Quoted for truth. I remember white people in history class saying that a lot of white people that came to America came by means of indentured servitude and comparing that to slavery, it is not comparable.
Agree as bad as ever immigrant had it. . . at least they had each other they had their family They never lived with the fear that their family would be 'sold down river' Daughter would be raped on the regular Men Whipped in to submission mained for simply 'running away' Raising not only their children but the children of the rapist killed for learning to read The list goes on Having Family and Family security is a BIGGIE Rocket River
American slavery became racially tinged when blacks were born into it. While there were white slaves, they were released after obligations were paid. It's an entirely different and grotesque matter.
What obligations do/did slaves have? I believe you are thinking of indentured servitude which is not slavery.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coolies I'm not saying that it was on the same level as the black slave trade, but saying that all other immigrant "slaves" or "indentured servants" came here of their own free will is...to be honest, lunacy. You must not have heard about the intense racism that Southeast asians suffered through during many parts of American and European colonial history. Chinese Exclusion Act ring a bell?
Were these people forced to enlist? From what you have posted it still looks like it was their choice so they basically did come here on their own free will. Nobody forced them to go anywhere. Nobody is arguing they weren't treated badly.
How many slaves are still alive? How long must the pity party continue? Slavery is over. You can choose to put it behind you and move on with your life or you can continue the pity party, sulking, feelings of revenge, feelings of entitlement, and the need to make whitey feels like he owes you something. The fact that blacks' culture is so incredibly self destructive by not emphasizing schooling and the family makes it seem like racism is what's holding them back. Newsflash - it's not. They have bigger problems, but instead they choose to blast whitey for what last happened in the 1800s.
Oh really? Reply to this post (#62 in this thread) and this post (#78 in this thread), then. I dare you to refute them. But of course, you won't. You'll slink away like you and TJ always do.
even if you argue that the problem is "the great society", it still shows that black family structure was fragile to begin with. secondly it still doesn't address the problem of education
I agree. Subsidizing single motherhood and rewarding some bad behaviors has destroyed families across US society, but since African Americans had fewer social constructs preventing them, they have been hit harder. Since education is mostly a reflection of society (IMO), it's an auxillary problem. I don't deny lingering effects from slavery or Jim Crow, but we have major governmental problems today that, while they aren't holding anyone back individually, they are weakening the fabric of our society and perpetuating destructive behavior.
I'll give you an example of how bad this argument is. totally random, I don't even know where I heard this but I can back this with some web information. I heard a statistic that the average life expectancy of a black person around 1900 was 34 years. The average life expectancy of a white male at that time was 48 years. IOW, blacks weren't doing that well to begin with before the Great Society. I think the perception of the Great Society hurting blacks is confused with crime statistics, which begin to jump also because of drug offenses.
I'd argue it's the predominant reason today. I in no way wish to convey that the damage was not initiated in slavery/jim crow.
Look, no one’s arguing that people don’t use it as a crutch. The argument is whether or not it has an affect on African Americans. I think we have all agreed that there has been major progress in discrimination and most believe there is more progress to be made. That’s an affect. I really don’t see how it is an argument. Black people aren’t stagnant. In other places where African slavery and legal discrimination ended earlier, blacks do much better in school. For instance, my future mother in law is from Barbados. They gained freedom a little earlier than blacks here but discrimination ended much earlier than it did here too because the island is so overwhelmingly black. The students there finish high school 2 years before we do here and are generally more intelligent, and black. Blacks from England also enjoyed freedom from slavery and legal discrimination earlier than here and seem to do better in school. So, the lack of emphasis on schooling is not a black problem but specifically an African American problem. So lets see, slavery and discrimination ends earlier people are further along. Slavery and discrimination ends later people aren’t as far along. It seems like the issues are more time dependant than value dependant to me. Sure slavery ended in the 1800's but a pseudo slavery/indentured servitude culture existed well into the 1900's, jim crow laws lasted even longer than that, so you're looking at a few decades of legal equality. "See, we took the chains off. Why can't you catch up boy" "Give me some time, and I will"
