MovieChat Forums > The Birth of a Nation (2016) Discussion > It seems awfully racist to blames whites...

It seems awfully racist to blames whites for slavery.

posted 8 years ago by pimbatat1
31 replies | jump to latest

If I were to go back in time to when slavery was in effect, I would point to the people who owned slaves and say that only they were responsible for slavery. The people who didn't own slaves had nothing to do with it.

To blame all whites for slavery is generalizing, and we all know that generalizing a whole people is racist. For instance, if I were to say "All blacks are criminals", that would be racist, because only those blacks who are committing the crimes are. To say otherwise would be generalizing an entire race, i.e. being racist. Now why would saying "All whites are responsible for slavery" be any different?

The fact of the matter is, while the great majority of blacks today are descended from slaves, only a small minority of whites alive today are descended from slave owners. Most whites today are either immigrants, who moved here from Europe during the 20th century, or their children. Of the rest of the whites, only a small fraction of them had ancestors who ever owned slaves. In the last census taken by the US government the year before the beginning of the Civil War, only 1.4% of whites owned slaves.

Blacks understandably want someone to hate for slavery, but the truth is, the people who they want to hate are long dead. They died 150 years ago. They're all ghosts now. For blacks to transfer their hate to whites living today is not only desperate and misguided, but I would say all-out racist.

[–] Badass_123 8 years ago

When a black person mugs someone, nobody says "The blacks just mugged someone."
But people feel comfortable saying "Whites committed slavery".
How sad that double standard is.

[–] KingCobra686 8 years ago

If I were to go back in time to when slavery was in effect, I would point to the people who owned slaves and say that only they were responsible for slavery. The people who didn't own slaves had nothing to do with it.

Not completely true. Here is the order in which I would assign blame:

1) Anyone actively involved in the slave trade. These people were the root of the problem.
2) Cruel slave owners. These are the slave owners who treated slaves as subhumans and abused them far worse forcing them to work.
3) Nicer slave owners. These people might have treated their slaves nicer and were only using them for economic reasons, but they were just as much part of the problem.
4) Anyone in government or law who had a chance to help change things but didnt.
5) Racist people who promoted the idea that blacks were lesser humans and ok to enslave.
6) Anyone who disapproved of slavery but turned a blind eye and stayed neutral.

To blame all whites for slavery is generalizing

True, but who exactly are you referring to here? Who is going around saying this? Anyone in a serious discussion about slavery realizes that not all whites were to blame and not everyone involved was of equal blame.