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If they would just realize that far less than half of Americans owned slaves, and that of those that did, many slave owners gave slaves better treatment than they were getting by their own people in Africa who were helping to round them up to sale. What the bad slave owners did was horrendous, dispicable, and completely inhumane. But to paint all white people with the same brush of disdain that the bad slave owners deserve is not reasonable. Through my family tree, there were no slaves ever owned by anyone in my direct family. My family tree is one with many twisted branches of southern white poverty. For any black person to look at me with an ounce of disrespect due to slavery that happened long ago that I nor any of my family took part of is not right. Maybe they should notice that little streak of Native American in my blood and realize that my ancestors were treated as bad or worse as slaves were.
If we are ever going to move forward in this country, EVERYONE from EVERY RACE is going to have to see beyond color and look at people for who they are. I don't know if we will ever see anything close to that occur because our country is obsessed with identifying people by their race.
I totally agree. It cannot be forgotten but it is a matter of progressing and moving on. We can also ask any non European group on the planet if they forgive whatever European country exploited and/or colonized their country. If we get caught up in placing the blame and harboring animosity about things we cannot change, we stifle progress. It is important to know the history but cannot be used as an excuse for failure. I am an African-American woman speaking for myself.
The assumption behind your comment is that only Europeans engaged in slavery. In fact slavery was practiced throughout history by every ethnic group imaginable against any number of ethnic groups--black, white, brown, yellow. The Romans enslaved their conquered adversaries, no matter what their color. Indeed slavery is still practiced today in Africa--Africans enslaving other Africans.
I don't forgive America for any of the crimes it has committed against black Americans. There's absolutely no reason whatsoever why I--or any black American--should. America doesn't deserve our forgiveness.
Well that's pretty silly. The America you hold a grudge against no longer exists.
I'm half black (on my Mother's side), and IMO, yes we should forgive but never forget.
Forgiveness isn't for the one on the receiving end, it's for the one on the giving end.
My 9 year old daughter was kidnapped, beaten, raped and murdered 8 years ago. They never caught the maggot that did it. As much as I want justice for my little Anna, I also have forgiven her murderer.
The forgiveness isn't for him. It is for me. I had to move on past it, as terrible as it was. I had to free myself from it eating me alive every day for the rest of my life. I have a wife and 8 other children that need me to be a whole person for them.
Think of the greatest forgiveness ever -- Jesus. If you are a believer, as I am, you know that Jesus was crucified on the cross by Pontius Pilate. God, loved the world so much, that he forgave the killing of his only begotten child so the rest of us may live.
To forgive, doesn't mean to forget. No, it should never be forgotten. Any great tragedy should always be remembered so we as a people will always know, and so that we as a people will never repeat that history again.
In order for the country to heal, to come together as a united people, to stand as a nation that is one, in peace, forgiveness is required.
They shouldn't forgive because they have nothing to forgive since there are no living slaves and there are no living slaveholders.
Furthermore I owe no one an apology and if reparations are ever passed I'll be the first one to lead a revolt against this government. I'll DIE before I pay them.
Too late, sorry. Slavery was paid for in the blood of 500,000 Americans killed in the Civil War, the billions poured into LBJ's Great Society that went primarily to black people and affirmative action that even today penalizes Whites, Asians and Hispanics in the competition for scholarships, college admissions and jobs. This bill has been paid in full, over and over again.
Well that's pretty silly. The America you hold a grudge against no longer exists.
True, the post you were replying to here, was written by someone who is trying to justify hatred, it would seem. Things were as they were, back then, and we ,today, are powerless to change the things that happened. To condemn 'America' , across the board seems a tad irrational. The history of the world is written with blood and bound with misery. We can either evolve, and climb out, or wallow in the muck. I feel no personal guilt over this issue, and offer no apologies. I was born 100 years after the issue was settled. If someone wants to blame me for slavery having existed, it's a free country, but it accomplishes nothing. Wasted energy.
Slavery may have ended a long time ago, but Negroes were still being treated like lesser human beings in the 1950s when they were told to sit at the back of the bus, use separate restrooms, not given equal chances for jobs as whites, etc.
I think that situation probably bothers Negroes of today more than slavery, since there are still whites who think like their parents did, and have the same predjudices.
Jews don't hold today's generation of Germans as being responsible for the Holocaust, which was a hundred times worse than slavery. It was extinction of an entire race of people.
So I do feel they should forgive for slavery, but still be concerned about predjudices which still exist today.
Its unlikely that predjudices will go away, since many people still judge others on the way they look, and it is not an issue limited to Negroes.
Speaking of the 50's, statistics show that black people made the greatest economic and social gains after WWII and up until about 1960. Then their progress ground to a halt. Was that because of Jim Crow? Not according to Patrick Moynihan, former senator from New York. He traced the halt of black progress to the break down of the black family, the rise of out-of-wedlock births, and welfarism. It is those social pathologies, not the remnants of slavery and Jim Crow, that is holding blacks back and the sooner that reality is acknowledged by blacks themselves and addressed they'll never move beyond the mid-60's.
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