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Speaking from experience, I was angry and disgusted when I began to learn about these things. When I found out that the Washington that we celebrated and put on a pedastal actually owned slaves, I wondered why we celebrate him. The fact that he was a slave owner out-weighed the fact that he was the first president of this country. Perhaps if I had been taught that in first grade rather than the story about him chopping down the cherry tree, I wouldn't have been so pissed later on.
My thirteen year old son has felt the same way. As a mother, I tell him to love his country. I explain that many lives were given and taken for his freedom and that this country, nor the founding fathers are perfect. I tell him that he has freedoms and oppurtunites that his ancestors didn't and to make the best of them. That is hard to get that across when you have been spoon fed lies and much of your history has been omitted from history books. Rather than trying to sugar coat things and brush the disgusting things under the rug, the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth should be taught from the begining.
As African-Americans, it hurts the first time you learn about these skeletons in the closet. It's not a simple, cut and dry, "you weren't there so you shouldn't care." This is why OP asked the question. We know how this feels and it is a sensitive matter. Unil you've walked a mile in someone's shoes.... you know the rest.
As for the holocaust, I went to highschool where there was a large Jewish population and a lot of the Jewish kids were just as angry about the holocaust as African-Americans were about slavery. We had many heated discussions about it in history classes over the years. Some even argued about which was worse. I feel nothing but sorrow and disgust when I see pictures of death camps but the difference is that those people did not found this country. Hitler was not a founding father. What if he was, would you still put the founding fathers on a pedastal? Would we have a holiday and celebrate him?
It is not about playing the victim but it hurts when you find out that such heinous acts were committed on the basis of race, ethinicity or religion, especially when you are part of that group. It's not like I don't see some white posters on this very forum get angry when a White person is attacked simply for being White. Why should they care though since they weren't there and it wasn't done to them?
I can't disagree with too much of what you say but would certainly like to see you tell us who could have led that ragtag army to victory in the Revolution. Also, I would like to have you tell me how we could have formed the nation that we live in if Washington had just stayed home on his plantation as he wanted to do. I don't know one man alive back then who could have carried it off if not him so I am asking you to tell me who could have done it. Not one of those founders could have pulled it off without the help of Washington.
What happened to Washington's slaves immediately after he died? All I know is that he ordered the freeing of his slaves upon his death. Now being a free black back then may not have been nice but he treated his slaves much better than most other owners of the period.
Were you around when your ancestors were slaves? I don't even know my great, great, great, great, great, great grandfather who fought in the revolution and then the Indians in Kentucky and Indiana but I do know that he never owned any slaves. I add this just to asks you how you know so much about what it was like back then. You weren't there, I hope.
If your so gung-ho about slavery, come to my house and I will put your ass to work.
Now I see the poster who knows who could have formed this country under that Constitution if Washington hadn't been around. I can promise you that it wouldn't have been Obama but maybe you do know who could have done it without Washington. Your turn to howl.
Who is "someone?" Or is this just a factless claim you are making?
Maybe you could read about those New Stone Age the immigrants who walked across the land bridge that existed on what is now the Bering Strait if you tried. They were living in caves in what is now Arizona and those people who came to be known as Indians took the place away from them. However, I am not going to do your research for you so I bet it won't get done.
Maybe you could read about those New Stone Age the immigrants who walked across the land bridge that existed on what is now the Bering Strait if you tried. They were living in caves in what is now Arizona and those people who came to be known as Indians took the place away from them. However, I am not going to do your research for you so I bet it won't get done.
Your post makes absolutely no sense, are you trying to say "New Stone Age" were people? How am I supposed to research what I don't know anything about, because what you just told me give no starting point as to were to look. I don't think you know what your talking about, because you yourself can't even explain it in a comprehendible way.
Your post makes absolutely no sense, are you trying to say "New Stone Age" were people? How am I supposed to research what I don't know anything about, because what you just told me give no starting point as to were to look. I don't think you know what your talking about, because you yourself can't even explain it in a comprehendible way.
"The Neolithic Age, Era, or Period, or New Stone Age, was a period in the development of humantechnology, beginning about 9500 BCE in the Middle East[1] that is traditionally considered the last part of the Stone Age."
"The Neolithic Age, Era, or Period, or New Stone Age, was a period in the development of humantechnology, beginning about 9500 BCE in the Middle East[1] that is traditionally considered the last part of the Stone Age."
Yeah it is. I did google this. Where does this say Indians STOLE land from these people, who I'm assuming lived during this time? I asked for who these people were, not when they lived. How do we know the people didn't move out to another area before the Indians came? How do we know they didn't die off? How can we make the assumption that the Indians stole land from anyone?
I don't think that anyone should get upset over that particular history lesson. That's exactly what it is- history. The Founding Fathers of the US were great and noble men who set out to do something nobody had ever done before, and they did it. Aside from that, they were human, and like someone else said, were subject to the standards and expectations of their peers at the time.
I seem to recall that a clause ending slavery was written into the Constitution by them, but erased only because they were afraid that the slave-owner colonies would not ratify the Constitution..
I seem to recall that a clause ending slavery was written into the Constitution by them, but erased only because they were afraid that the slave-owner colonies would not ratify the Constitution..
Exactly. When I was in school I was taught that they wanted to end slavery but were afraid it would tear apart their newly found country and (I might be wrong about this one) that in some parts of the south the blacks outnumbered the whites and they were afraid of revenge.
At the end on of the day. they were men. They weren't the Gods of Olympus
I seem to recall that a clause ending slavery was written into the Constitution by them, but erased only because they were afraid that the slave-owner colonies would not ratify the Constitution..
You recall incorrectly. The point of contention was over the issue of ending the Trans-Atlantic slave trade nothing about prohibiting slavery and even that was never put in the form of a written resolution.
Since the founders of this country are held up in high esteem and since they also owned slaves how should this topic be taught to kids especially Black kids? As a Black person myself I just can't view these men with the same enthusiasm as many whites do. Am I wrong?
You have that right, one of the great things about this country is home schooling. I for one don't want my children sitting through black history month and being brainwashed into thinking a Marxist plagiarizing adulterer like Martin Luther King Jr. was a great man. Or being taught a white washed view of history, for example when they teach the subject of slavery, they make it out that only white people owned black slaves, and not the real historical view of slavery, where just about all people had slaves, and that black slaves were sold by fellow blacks.
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