From: James Rogers (jamesr@best.com)
Date: Mon Jul 30 2001 - 11:57:01 MDT
On 7/30/01 7:49 AM, "Olga Bourlin" <fauxever@sprynet.com> wrote:
>
> Couldn't let this one slide. Every single wrong perpetrated in this country
> does not need to be resurrected. Most of the wrongs have "corrected
> themselves," anyway.
If most of the wrongs eventually correct themselves, then why bother with
reparations? And what about the effort expended by other groups to make the
problem correct itself? Are you going to discount their suffering and
effort to make things right?
> The black experience has proven to be more entrenched due to its length of
> time (hundreds of years), and due to unique particulars. There may be some
> similarities (of wrongs experienced by blacks to those experienced by other
> ethnic groups) ... but there's fundamentally no comparison:
This is simply wrong, and shows a lack of historical knowledge with respect
to the New World. You do know that blacks were not the only slaves in this
country, don't you? Why haven't you included the Filipino slaves from the
18th century? Why haven't you included the Chinese, who've been in this
country almost as long as the blacks and were essentially treated as badly
until well into the 20th century? And these are just some easy examples, if
you study, you will find many more.
Lots of ethnic groups suffered from slavery and persistent abuse in this
country, many well into the 20th century. You only think of the blacks
because they are the only good example of a group that didn't "correct
themselves". If the other "underclasses" managed to right themselves within
a generation or two, why haven't the blacks? The superlatives that you heap
on the tragedy that the blacks suffered are equally applicable to other
ethnic groups in this country; you either aren't aware of it or you are
discounting their herculean efforts.
-James Rogers
jamesr@best.com
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