From: Chuck Kuecker (ckuecker@mcs.net)
Date: Mon Jul 30 2001 - 12:21:39 MDT
At 07:49 AM 7/30/01 -0700, you 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.
>
>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:
>
>Ten million to twenty-five million (estimates vary) Africans dead on slave
>ships before arriving to our shores for the privilege of being sold; 246
>years of slavery (something not experienced by any other
>ethnic/racial group) (rape, murder, torture, and lynching of slaves legal);
>100 more years of de jure segregation (rape, murder, torture and lynching of
>black American citizens tolerated); still ongoing de facto segregation after
>all those hundreds of years of mean yesterdays; a broken underclass - like
>no other underclass in the United States - today.
>
>Olga
Slavery was evil. It still is evil, and millions suffered and died because
of it. No argument there.
I could pick nits about the time spent as slaves - slavery has been a
constant part of human civilization for thousands of years. Certain groups
have been singled out for mass abuse at different times. Other ethnic
groups around the world have been subject to rape, torture, and murder at
the hands of bigots, not just blacks. The only big difference with black
slavery in America is that it is close to home, and personal.
As to de-facto segregation of blacks, at least here in the Chicago area it
is heavily fueled by federally and state funded housing and welfare
systems. The broken underclass is a direct result of Big Brother's warm
embrace of the poorest blacks - something no other ethnic group has ever
had in America. When you pass laws encouraging the breakup of families, and
rewarding unemployment, what do you expect?
Racism will continue at a rate directly proportional to the level of
perceived special treatment of the despised people. As long as the US
government continues to make some classes of people different than others
in terms of treatment, there will be those who will despise that whole
class of people for this reason.
Forced integration and the like have had mixed success in this country.
Black people are successfully integrating themselves into communities and
workplaces on the merits of their own abilities and resources, just like
immigrants from all around the world have. Personally, I have much more
respect for a person who is willing to do something to better his position
in life than for someone who sits around whining for more federal handouts
because of whatever evils befell his forebears.
If there had never been black slaves brought here, we would likely never
have developed an intense racism against blacks, and African immigrants
would have had no harder time integrating than Irish or Chinese people did
- both groups also suffered mass discrimination when they arrived, you may
remember.
Chuck Kuecker
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