The European slave trade (1502-1807), which brought 10 to 20 million blacks to the Americas in chains – and left just as many dead at the bottom of the Atlantic Ocean – was immoral.
It amazes me that I have to write a post about this. I had to write one on the beauty of black women too for the same reason: because the same things kept coming up in comments.
Everyone seems to know the slave trade was wrong. Yet, despite that, many people, mostly white people as far as I can tell, keep bringing up the Arabs who sold black slaves or the black African kings and merchants who took a full and willing part in the slave trade.
That is all true, so far as I know, but so what?
It does not lessen the guilt of white slave traders one bit. Just because other people were doing it does not make it right or any less wrong. And since when did Europe ever use the Arabs or black Africans as their moral guides?
This talk about Arab slave traders and so on is a moral argument and it is not even a good one.
The argument comes down to something like this: Your mother catches you taking ten cookies from the cookie jar. Your younger brother took three. When your mother asks you about what you did, one of the first things out of your mouth is that your brother took three cookies.
So what? So what!?
What he did was wrong too, of course, but it does not change your guilt, not one bit.
The “blacks do it too” argument is what got Don Imus into trouble. Just because some black rappers get rich selling music – mainly to white people – in which they call black women bitches and hoes, that does not make it suddenly right. It is still wrong to call any woman a prostitute, unless she is in fact one, and even then it is still a mean thing to do. Why should black women be any different?
The same goes for black slave traders and making blacks into slaves.
No one forced the Europeans to have a slave trade. They did it willingly. They did it knowing full well that making anyone a slave is wrong.
Maybe they thought little of the black Africans, but they still knew blacks were humans with an immortal soul. Their holy book teaches them that all men are the same in God’s eyes.
We know they saw blacks as humans. Because the excuse in Virginia in the 1650s to make blacks into slaves was that they were not Christians. Meaning they were viewed as humans: no one talks about the Christianity of horses.
The racism through which most white Americans now view blacks only started in the 1660s. It is a measure of how wrong they knew the whole slave thing was because otherwise there would be no need for racism.
See also:
Actually it’s a case of reversed cause and effect,since a race you only see as slaves on your plantation isn’t going to inspire any sentiments of admiration. At first the thinking was that the black are inferior because they are slaves. As slavery became more unacceptable the logic was reversed they are slaves because they are inferior .
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I don’t think anyone thinks the African Slave trade was anything but immoral.
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there would be no argument from here that slavery was immoral.
” The racism through which most white Americans now view blacks only started in the 1660s. It is a measure of how wrong they knew the whole slave thing was because otherwise there would be no need for racism. ”
tell us about the quality of the racism through which most americans view blacks. you speak as if there is some manner of filter or prism that whites view the world. certainly slavery is immoral; that assertion is beyond dispute. that whites have not improved their view of race relations since 1660 is quite another question.
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Whites are much better than they were in slave days or Jim Crow times. But some of the old thinking, that old filter, is still there.
For example, you told me about that white woman in Baltimore who was beat up mercilessly by some black kids on a bus.
To me they are bad kids. To you it is proof that blacks are dangerous, so dangerous that you spoke of not wanting to live near any blacks out of “self-preservation”.
But such extreme fear of blacks did not come from what took place in Baltimore. Nor even from the sum total of all the stories you have heard like that. It comes from that filter, from a fear that goes back to a time when blacks were slaves.
You are looking at blacks through a strange pair of glasses but think you are seeing them as plain as day. But you are not.
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I love the IQ of famous people part of the post. What do we get? A list of white people. (i’m smiling)
I’m sure you mean well, though.
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I thought I was doing good just to get those. But good point. I wil see if I can find IQs of any famous blacks.
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White people should be ashamed of all the low down dirty things they have down. Period.
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White people didnt know what they were doing but they should be ashamed of them selves. TOTALLY!
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people are saying in the comments: ”white people should be ashamed of themselves”
like, what the hell? we as people didnt do it just because we’re white, but just because it happend dosnt mean white people in this generation should be ashamed because we didnt do it as people.
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I think it’s enough that people should be ahsamed of BEING white. I don’t think it should make people ashamed of themselves.
This is a subtlety that most folks don’t get, in my experience.
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Shame on you Thad!
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I absolutly dont get what refering to Arab slave trade or that some tribes in Africa conquered others for slaves, how that has any signifacance to lessen white European to the Americas slave trade guilt in their participation.It doesnt for me, and , shame on any one who would think its any less. But lets make no mistake, its equal.
There is nothing wrong with knowing the whole picture.I even remember seeing a documentary that showed African Americans going to countries that sent slaves to the Americas and learning the truth that Africans were the ones who did the capturing and they were upset and had to rethink their whole position.
Ive seen some ignorant people think slavery was started by the United States and dont get that it was all over the Americas in larger numbers and started well before the United States became a country.
Slavery to the Americas was horrible and ranks as high as mans inhumanity to man as anything else in history.
But blaming all white people for slavery is equaly as mind boggling as any one who would think slavery was any less bad in the USA than anywhere else , including the Arabs or the African tribesmen who captured the other Africans for slavery.
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White people should be ashamed of themselves? What kind of generalization is that? What kind of prejudicial statement is that? So, you are basically saying, “You should be ashamed of yourself because of the color of your skin? So, being white means that I should feel guilty of what?
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Its funny how white people try to excuse their evil doings by putting the blame on someone else like African tribesmen for example. Just admit slavery was a very horrible thing that no HUMAN should have experienced and it should have never happened case close.
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Shame on you Thad!
[Sniffs under his armpits.]
What?
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I do not believe in orginial sin which is what it is when you expect all whites to feel guilty about slavery.
my mother always told me, we must never forget history lest it happen again. that doesn’t mean hammering that certain people are evil and should feel ashamed but rather – this happened, this is why it was wrong, this is why it must never happen again.
imo.
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Certain people ARE evil and should be ashamed of all the hate they spew onto black people.
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yes certain people(singular) but not entire nations or races> which is what I meant, certain people(plural).
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oh and just to nitpick I do not belive in the idea of absoulte evil- a person who is completey evil. but that is anything issue. not for here.
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What about the hate certain black people spew onto other people? The color of one’s skin does not dictate the content of their character! Your inner being is colorless. Good and Evil are not bound by things as trivias as ethnic background or the color/tone of one’s skin.
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Actually, my “inner being” is kind of a pale puce this evening. Must be all those pain killers I’m taking. Or the ‘tussin. 😀
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That’s a great post. From what I have seen and this may be my privilege talking but it seems like that argument stems from the statements of white people are the cause if all problems from the dawn of time thing a reaction of but these people did it too not only white people. One way or the other thinking.White supremacy is wrong always has been.The slave trade of any human being by another human being is wrong always has been color blind thinking. However true it may. The thing is white people have the privilege in our current society the problem so all of the but they sold each other mess has no merit in modern anti racism movement
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And don’t forget that Africans also had 1.500.000 white slaves – Barbary slave traders did the same. Slavery is ALWAYS wrong, no matter what race commits that crime.
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Is this true? Slave trade in 2017?? And this time we can’t even blame Daesh
http://www.esquerdadiario.com.br/Negros-vendidos-como-escravos-na-Libia-fotos-do-horror-que-o-imperialismo-produz
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No, but we can blame Mr. Obama and Mrs. Clinton. Being from Brazil, you must know your fair share how this works. Your nation abolished slavery only 130 years ago. How are the Amerindians treated these days? Are planters still forcing them to work after stealing their lands?
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@gro jo
Native brazilians murder rate more than doubled under Lula:
https://oglobo.globo.com/brasil/assassinato-de-indios-aumenta-168-nos-governos-lula-dilma-8627037
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Will it triple or quadruple under your new president?
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