Quote:
Originally Posted by ETR3(SS)
If there was no cultural history behind one, then we wouldn't have the words that we do.
That is part of the problem. When someone says slavery today's society automatically assumes white American master, black African slave. Never mind that the Roman Empire traded an estimated total of 100 million European and Mediterranean slaves from the formation of the Empire to its downfall. Let's compare that to US slavery with an estimated 4 million African slaves by 1860. Quite the difference. Now just because there is this large number difference doesn't make slavery any less abhorrent. Slavery was abolished in the United States though. 
As a result of slavery being abolished, the Southern landowners who had relied upon slavery were resentful. Which led to a backlash by these landowners against blacks. Racism then ensued on both sides for a number of years. And we all know how the story goes from here. The fact of the matter is this; no one is trying to cover up slavery in the United States. It is taught everyday in every classroom in America as a part of our history. History, as in past. We are all Americans regardless of our skin color, and yet we have this divide because some feel the need to reopen past wounds. Some aim to belittle with words, others to guilt you with history because of your skin color versus theirs.
I guess the point I'm trying to make here is you can't have a double standard and expect to make progress. When you can hold yourself to the same standard that you expect of others, then we can move forward as one people. |
I think it's a bit disingenuous to try and blame racism in the US on the abolition of slavery here, when racism was a primary factor in justifying it in the first place.
AFAIK slavery in "ancient times" was not primarily about race or ethnicity. In the US, it most definitely was. A black person was considered inherently inferior to a white person and therefore it was not only "okay" but perfectly "natural" for them to be bought and sold like chattel by any white person who had the means to do so.