THINK about this film and slavery in general? 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?
shareThe first recorded case of slavery in this country was one black man owned by another black man.
shareMy family was in Canada or in what was known as the Connecticut Valley. I think there should have been a day like tomorrow when the whites and blacks reversed the roles, similar to what Brits do on Boxing Day. I would love a "Mammy" growing up...black or white.
shareMy ancestors, who were all white, did nothing at all to black people.
Get me a bromide! And put some gin in it!
I was raised to see all people as equals and to not judge them. That's how I live my life.
How do you expect or want me to feel?
Well, let's see. I'm Irish and my ancestors emigrated to the North after the potato famine (on my father's side of the family) and came in from Canada (on my mother's side of the family). I can honestly say that my ancestors had no part in the slave trade, which is good. I am not about to let the North off without some criticism, though. Northern businessmen profited from the rum-molasses-slavery business as did northern farmers who grew a specific type of corn used to make the food fed to the slaves. Slavery was a despicable institution, the fact that it was profitable making it all the worse. Even when it was abolished, it would be unofficially tolerated via Jim Crow laws until the African Americans had enough!
shareIt makes me feel sick. It's disgusting and I struggle to understand how people were able to do that to other people. I struggle to understand how anyone can do things that cruel and evil to other people. I don't understand racism and it hurts me and angers me that, sadly, there are still many racist people around today. They might not take their hatred to those extremes but the way they speak about people and treat them is still unacceptable and horrible.
I feel bad for the people that it happened to and I feel disgusted at the people that did it but I personally don't have any guilt. I know that I have never and would never do anything like that to anyone, I know that none of my family and friends have or would do anything like that either. My grandparents or great grandparents never owned slaves, I don't 100% know about the ones before them so I can't say for them. So while I do find it all appalling and vile, I don't have any personal guilt because I know I've never been involved and I'm not responsible for the actions of some evil doers many years ago.
HEY BLACK GUY...LET ME THINK... ;)
Why would I feel responsible for what somebody else has done on another continent??
It seems you are implying that we are all identifying ourselves with our race more than anything else.
Just like I don't feel responsible for my grand dad being in the SS voluntarily, I don't feel responsible for slavery in any way whatsoever.
However I can feel empathy towards all the victims in history, not just the black slaves. There's just as much *beep* going on today, slavery in the USA has just received a *beep* of media attention compared to other crimes against humanity, even those that happen right now.
People in my family died during WWII, I've never even had a grandmother. Yet I wouldn't blame some Brit because his granddad dropped a bomb onto our city. I've never felt history as something that would still stand between me and people from other nations 2-3 generations later.
If history tells us one thing about humanity, it's that people have the potential to do immense damage to another person and our generation is not a tad better than those of our ancestors of the last few thousand years, nor are whites any worse than Asians or Blacks or whichever race.
So whatever wrong was done to people of a certain race or nation, we should all just keep in mind what happened, try to handle things better than our ancestors and most importantly forgive.
in the North opposed slavery! That's why was it was abolished! Why don't people ever remember that???
shareWhat makes me laugh is that no one remembers it was the WHITES who helped free the slaves.. the slaves did not do it on their own. It was the WHITES who marched on Washington with the blacks in the 60s... it was the WHITE US presidents, Kennedy & Johnson, who advanced civil rights as far as possible at the time--including signing the 1965 Civil Rights Act. It was WHITES who voted Obama into office, because there are way more whites than minorities.
So.... I ask you, who exactly are these racist whites we still talk about today? If the majority of whites are NOT racist?
Also, keep in mind.. BLACK MEN acquired voting rights in 1880s, WOMEN did not (even white women) until 1920. A black man ran for Vice President in the 19th century.. he was not killed or lynched.
There were blacks who attended Ivy League Universities even during slavery. So this "whites keep us down" attitude gets old.
And YES, I can prove my family did not come to US until 1920 (Italy) and 1930 (Germany). I dont feel guilty for anyone elses actions.
If blacks want to complain about their situations.. maybe they should get together and improve their own communities. Volunteer to work in the schools, to provide programs for the kids. The Black Panthers had the right idea with the community service, but their failure to endure (yeah, i know.. it was the white FBI) gave rise to the gangs that run rampant and kill each other today.
If blacks want to advance... STOP killing each other. STOP trying to separate yourselves--- that is what you do when you keep going on and on about black pwoer and "we deserve, we were slaves" etc. You want to blame us for lack of equality and assimilation, yet blacks separate themselves. So make up your minds.
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