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First, because America is the only economically developed country in the world that has a significant and visible minority that is descended from slaves.
Second, because the USA was the last republic in the Americas to finally get around to abolishing slavery, and Americans actually fought two wars to preserve slavery, long after it had been abolished by the will of the people in every other republic in the hemisphere.
Third, because America, even after abolishing slavery, still refused to grant fundamental civil rights to the former slaves and their descendants for a full century.
The only reason America is "haunted" by slavery is for convenience. Didnt get that job offer? Blame Slavery... Not making as much as whitey? Blame Slavery. Its so easy to blame something for your own downfalls. My ancestors were slaves in Germania to the Romans, I dont go on and on about how MY CURRENT LIFE is sooo tough. If anything, slavery has paved the way for more opportunities via affirmative action, black history month, free scholarships etc...
Location: On the "Left Coast", somewhere in "the Land of Fruits & Nuts"
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Of course the legacy of slavery is still alive, just like so many other enduring aspects of what we euphemistically call "southern culture"… which BTW, has always been big on "honor", "class", and "knowing your place" (and also why a lot of these folks can never respect our current "uppity" POTUS).
We had 246 years of slavery, and we've had 148 years without it. The legalized second-class citizenship of African Americans persisted another 100 years after the end of slavery. The effects of disconnecting families from their ancestors, homeland, and language, denying education, property ownership, and a place in government, and institutionalized generational poverty will take much longer to go away, even if we are making a concerted effort to rid our country of them. Then there is racism, which is very real and present. It affects the daily decisions of many Americans.
The only reason America is "haunted" by slavery is for convenience. Didnt get that job offer? Blame Slavery... Not making as much as whitey? Blame Slavery. Its so easy to blame something for your own downfalls. My ancestors were slaves in Germania to the Romans, I dont go on and on about how MY CURRENT LIFE is sooo tough. If anything, slavery has paved the way for more opportunities via affirmative action, black history month, free scholarships etc...
That is the only reason?
That a monstrous crime was committed and sustained for centuries by one race against another, that isn't enough to generate lingering feelings of resentment and shame? The only legacy from this horrible era that you can detect is black people using it as an excuse on which to blame their failures?
I don't think America is haunted by slavery.
Its the aftermath that still haunts America,esp Jim Crow laws. I'm sure black Americans would be on almost equal income levels with whites had they been allowed to participate economically and socially in 1865.
Yes this is the answer. I know guys around my age (mid-range baby boom) who experienced not being allowed to use a gas station restroom due to their skin color. Not even in the deep south, but in Indiana. Colin Powell writes in his autobiography about being sent to the back door of a restaurant to pick up food that he had ordered, as a young Army officer.
Slavery ended 150 years ago, but segregation only about 40 years ago.
I don't understand very well the issue...
Here in europe we suffered the slavery too, since the antiquity until the XIX century, even in the XVIII tens of thousands of people from greece to iceland was enslaved by the barbary pirates and the arabs https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arab_slave_trade
Africa was plagued with slavery, from south to north between the different tribes, and specially since the muslim conquest of the north of africa.
Slavery was common in Asia too, from India to Mongolia...
In the last 40 years, why has half the Black community improved their status and the other half fallen lower ?
Can you blame slavery for much of the current problems in the community ? No... welfare has done more to hurt in the last 40 years.
Actually the decline in manufacturing jobs has done more to hurt blacks in the last 40 plus years. Because large numbers of black men have been concentrated in that line of work. Also a lack of business ownership hurts blacks. Job discrimination still plays some role in affecting black upward mobility.
Slavery was horribly handled in the United States. It was used as a platform to destroy an entire region of the country, its wealth, its pride, and culture. The practice should have never existed on this continent, but it still remains a poorly understood economic and social order that people understand through popular media like the Roots miniseries, or more recent movies like Django Unchained. It was established by the aristocracy and priesthood of the old world (the Moors in Spain had a little to do with it since Arabs were practicing slavery long before) and dumped on to the new. In short, it was a medieval and ancient relic that helped make a region of the USA prosperous, and that region was in turn punished for it.
Of course the robber barons followed shortly thereafter, followed by the debt-creating Fed, the overseas sweatshops, and a bunch of other greed-based practices akin to slavery. Maybe the current elite is keeping the remembrance alive to make us overlook their current practices.
Lots of excuses and sad music for the poor slave holders and their lost culture, but no mention of the millions of people who were enslaved for three centuries.
Are you related to DW Griffith?
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