What my parents taught me about slavery and racism

[Napoleon]

Dude, you literally stated that the practices of the Congo Free State were okay because they “advanced human civilization”.

That isn’t what I said. What I said is that they perished (most of them in a pandemic of African Sleeping Sickness) in a higher purpose to advance a greater civilization in a thread with the OP alternative of placing the fate of society in the hands of whackadoodle witchdoctors who claim they suck at decisions because the British magically stole their dreams.

 

[Questerr]

That isn’t what I said. What I said is that they perished (most of them in a pandemic of African Sleeping Sickness) in a higher purpose to advance a greater civilization in a thread with the OP alternative of placing the fate of society in the hands of whackadoodle witchdoctors who claim they suck at decisions because the British magically stole their dreams.

So if non-whites enslaved all white people and worked them to death, it would be okay if those deaths served the higher purpose of advancing a greater civilization?

 

[reflechissez]

British cancelled African dreams, literally

A substantial number of the wars and insurgencies currently ongoing in Africa today have their roots directly tied to colonialism. Ignoring that is foolish. Something can be “not utopia” and still a hell of a lot better than it was after decades of colonialism. you are correct-the artificial...

debatepolitics.com

It starts at post 31.

Damn. What's wrong with that guy?

 

[reflechissez]

That isn’t what I said. What I said is that they perished (most of them in a pandemic of African Sleeping Sickness) in a higher purpose to advance a greater civilization in a thread with the OP alternative of placing the fate of society in the hands of whackadoodle witchdoctors who claim they suck at decisions because the British magically stole their dreams.

This is not a good look.

 

[Napoleon]

So if non-whites enslaved all white people and worked them to death, it would be okay if those deaths served the higher purpose of advancing a greater civilization?

It would certainly give their death meaning. As opposed to getting speared because some crazy witchdoctor says so.

 

[Questerr]

It would certainly give their death meaning.

Every death has meaning, but that not something a white supremacist would understand.

 

[Napoleon]

Every death has meaning, but that not something a white supremacist would understand.

99.99% of humans to walk this earth lived and died and nobody knows they even existed. Meaning and immortality in death is only ever granted to those who make a notable difference.

 

[Questerr]

99.99% of humans to walk this earth lived and died and nobody knows they even existed. Meaning and immortality in death is only ever granted to those who make a notable difference.

Why does society at large have to know or remember someone for their death to have meaning? At the very least, every death has meaning to the person who dies.

 

[Napoleon]

Why does society at large have to know or remember someone for their death to have meaning? At the very least, every death has meaning to the person who dies.

Because meaning is decided by the living.

 

[Questerr]

Because meaning is decided by the living.

Says who? People like you who apologize for acts of genocide?

 

[Napoleon]

Says who? People like you who apologize for acts of genocide?

Says reality. The dead have no opinions on the matter and a pandemic of African Sleeping Sickness is not genocide.

 

[Questerr]

Says reality. The dead have no opinions on the matter.

Demonstrate your claim.

 

[Napoleon]

Demonstrate your claim.

You need me to demonstrate for you that the dead have no opinions?

 

[Questerr]

You need me to demonstrate for you that the dead have no opinions?

Can someone decide meaning for their death before they die?

 

[mrjurrs]

I lived in a segregated part of the South when I first learned about slavery and the fact that white people enslaved black people. When I questioned them, my parents told me that yes it happened, but I was not responsible for what happened a hundred years ago. They told me though that I was responsible for how I treated people of other color in my own life. I have always tried since then to do as they asked. I have not always been perfect, I suspect no one has, but have done the best I could. Instead of basically not telling out children of our nations history of slavery and racism, maybe they should do as my parents did.

Did they also explain to you how they (and you) benefited from the efforts of slaves while the slaves didn't?

 

[Chillfolks]

I lived in a segregated part of the South when I first learned about slavery and the fact that white people enslaved black people. When I questioned them, my parents told me that yes it happened, but I was not responsible for what happened a hundred years ago. They told me though that I was responsible for how I treated people of other color in my own life. I have always tried since then to do as they asked. I have not always been perfect, I suspect no one has, but have done the best I could. Instead of basically not telling out children of our nations history of slavery and racism, maybe they should do as my parents did.

Not sure when you were a kid but, as teen in the late 80’s early 90’s that was the approach my parents and school system took. This seems like a very reasonable approach so it will be resisted by both sides

 

[Napoleon]

Can someone decide meaning for their death before they die?

Someone can wish for it but that doesn’t make it so. In almost all cases, it will be as though you never existed at all.

 

[Tigerace117]

Pointing out the error of your emotional assessment of the Congo Free State is not apologism.

Except you didn’t “point out any errors”......you just blathered on about how being worked to death by a bunch of sociopathic European thugs wasn’t so bad because, gee, in your fantasies it was for a “greater civilization”.

 

[Questerr]

Someone can wish for it but that doesn’t make it so. In almost all cases, it will be as though you never existed at all.

So what *objectively* determines meaning if an individual can’t determine it for themselves?

 

[mrjurrs]

Higher high school dropout rates, higher teen pregnancy rates, higher single parent households, and lower college attendance. Yeah, if you’re a high school dropout with an absentee baby daddy then your prospects in life are poor. End of story.

So tell me, are all those outcomes because of a deficiency of a race, or is there something else at play here?

 

[Napoleon]

Except you didn’t “point out any errors”......you just blathered on about how being worked to death by a bunch of sociopathic European thugs wasn’t so bad because, gee, in your fantasies it was for a “greater civilization”.

Of course I did. You made the claim that millions were murdered. That is a lie. The truth is that almost all of them died in a pandemic of African sleeping sickness.

 

[Tigerace117]

[

Of course I did. You made the claim that millions were murdered. That is a lie. The truth is that almost all of them died in a pandemic of African sleeping sickness.

Oh really?

Atrocities in the Congo Free State - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

At LEAST five million people died as a result of the Congo “Free State”’s policies. As I already pointed out, there were numerous diseases ravaging the people of the Congo, and because they were being both starved to death and worked to death they died in vast numbers.

The truth is that Leopold II and every last one of his cronies should have hung for the atrocities they committed in the Congo.

 

[Napoleon]

So tell me, are all those outcomes because of a deficiency of a race, or is there something else at play here?

Certainly not. What the race baiters don’t want us to remember is that the problem resides within a minority of black people. They want you to believe that Keisha is a waste of flesh because slavery. They don’t want you examining the truth that Keisha is where she is in life because, unlike the majority of her racial peers, she chose to drop out of high school and make babies.

 

[Napoleon]

So what *objectively* determines meaning if an individual can’t determine it for themselves?

There’s nothing objective about it. Objectively, no life has meaning in the grand scheme of the cosmos.

 

[americanwoman]

First, my parents were both from the north and had little to do at that time with people of color as there were just not around. We moved to the South as part of my father's military career, so I doubt he had much to do with creating the segregation in the South at that time. He did though, while in the service, help black servicemen to achieve, getting them into schools and training them to attain higher levels while in the service. He lived his life as he taught us to live ours.

It's just interesting during segregation when the discussion was slavery it was all "no responsibility for white people because that was in the past" with absolutely no comprehension of the fact white people were still enslaving black people at that time - just not by 'owning' them. It was still excused though because they were just not around and had little to do with POC. At least your father did something positive where it counts, I will give him that.