The problem with slavery wasn’t that people sold slaves, it was that people were willing to take away the human dignity of others for their own economic gain. The market in the USA was created by whites who wanted to make money on the backs of others.

What is the greater and more damning offense? Any one with a moral compass above the age of three would acknowledge that the system of slavery was the more evil. And if others did not sell people into bondage those intent on enslaving others would have found a way to ensnare humans into their immorality.

The river denial is a long river and apparently quite wide according to some of the slavery apologists on this forum. What was done to the African-American in slavery is just one part of a story on how white people in America treated people of other races. The Native American was slaughtered, the Asian workers exploited and the African-American enslaved. And, yet it was their fault for not being in power, or white. America has a cruel history when it comes to race. Slavery cannot be so easily dismissed by those who will not take responsibility for the wreckage that has been our history since white folks got off the boat. Whites continue to live on the advantage created by those cruel racist practices.

While acknowledging Mr. Johnson’s noble sentiments, I must admit that his proposal smacks of the selling of indulgences by the fourteenth century Catholic church. I agree that the actions and attitudes of some white Americans (and others) in the past, directly affect conditions experienced by other races in the present. The deed is done, and no amount of affirmative action or recompense can make it undone. I would add to Mr. Johnson’s list native Americans who were forced to walk the “Trail Of Tears,” during the Andrew Jackson administration, Mexican Americans forced from their ancestral lands during the takeovers of Florida and Texas, the Chinese who were exploited during the building of the country’s railroads, and the Japanese who were interred during World War II. America’s history, in many ways honorable, has had its periods of imperialism, persecution, and oppression. We would rather not think about them, but the consequences endure. If allowed to continue, the condition is always fatal.

And yet, civilization has a universal legal tradition that “the son should not be made to pay for the sins of the father.” Some would see that as justice, others would see it as a loophole–it is both. We owe something to the progeny of those our ancestors have oppressed. Aside from a promise to never do it again, I’ll be damned if I know what it is.

Monkaton— I agree with you. There were white slaves too. It was wrong for anyone to be a slave at any time or any place.

And as a post script. White companies also exploited white workers until labor unions came about and swung the pendulum back to a more just position. Remember the company store and how workers would have to buy their goods from the company that paid their wages leaving the worker with little or nothing? Remember how worker’s safety and child labor laws were obstacles to free enterprise and capitalism? African chiefs had nothing to do with that exploitation. White business men exploiting white workers for their own economic gain in a harsh and brutal system.

Now that labor unions have diminished in power we have corporations exporting American jobs to exploit poor people around the world at the expense of the American worker. Who is the patriot? Who believes in America? Not the people who would make their bones on the backs of kids and those unable to rally for themselves. And once again, it’s not the African Chiefs who have set up this system. It was the white industrial power base of America.

It is much easier, and salves the conscience to blame the exploited and not the exploiters.

Commander, I agree with you.

One of the steps that America has taken, besides allowing all Americans to participate in the American system through the ballot box and other laws, is affirmative action. It is not an answer, but an acknowledgment that there is a need for retribution to even out the years of injustice based on race.

And yet, people still claim it was those damn African Chiefs that caused all this. Not the will and intent of the those in America who would discriminate and exploit based on race and race.

The gamut of response here runs from people angry at the very CONCEPT of historical culpability
in slavery to those trying to yoke the reality of oppression in the past to what we’ve become now.
Societies are fluid, changing—and what was accepted and the law of the land once is now seen
for what it was. Slavery: the great tragic flaw of our nation’s history, running counter to all those ideals expressed in the Declaration of Independence. As #11 stated, America does have a cruel history when it comes to race, but then that is the history of the human race, is it not? There has also never been a nation where those evils have been as relentlessly challenged and questioned as ours.

The fact of Mr. Obama’s candidacy, at this time and place in our history, shows the changing dynamic of thought and heart in the United States. There are millions of his supporters who have voted for this man in primaries not because of his race, but for what is seen as the content of his character and his abilities as a leader. We are not as good as those who deny the worst of our history, and neither are we the worst example of a nation grappling with racial injustice
in the world today. Think about it.

Amazing that the same people who want to apply 2008 norms to 1808 culture ignore the damage racism causes in all eras of history, including today.

Blacks who are able to get over their blackness are accused of “acting white.” Blacks who see themselves first as a person, friend, employee, teacher, or student have every right to the same respectful treatment as any other race. Those who see themselves first as “black” can expect to be treated with that self imposed discrimination.

Panderers’ arguments notwithstanding, I see that reality in my daily interaction with people of several ethnic origins. If the letter writer’s “payback” is important enough to foster racism in generations to come, so be it. Go burn a Confederate flag and feel good about yourself Mr. Joseph.

I’ve always wondered how America can be painted as such racist, oppressive country, but millions of people have come here from countries all over the world, unable to speak the language and without education, yet they succeed beyond their wildest imaginations. Hmmmmmmmm.

Since our family has ancestors who fought for the north during the civil war, I feel that my guilt has been washed away.

Self righteousness is never a way to solve anything, such as the hearts of those who say, “Whites have been slaves also”…..

But, then people should not be moved or surprised by the denial and self justification of any people because they are blinded and no one but God can and will unblind these ones if He and only He finds them worthy of removing their blinders.

So one must learn who to overcome evil people inspite of because Satan’s children on this earth will not be disappearing for a long long time.

It is useless attempting to reason with those who belong to the devil. All who are racist, oppressive, unfair, conceited, and all who do not love righteousness, but get off on their power to do wrong and treat others unjust, all are children of the devil.

Those who are good people who love righteousness must stay focused on not becoming like these evil people, we see them everywhere, at work, in government, as neighbors, in your own families, etc…sometimes all you can do is pray to get through it each day without killing some of these demonic oppressed people.

Racism is just one of Satan’s many vehicles to destroy others. Evil people working as tools of the devil are everywhere causing others to suffer greatly from their deeds. They are truly devil operatives. And the good people out there know what I am speaking about, but FOOLS will never understand. Some there are no hope for, but the thing is we as humans don’t know who these are, or and which ones God will allow the blinders to be removed from.