I know. It's stupid because we never even experienced the slavery and obviously you're here, so it wasn't like your great grandfather died because of it or something.

by Anonymous 13 years ago

Hahaha, I'm starting to think you're a troll. You can't be serious! Just because someone's alive, doesn't mean they didn't have a slave for an ancestor? They didn't kill slaves or castrate them. Why wouldn't slaves have kids? Especially the ones that were freed after the Civil War

by Anonymous 13 years ago

You misinterpreted this. And this was pretty poorly worded of me. What I'm trying to say is, yeah, the slaves did experience what should never have happened, but YOU don't deserve special treatment for what THEY went through. You're here, which would mean that A- your family line (if they were at one point slaves) were not treated so poorly that they died in slavery and ended the family line, or B- were freed.

by Anonymous 13 years ago

You can be treated terribly and still not die unless you're killed and death isn't the worst thing to happen to a person... and in addition to that, if your parents never had the chance to have good jobs, then that will affect you in a major way. If they're not educated that'll affect you. If a person was born with billionaires for parents then the chances they'll succeed is greater than a person that was left in the streets as a child. If not successful then at least rich.

by Anonymous 13 years ago

Also, I never said that if said person is alive that means their ancestors were never slaves.

by Anonymous 13 years ago

People like you annoy me. Have you ever wondered why Africa's in as bad of shape as it is today? Plus most black people would have gone back centuries ago if they had the means or anything waiting for them when they got there.

by Anonymous 13 years ago

Ever hear of the colonization movement?

by Anonymous 13 years ago

I know what it is. Like I said, they would have gone back if they had anything waiting for them there. They had no land or property, there was no government, and no infrastructure and everyone they knew was still in the United States. In addition, the survival rate in those "colonies" was extremely low back in those days and people didn't want to take that risk. They would've rather stayed somewhere that was familiar than go somewhere completely new with no survival experience and potentially die. Even if they had a life waiting for them there, the colonization movement ran out of funds and was shut down after only a few years.

by Anonymous 13 years ago

So they made the choice to stay because it was the best possible life they could have had.

by Anonymous 13 years ago

Not really, it was just slightly better than the only other available option. At least they thought so, fear of the unknown was a greater deciding factor than anything. They didn't know how to do anything else or live any other way because their morale had been so broken. It was by no means the best possible life.

by Anonymous 13 years ago

Good point, but again- this is not what the post is about.

by Anonymous 13 years ago

Actually, I think it is. The post implies that slavery somehow worked in black people's favor and that the only reason people didn't go back to Africa after being freed was because their lives were so good in the U.S. I'm simply pointing out that that's not the case.

by Anonymous 13 years ago

It states that slavery works for blacks that live NOW. Of course it sucked back in the day.

by Anonymous 13 years ago

Either way, I'm pointing out that that's not the case.

by Anonymous 13 years ago

This is one of your more ignorant posts, panda. Slavery wasn't the only thing that Africans worried about... Europe had divided Africa up into sections and took the land. They sucked out the natural resources and fought THEIR wars in Africa, wars that didn't have anything to do with Africa. So not only did they enslave the people, but they also took their land and made it as their own. Now I'm not saying African countries would have completely industrialized and become a developed countries, but what happened to Africa is kind of a huge setback. So telling black people to go home now would be like, taking someone away from their house, burning it down and burning down the houses of their neighbors and anyone that person mighta known and then telling their kid to "go back home." It wouldn't make any sense.

by Anonymous 13 years ago

Well it still doesn't make sense for someone to say that they should have special privileges because their great-great-grandfather was enslaved over 100 years ago by someone who's long dead.

by Anonymous 13 years ago

It kinda does... it's a huge setback. Slavery might not have existed, but segregation only ended about 60 years ago? That's only a generation ago. If you don't think being denied of your civil rights isn't a setback, then I don't know what to tell you. If you have a good background, chances are you'll do well. If you have generations of wealth being handed down to you, chances are you'll do better than a person who's parents weren't able to even get a job or go to a good school. Your past DOES effect you to a certain extent. I'm not saying it's impossible to be successful, but look at Bush that guy has nothing going for him, but he was the fucking president for 8 years, he ruined the whole world and got out of power, do you think he'd have had even the chance to run for president if his parents weren't loaded?

by Anonymous 13 years ago

There's no way you can say they'd be living a better life if slavery hadn't happened. When Europe took over Africa, Africa was already hundreds or even thousands of years behind, technologically. The slaves may have suffered the immediate consequences of the actions of the Europeans, but today's generation is much better off for it.

by Anonymous 13 years ago

No, no... no, no, nooo. The reason Africa was behind was because the continent is nice enough so that you don't have to struggle to make a good living. Europe was advanced, because they needed to in order to make a good living. Even though Africa was "behind" they could have still had a good living by themselves on their own. However, do the Europeans greediness they ended up ruining the land mining and what not and stealing all their natural resources. Africa isn't the only place the Europeans did this to. They also did it to South America, where they stole all the natural resources and then abandoned the whole place, except for some few settlements in the north. The whole continent was in shambles, because the Europeans took everything and just left. Living better doesn't necessarily mean living advanced with new technology....

by Anonymous 13 years ago

He didn't say that they should go there, he said that if their great-great-whatever grandparents had not been brought to Europe/America, then they would not be in such a good position now. Besides, it doesn't matter WHO screwed Africa over in this particular argument, it just matters that there are parts of it that are screwed.

by Anonymous 13 years ago

"If you'd rather be living in Africa, no one's stopping you. amirite?" That's what op said, meaning if you don't like America now, then you should go back. He can't be talking about back then, because the slave owners WOULD stop them.

by Anonymous 13 years ago

Africa is in shitty shape because of European imperialism; the carving up of Africa led to civil wars and the invasion of Africa by European nations led to disease so without whites us blacks would be well off...Retarded post

by Anonymous 13 years ago

Yes, what happened in the past sucked. However, it's time to move forward. Equality is for all people, not just for those who have a darker skin tone. Giving advantages to certain people to promote equality defeats the purpose of the word. Point being: if you want equality, you will be treated like everyone else and nothing more.

by Anonymous 13 years ago

This post is kind of ehh for me. Blacks don't deserve special rights because their great grandpappy worked in the cotten fields, and whites shouldn't be persecuted now because their great grandpappy owned said field. At my highschool, I was put inti mediation with a black girl I don't even know because I said something about a black man infront of her, and a white student reported me. (For the record, I had pointed to a holocast photo and said "That looks like a black guy" because they did have black prisoners) The girl had no problem with what I said, but my white principal did. He personally called me a white supremacist. Sorry iff the blond hair and pale skin fooled you, but Im only 20% white, the 80% is Cherokee. *sigh* It seems today, the only people offended by the past are those who screwed it up.

by Anonymous 13 years ago

My parents were both born in Africa and immigrated to the U.S. in the 1970s. Sorry, but I didn't need slavery to get here.

by Anonymous 12 years ago