WHITE PEOPLE...WHAT DO YOU...

[deleted]

I just finished watching this and I thought it was amazing. In answer to the original poster though, I am a 26 year old white man and I feel no responsibility for the actions of my ancestors, of course it was absolutely despicable the way the black people were treated but I do not feel it has anything to do with me the same way that I don't think the Germans of today should be blamed for the Holocaust. What I think is odd though is that today in Eastern Europe there are more slaves than there has ever been before and this should be given a lot more coverage and attention as it is truly a terrible state of affairs.

Actually, my intent was to say that Irish immigrants were looked down upon and discriminated against in circa-1900 America, as African Americans were. In 1900 America, there were no slaves, and there had not been slaves for 35 years. However, ex-slaves and their children were still looked down upon and disciminated against, abused, lynched, etc. So I was not comparing the experience of Irish immigrants to slaves, at least at the time my ancestors came here, because there WERE no slaves at that time. Just certain classes of people (African Americans, Irish Americans, Polish Americans) who were looked down upon by a "ruling class".

[deleted]

Te_Marie, The Irish were socially relegated by White Americans as similar to Blacks. Actually every new group that immigrated to the United States was treated as such and experienced xenophobia. It's not the same as being Black, because Black is the antithesis of White, but the Irish were not accepted with open arms, but they still had privilege over Blacks because they looked White. Eventually, the Irish gained social mobility and were accepted as "White" by Whites. With a booming economy, the U.S expanded its workforce by hiring more Whites (European immigrants) and excluding Blacks. I also graduated from college.

Did you ever take any classes on race and ethnicity or gender and class? I am absolutely obsessed with race, gender and class. There's a book called How the Irish Became White...I have it somewhere in storage and I'm going to get around to reading it one day.

Te_marie, who ISN'T a college graduate? It's not as if it's a mark of distinction anymore.
Google "No Irish Need Apply."






Get me a bromide! And put some gin in it!

Maybe b/c modern day slavery still exist today as well as oppression against blacks. Actually, I know more non-blacks who complain about what the WHITE MAN did to them, so just because you don 't know of any complaining doesn't mean there aren't any. And how do you know what your ancestors did?

I am a white male (half anyway, white, not male) and do not feel guilty about what people that may or may not have been related to me did hundreds of years ago, or even a hundred years ago.

With that being said, I do have great sympathy for African Americans and the struggles they have overcome in the past hundred years, African Americans where not treated with the same humanity as Anglo/Wasp Americans....

However, I think that it should be said that Americans and "whites" are not the only people/group to have enslaved or treated other human beings this way but sometimes it seems like white americans suffer the burden more than other groups or countries. It's not fair, its not fair for whites or blacks, or browns or yellow or any other race, but it has been a fact of life for a very long time and YES even Africans had slaves and decimated whole populations of people.

Its a sad mark on our history as humans, one we should never forget, but should learn to get past.

anyone wants to chat about it can email I dont really check these much
[email protected]

[deleted]

Well said.

flygrl191:

"Why are the black people the only ones still going on and on about what happened"

Ever here the expression from jews "Never forgive, never forget" about the HOllocaust?

The Jews did want and recive justice for what happened and still want war criminals hunted down.

"We all want our own race to succeed and noone else's"

That is exactly, exactly what Hitler and the nazi's preached. Exactly. Damn the Jews. We want Germany to win. But its not true. There were germans who didn't think that way and SChindler was only one. And whites marched with King.


"Just like black people have not come from Africa. If you do some research you'll find that the actual African's HATE that black people in the U.S are called "African Americans".

A chinese person born in America, is called Chinese after the country. He would be called Chinese American if he never even saw China so would the Irish, German and all others.

The posting was very ignorant.

If you do some research you'll find that the actual African's HATE that black people in the U.S are called "African Americans".

True, but (according to my Nigerian ex) it's more because Americans generalize the entire continent to represent the same people. It's the same as calling Iraqis "Asian" because Iraq is on the continent of Asia. The vast cultural/national differences deserve more respect than being considered one in the same out of laziness and ignorance.

[deleted]

Trust me, I know exactly where my ancestor's came from. It's called a family tree which my aunt found our relatives dating back to the 1500's. NONE of us lived in the south or owned any slaves. We have lived in the midwest always.

Bohemian...okay, after sleeping on it and feeling less emotional than when I wrote my comments, I admit it isn't EVERY black person, but it truly is a lot of them, many, many more than back in the 70's.

The rest of my comments I stand behind.

[deleted]

I got this in an email, not sure if anyone else has. It's all true, but most of you posting on this subject are black so you will NOT understand the truthfullness of this. White people will.


"Proud To Be White

Someone finally said it.
How many are actually paying attention to this?

There are African Americans, Mexican Americans,
Asian Americans, Arab Americans, Native Americans, etc.
And then there are just Americans.

You pass me on the street and sneer in my direction.
You Call me "White boy," "Cracker," "Honkey,"
"Whitey," "Caveman" .. And that's OK.

But when I call you, *beep* Towel head, *beep*
Camel Jockey, Beaner, *beep* or *beep* ... You call me a racist.

You say that whites commit a lot of violence against you,
So why are the ghettos the most dangerous places to live?

You have the United Negro College Fund. You have Martin Luther King
Day. You have Black History Month. You have Cesar Chavez Day. You have Ma'uled Al-Nabi You have the NAACP.
You have BET.

If we had WET (White Entertainment Television) .. We'd be racists.
If we had a White Pride Day .. You would call us racists.
If we had White History Month We'd be racists.
If we had any organization for only whites to "advance" OUR lives ..
We'd be racists.

We have a Hispanic Chamber of Commerce, a Black Chamber of
Commerce, and then we just have the plain Chamber of Commerce.
Wonder who pays for that?

If we had a college fund that only gave white students scholarships
... You know we'd be racists. There are over 60 openly proclaimed
Black Colleges in the US , yet if there were "White colleges" ..
THAT would be a racist college.

In the Million Man March, you believed that you were marching
For your race and rights. If we marched for our race and rights,
You would call us racists.

You are proud to be black, brown, yellow and orange, and you're
Not afraid to announce it. But when we announce our white pride ..
You call us racists.

You rob us, carjack us, and shoot at us. But, when a white police officer
Shoots a black gang member or beats up a black drug-dealer running
From the law and posing a threat to society .. You call him a racist.

I am proud.
But, you call me a racist.

Why is it that only whites can be racists?"

If it wasn't for my horse
giddy-up giddy-up
I wouldn't have spent that year in college.

Well, that's what the OP asked, heh. "Do you really feel bad for what your ancestors did to blacks, do you care or do you feel it has nothing to do with you?" I really feel that it has nothing to do with me, for the reasons that I listed.

I don't know, I think that some people use slavery as an excuse not to move ahead. There have been a lot of disenfranchised ethnicities--not just black people.

Whoops i stand corrected on myself LOL, slavery lasted oh roughly 225 YEARS!!!! OMG WTF were people thinking?? This answered my question a couple days ago that i can no longer find about how were the slaves' families already born here, well yea that'll happen when slavery was around since the 1640's! THAT would be a great documentary about slavery in general, how it started, why it started-and you can't say lazy white men lol-everything about it in general. If they would, i'd like to see nobody's do that movie. I don't like seeing famous people doing movies that like, it's not realistic. If they have made a movie-not roots-let me know :o)

WWDSD?
What Would Dwight Schrute Do?

Umm, slavery's been around forever and is still around today. The triangle trade was just one of many forms of it.

Anyway, I'm sorry, but there's no comparing the triangle trade to the Holocaust. Slavery was an economic enterprise; the Holocaust was a deliberate attempt to kill off an entire race (genocide.) One of the goals of slavery, whatever it might have seemed, was to keep the slaves alive, because a dead slave can't do much work. Plus, a lot of people in the Holocaust were forced to do slave labor, under much worse living conditions.

The problem is that a lot of you (understandably) can't look at this objectively.