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My kids are in their 30's and every year for at least 5 years there were lessons on the holocaust. How is it possible so many are leaving school so ignorant? Are schools wasting time focusing on things that don't really matter?
I'm pretty sure that's not all they are not aware of. I wouldn't be surprised if these same people didn't know what happened on 9/11 and many other things. And it's not all millenials and Gen Z either.
Never have we lived in a time where information was so readily available at our fingertips within seconds, yet that doesn't seem to have helped ignorance.
My kids are in their 30's and every year for at least 5 years there were lessons on the holocaust. How is it possible so many are leaving school so ignorant? Are schools wasting time focusing on things that don't really matter?
Are you suggesting that the Holocaust didn't matter?
As horrific as the Holocaust was I think it's unfair to call Millennials as "ignorant" on the subject.
Why should they know about a subject regarding Jews who are technically are very small population in the US? How about other Genocides that have happened like in Rwanda or the Khmer Rouge in Cambodia?
Aren't they just as important?
Left leaning millennials love to throw around the term "nazi;" you would think they would know what that term is about.
There are also many that believe that slavery was created by white Americans.
There are many ignorant people out there.
What does it matter who it was created by? Fact is, slavery has been with us since ancient times, far before recorded history.
However, chattel slavery - the kind practiced in the US, where slaves were treated like animals and had their human rights completely stripped while simultaneously having their skin color used as justification for their subjugation and dehumanization - was created by Western Europeans like the British, Spanish, and Portuguese, and then adopted in the American colonies, where it took on a unique character moulded by the wealthy landowning classes in the US who depended on slave labor for their way of life.
Slavery in America is largely credited with the US ability to become a wealthy nation and major power in such a short period of time. Many studies have demonstrated that, without slavery, America would never have been able to achieve this rapid buildup of wealth and power.
Your statement is disingenuous because it doesn’t matter who created slavery. The fact is that Americans largely built their nation on the backs of African slaves through a particularly brutal form of chattel slavery. The idea may have come from Europe, but the vast majority of Americans practicing chattel slavery were Europeans or the ancestors of Europeans.
I don’t understand why some Americans are so reluctant to come to terms with the “peculiar institution” that caused so much harm to so many millions. You and your family may not have kept slaves, but that doesn’t mean that white Americans can simply say, “well, I had nothing to do with it, so leave me out of this.”
As we’ve seen in Germany, the willingness of the populace to take responsibility for what their fathers, grandfathers, and countrymen did under the Nazis has helped the country heal without every other German complaining that they personally didn’t do anything and therefore have nothing to be sorry about.
Perhaps if America had followed through with Reconstruction and not seen the rise of Jim Crow, the Klan, race riots, and lynching after the Civil War, black Americans would have had a better chance to catch up to whites in regards to wealth and social status. But Jim Crow occurred within the lifetimes of many people still here, and that system of apartheid, segregated cities, and the ongoing problems of mass incarceration of black men for drug offenses and high rates of police brutality against the black community (to name but a few ongoing issues) continue to perpetuate a system in which many black people have a hard time catching up to their white countrymen.
Semantic games like “Americans didn’t invent slavery” does nothing to reduce their responsibility for their part in a brutal system and the legacy of mistreatment that has continued to the present day. Slavery may have ended a long time ago, but its legacy survives and you can either fight for equality or make disingenuous arguments, like saying that Americans didn’t event slavery. I mean, what does that matter? The Germans didn’t invent genocide either, but they did a damn good job at it anyways.
What does it matter who it was created by? Fact is, slavery has been with us since ancient times, far before recorded history.
However, chattel slavery - the kind practiced in the US, where slaves were treated like animals and had their human rights completely stripped while simultaneously having their skin color used as justification for their subjugation and dehumanization - was created by Western Europeans like the British, Spanish, and Portuguese, and then adopted in the American colonies, where it took on a unique character moulded by the wealthy landowning classes in the US who depended on slave labor for their way of life.
Slavery in America is largely credited with the US ability to become a wealthy nation and major power in such a short period of time. Many studies have demonstrated that, without slavery, America would never have been able to achieve this rapid buildup of wealth and power.
Your statement is disingenuous because it doesn’t matter who created slavery. The fact is that Americans largely built their nation on the backs of African slaves through a particularly brutal form of chattel slavery. The idea may have come from Europe, but the vast majority of Americans practicing chattel slavery were Europeans or the ancestors of Europeans.
I don’t understand why some Americans are so reluctant to come to terms with the “peculiar institution” that caused so much harm to so many millions. You and your family may not have kept slaves, but that doesn’t mean that white Americans can simply say, “well, I had nothing to do with it, so leave me out of this.”
As we’ve seen in Germany, the willingness of the populace to take responsibility for what their fathers, grandfathers, and countrymen did under the Nazis has helped the country heal without every other German complaining that they personally didn’t do anything and therefore have nothing to be sorry about.
Perhaps if America had followed through with Reconstruction and not seen the rise of Jim Crow, the Klan, race riots, and lynching after the Civil War, black Americans would have had a better chance to catch up to whites in regards to wealth and social status. But Jim Crow occurred within the lifetimes of many people still here, and that system of apartheid, segregated cities, and the ongoing problems of mass incarceration of black men for drug offenses and high rates of police brutality against the black community (to name but a few ongoing issues) continue to perpetuate a system in which many black people have a hard time catching up to their white countrymen.
Semantic games like “Americans didn’t invent slavery” does nothing to reduce their responsibility for their part in a brutal system and the legacy of mistreatment that has continued to the present day. Slavery may have ended a long time ago, but its legacy survives and you can either fight for equality or make disingenuous arguments, like saying that Americans didn’t event slavery. I mean, what does that matter? The Germans didn’t invent genocide either, but they did a damn good job at it anyways.
But.......I didn't have anything to do with it. Neither did my ancestors. Why do I hold special responsibility simply for the color of my skin?
If you wish to wear a hair shirt and flog yourself with grief, have on, but leave the rest of us out of it.
But.......I didn't have anything to do with it. Neither did my ancestors. Why do I hold special responsibility simply for the color of my skin?
If you wish to wear a hair shirt and flog yourself with grief, have on, but leave the rest of us out of it.
Good point. Mine didn't either. Even so, I try to learn from history but LIVE in the present. I also see the world pragmatically. I don't even have anything in common with my two sisters. I am almost the polar opposite of my own parents too. That's just one generation. Not sure why so many think others are somehow responsible for events in the past they had no control over. Also, how do so many have so much time to dwell on it? IDK, maybe some are independently wealthy with too much time on their hands...Most healthy, well balanced individuals choose to live in the present. After all, it's really all you have. Don't waste it.
What does it matter who it was created by? Fact is, slavery has been with us since ancient times, far before recorded history.
However, chattel slavery - the kind practiced in the US, where slaves were treated like animals and had their human rights completely stripped while simultaneously having their skin color used as justification for their subjugation and dehumanization - was created by Western Europeans like the British, Spanish, and Portuguese, and then adopted in the American colonies, where it took on a unique character moulded by the wealthy landowning classes in the US who depended on slave labor for their way of life.
I could go point by point but why bother? I see where this is headed; West and white man bad. The Barbary Coast beys were no picnic either and that's one example.
Quote:
Originally Posted by TOkidd
Slavery in America is largely credited with the US ability to become a wealthy nation and major power in such a short period of time. Many studies have demonstrated that, without slavery, America would never have been able to achieve this rapid buildup of wealth and power.
Slavery was evil but not essential to this process. The only reason that indentured servitude didn't work out was the need to adapt to a borderline-subtropical climate. Paid and powerless workers, think the Triangle Shirtwaist Company in New York, the Pullman Company and the like created lots of wealth for their owners. The only distinction was that slavery crossed color lines and people of color are darlings to the woke class. Why is there no such attention to the Oriental railroad workers? To quote your country's Gordon Lightfoot, "we are the navvies who work upon the railway....a dollar a day and a place for my head" After all they were paid $1 day and lost a lot of that to lodging costs. Is it because their descendants have troubled themselves to gain education and succeed?
Quote:
Originally Posted by TOkidd
Your statement is disingenuous because it doesn’t matter who created slavery. The fact is that Americans largely built their nation on the backs of African slaves through a particularly brutal form of chattel slavery. The idea may have come from Europe, but the vast majority of Americans practicing chattel slavery were Europeans or the ancestors of Europeans.
See above. Why is it only chattel slavery that matters?
Quote:
Originally Posted by TOkidd
I don’t understand why some Americans are so reluctant to come to terms with the “peculiar institution” that caused so much harm to so many millions. You and your family may not have kept slaves, but that doesn’t mean that white Americans can simply say, “well, I had nothing to do with it, so leave me out of this.”
What a whopper? My ancestors escaped, barely, from the Russian czars on one side. The other side departed penniless during the pre-WWI era, but another generation would have subject them to the Eisatzgruppen and the gas chambers.
Quote:
Originally Posted by TOkidd
As we’ve seen in Germany, the willingness of the populace to take responsibility for what their fathers, grandfathers, and countrymen did under the Nazis has helped the country heal without every other German complaining that they personally didn’t do anything and therefore have nothing to be sorry about.
What steps has the German populace taken to take responsibility?
Quote:
Originally Posted by TOkidd
Perhaps if America had followed through with Reconstruction and not seen the rise of Jim Crow, the Klan, race riots, and lynching after the Civil War, black Americans would have had a better chance to catch up to whites in regards to wealth and social status. But Jim Crow occurred within the lifetimes of many people still here, and that system of apartheid, segregated cities, and the ongoing problems of mass incarceration of black men for drug offenses and high rates of police brutality against the black community (to name but a few ongoing issues) continue to perpetuate a system in which many black people have a hard time catching up to their white countrymen.
Maybe you have a point there but that would have required virtually putting half the country on lockdown. In short it was impossible. As far as "mass incarceration" and "police brutality" that doesn't happen without being heavily involved in crime first.
Quote:
Originally Posted by TOkidd
Semantic games like “Americans didn’t invent slavery” does nothing to reduce their responsibility for their part in a brutal system and the legacy of mistreatment that has continued to the present day. Slavery may have ended a long time ago, but its legacy survives and you can either fight for equality or make disingenuous arguments, like saying that Americans didn’t event slavery. I mean, what does that matter? The Germans didn’t invent genocide either, but they did a damn good job at it anyways.
What are we supposed to do? Rend our clothes and mourn?
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