian. What bothers me about some of this racism and other evils done is that the Jews and especially black people are told to "get over it". Why would anyone tell a Jew, Armenian, an Australian Aborigine, or an East Asian to get over it? To me, how can anyone just get over what happened to their ancestors? The roots of what has been done to our ancestors are being felt today. For thousands of years up until now, men and women have been oppressed and humiliated for whatever reason, but are not told to "get over it".

Why is it okay for some groups to "get over it" and not for others? Today, how should we educate people or learn from the past so that slavery and oppression will never happen again? It isn't just Europeans that oppressed people but East Asians, Middle Easterners and Turks who have been the oppressors as well. How is it that only the Europeans are the bad guys; have historians been whitewashing history, at those descendants of those groups deny history?

For instance, the Japanese decades ago have oppressed other East Asians. Should the Filipinos and Chinese get over it? That is just an example of groups who either have been told this, but their descendants as well. My question is should we deal with what is going on today and learn from the past? Should we learn and tell the truth about and expose what oppressive groups have done? Should black people, for instance, get over slavery and segregation? That is my view. Whatever the reason, I don't think that any people should be told, "get over it"; I just think it is rather rude. I am interested in your opinions.

If you look back far enough, I am sure that one of my ancestors were wronged by someone else's ancestors, and vice versa. Should I be seeking reparations from someone and be apologizing to someone else? How do we even begin to sort this all out? Should Native Americans seek reparations from other Native Americans because of what they did to each other? Europeans also did awful things to each other.

I see a significant difference between someone who wants reparations because of what was done to their ancestors and someone who wants us to learn from history so that we don't repeat it. For example, telling a Jew who is still angry with Germans who had no part in what their ancestors did to get over it is not saying that we should forget that the Holocaust happened or that we shouldn't learn from it, but that their anger is no longer a healthy response. Holding on to anger and unforgiveness is like swallowing poison and hoping someone else dies from it. All they are doing is reliving the pain.

 

[Shiloh Raven]

It's ok to not get over it, but don't beat others over the head with your angst who had nothing to do with "it".

Please know that I am speaking in general terms. I am not referring to you personally.

But on the same token, do not ignore the pain and suffering of that person. Do not dismiss their pain and struggles or ridicule their pain. Patiently listen to them speak. Show them compassion and be patient with them. Their pain is real and it cuts deep. It is not a matter of simply getting over it. To be honest, it use to amaze me how cold blooded some Christians can be when it came to the pain and suffering of other people, toward other Christians and non-Christians alike, but it no longer surprises me.

 

[Shiloh Raven]

I was reading up on how the Belgians treated the Congolese over a century ago. I can't speak for all Europeans at that time, but King Leopold was an evil monstrous person. I am sorry if I sound rather unChristian. What bothers me about some of this racism and other evils done is that the Jews and especially black people are told to "get over it". Why would anyone tell a Jew, Armenian, an Australian Aborigine, or an East Asian to get over it? To me, how can anyone just get over what happened to their ancestors? The roots of what has been done to our ancestors are being felt today. For thousands of years up until now, men and women have been oppressed and humiliated for whatever reason, but are not told to "get over it".

Why is it okay for some groups to "get over it" and not for others? Today, how should we educate people or learn from the past so that slavery and oppression will never happen again? It isn't just Europeans that oppressed people but East Asians, Middle Easterners and Turks who have been the oppressors as well. How is it that only the Europeans are the bad guys; have historians been whitewashing history, at those descendants of those groups deny history?

For instance, the Japanese decades ago have oppressed other East Asians. Should the Filipinos and Chinese get over it? That is just an example of groups who either have been told this, but their descendants as well. My question is should we deal with what is going on today and learn from the past? Should we learn and tell the truth about and expose what oppressive groups have done? Should black people, for instance, get over slavery and segregation? That is my view. Whatever the reason, I don't think that any people should be told, "get over it"; I just think it is rather rude. I am interested in your opinions.

I thought I would share this song with you. It addresses the Historical Trauma among Native Americans and it speaks about cultural healing too.

 

[tadoflamb]

Please know that I am speaking in general terms. I am not referring to you personally.

But on the same token, do not ignore the pain and suffering of that person. Do not dismiss their pain and struggles or ridicule their pain. Patiently listen to them speak. Show them compassion and be patient with them. Their pain is real and it cuts deep. It is not a matter of simply getting over it. To be honest, it use to amaze me how cold blooded some Christians can be when it came to the pain and suffering of other people, toward other Christians and non-Christians alike, but it no longer surprises me.

We should never treat those who we meet who are suffering as if they are nuisance. No, we should accept these encounters as an opportunity to enter into that suffering and to understand what it's like to be someone who is very different from ourselves. We should be thankful for them because they help us work out our salvation with fear and trembling.

 

[Shiloh Raven]

We should never treat those who we meet who are suffering as if they are nuisance. No, we should accept these encounters as an opportunity to enter into that suffering and to understand what it's like to be someone who is very different from ourselves. We should be thankful for them because they help us work out our salvation with fear and trembling.

Tad, you live your faith in exemplary honor.

 

[tadoflamb]

Tad, you live your faith in exemplary honor.

That's very kind of you to say, but I'm not all that.

 

[Soyeong]

I thought I would share this song with you. It addresses the Historical Trauma among Native Americans and it speaks about cultural healing too.

Telling someone to get over it is putting it bluntly, but it is essentially telling them that they need to clean their wound and put pressure on it to stop the bleeding because it needs to heal or it's going to fester. It is good to sympathize with those who have been wounded, but at some point the pain that someone is going through is more than what was originally caused because they have not allowed their wounds to heal, and the pain that they are reliving by allowing their wounds to fester is essentially self-inflicted, which is the part that they need get over.

 

[Shiloh Raven]

Telling someone to get over it is putting it bluntly, but it is essentially telling them that they need to clean their wound and put pressure on it to stop the bleeding because it needs to heal or it's going to fester. It is good to sympathize with those who have been wounded, but at some point the pain that someone is going through is more than what was originally caused because they have not allowed their wounds to heal, and the pain that they are reliving by allowing their wounds to fester is essentially self-inflicted, which is the part that they need get over.

Please try not to judge how someone is dealing with pain and struggles you have never experienced.

 

[Soyeong]

Please try not to judge how someone is dealing with pain and struggles you have never experienced.

You have no idea what I've experience and I have no idea what you have experienced, but that doesn't make my words any more or less true. It doesn't matter what anyone has experienced, they have a choice of whether to let their wounds heal or fester, and if they choose to let their wounds fester rather than heal, then they aren't doing themselves any service, and then the person who caused the wound carries no responsibility for that difference.

 

[GoldenBoy89]

No.

 

[Paradoxum]

In my opinion, yeah, get over it if it didn't affect you personally.

French people got over Nazi Germany.

That isn't to say there are no current issues caused by past events, but don't take it so personally.

eg: People in East Asian need to get over disliking Japan because of what old or dead people did. It's pathetic.