Civilized said:
SupplyChainPack said:
I'm saying that the statement: " European colonialism's history from a human rights/human toll standpoint is almost indescribably horrific" is exquisitely selective outrage and gives no context whatsoever of the world that existed at that time.
Slavery was prevalent on the African continent at that time. In fact, it existed (has existed) throughout the history of the African continent. It was Arab muslims who were the early practitioners of buying and selling slaves from Africa - men and women who had already been enslaved by other Africans. But the practice of exporting slaves from Africa went back at least to the Roman empire.
Monstrously, it was common for Africans to use their (African) slaves as human sacrifices.
Incredibly, slavery still exists in Africa to this day - though, oddly, this ongoing practice seems to be of little concern to Western liberals.
This "but but but other people are bad too!!1" argument is so weak. It doesn't hold up when your kid comes home in trouble for pulling pigtails saying "...but but but Jack did it too!!" much less when you're talking about global human rights atrocities.
The scale of slavery exploded when Europeans globalized it and it went trans-Atlantic. Africans were complicit in it too and blood is on their hands too. So...what? What do you do with that information? Use it to make yourself feel better? Use it to avoid taking action here in this country, where there is clearly action to be taken, because other people did it too?
We have an obligation to recognize and fight oppression and cruelty wherever it happens but it's obviously most practicable to fight the battles in the country you live in first/foremost.
Dude....we don't have slaves anymore. Haven't for a long, long time.
It's time to stop blaming everyone on slavery. The repercussions of the end of slavery certainly stuck around for quite awhile...but they're gone.
The only thing today that is holding back black people is.....black people.
It's time they step up to the challenge of America. It's there for anyone to accept. They (as a whole) are not doing their part. And it's not because white people are holding them back.
As I've said many times....education is the key. They will never be, or feel, "equal" to white people....until they actually ARE. And that means they need to start taking education seriously. Do that, and their outcomes as adults will get better, and they will be "accepted" , for lack of a better term.
Until that happens, everything else that is done or suggested is just pissing into the wind.
We can cease everything that BLM feels is "oppressive and racist" and it won't change the facts or outcomes of black people. Only education and work ethic will do that. The Civil Rights era was supposed to help give blacks access to the same opportunities that everyone else had.
They have that now, and have for quite some time...they're not taking advantage of it.
