Not to be too insensitive, but slaves were paid with clothes, food, & shelter. Just because you get something in return doesn't mean you were treated properly, or even had the option to quit. I'm not sure what the chinese could do. They were used as dirt cheap labor, but they were certainly treated awful. To see racism towards Asians you don't have to go back that far. I know the Japanese-Americans were placed in camps during WW2. I wonder how Orientals were treated during Korean & Vietnamese wars. I think Muslims or people of Indian/Middle Eastern decent are facing a higher amount of racism post 9/11. I agree with Distence in the sense that nobody here has ever been a slave in the United States. In fact I doubt anyones grandparents were even enslaved. I don't even know how many posters were alive in the civil rights era. There are some that believe they are entitled to reperations of some sort, even though they have no real connection to those struggles. What makes it even more frustrating is when something gets projected on to white people as a whole. Why would I owe somebody for something I did not participate in, or for that matter even know someone that did?
Wake the F up. Railroaders saw how good they worked and then were on a mission to buy as many as possible. Chinese girls were sold into prostitution, and they had boats here bringing as many as possible. Once the RR was finished they were obviously disliked and a "problem" for white people, just like black freed men.
wait wait wait...ii'm well aware of sex slave trade. that existed FOREVER. and the chinese have absolutely been victims of that!!! but you were talking about railroad workers. and those men weren't slaves. yes they were subjected to awful working conditions...but they were paid and were free to leave...free to compete for other jobs. that's when white folks got pissed and changed the laws, sending a bunch back to China and the starvation they ran to the US from. but that's still very different from the African slave trade.
I would prefer a new thread than the racist thread to talk about chinese slavery because the more I talk about it here it makes me look like I am marginalizing the african slave trade.
CaseyH, Can you provide a link where it shows that Chinese railroad workers were slaves? I've read that they were under extreme discrimination because of their race but never that they were slaves. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/First_Transcontinental_Railroad_(North_America)) (I know you won't because you hate african americans and are trying to undermine the severity of what african americans went through during slavery.)
What mindset? and who is talking about reparations? When it comes to reparations, some people want money from the gov't. Of course I say there needs to be reparations owed from the gov't in some manner and it doesnt entail giving money. Whether its supporting the advancement of disadvantaged or even paying homage to these slaves and native americans. Just remember slaves had no right to vote and were counted 3/5 of a person back then in the constitution and We as African Americans don't have that right to vote either today....when it comes to the constitution like other cultures have the right to do. You may want to read up on that one.
i'm not sure there's a debate here, really. unless you have a source that indicates they were slaves. i provided a source that indicates they were paid and given housing and food such that they were actually able to have something left over after basic living expenses. i would submit that is substantially different from how slaves were treated in this country.
the lower income class are usually the most difficult people to deal with, why? They ain't got no money!!!
WOW stream. 1. You provide clothing and shelter and food so that they dont die and you lose out on your investment. I'm sure they loved to uncloth the women back in those days also 2. Then slaves are freed they meet Jim Crow for the next 100 yrs 3. Were Asians, Hispanics, Middle East, not allowed to vote or were they counted as a piece of a human in American Law? I dont believe so.
blacks for the most part have only been able to vote, go to equal schools, hold any type of office of share in the power structure for 55 or less. For most of these things less. If you think 400 years of slavery and legalized discrimination are all of a sudden erased in less than 50 years and everyone has exactly the same advantages now, you are crazy. Despite this, nobody has mentioned reparations.
If you want to talk about some real obvious racism, why is it you hardly ever see a black man working at Chik-fil-a, or a white guy at KFC? It works that way a lot in fast food. It was also that way at the Wal-Mart I used to work at. It was mostly black women on the registers, and black men working in the back. The sales floor was fairly mixed though.
Did anyone ever see the Sopranos with Montel Williams, the Native American and the Jew (this is not a crappy joke it was an actual scene) They sat around and argued about whose race got screwed worse.
I don't agree with reparations for past wrongs that happened to your ancestors centuries ago. I don't believe you can show how it negatively affects you nowadays, because I believe in America that you can become something out of nothing. And I don't agree with giving any type of advantages for minorities because it is reverse discrimination (eg affirmative action). But these topics are best left to another thread. This topic has already been derailed far off course.
Reparations get a bad name b/c people take it they must pay for what others did and that's not the case. The govt profited off of this for one thing free of charge so give THOSE people a posthumously honor for their work. Now with minorities and how the past correlates to the present. Its like running a race that the one runner got a 100 yr head start. I agree that America, NOW is a land where anyone can come up but the disadvantages for certain cultures were caused due to "legalized racism and slavery" and that isn't just for blacks. We're talking about a whole culture on the bottom of a totem pole. A helping hand doesnt hurt anyone. if you have a hand to provide. This is the type of dialogue I like having Duncan
I said they were mistreated, though they did recieve something for working. The matter of being paid isn't the big problem with slavery. In fact many slaves continued to work after being freed because there really were no better options. It is completely about the way they were treated and the fact that they were not free. I'm sure they've been disallowed from voting. You realize that the Jim Crow laws forced non-affluent whites from voting too. I also have been told that women of any race did not have any right to vote. You used to have to own land to vote. There were also these people now known as American Indians that were forced from their homes and forced to continually march west and forced onto reservations. Before that they were often killed, raped, or used as slaves. There is no shortage of discrimination in this country or anywhere in this world. The Jews may have gotten it worse than anybody when you look at their history.
