Can we blame our ancestors for our own shortcomings?

by undercover 443 Replies latest jw friends

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  mrsjones5

  I think it's cuter than peekaboo
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  Mastodon

  LOL
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  quietlyleaving

  purps that was a great read - thanks - so lucid and intelligent

  edit: and I think that as x-slaves (of the WBTS) we can identify to an extent with the predicament of the effects of enslavement
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  undercover

  I merely pointed out how the brutality of slavery has a bearing on his - and other Blacks' - negative behavior.

  Brutality begets brutality.

  Explain how, please, the brutality of what happened to people generations ago affects his behavior today? Michael Vick was never brutalized by slavery. The history of slavery nor his ancestors who were slaves have no bearing on his personal brutality against animals. None. At all.

  Now if one wanted to point to his exposure to living in a crime ridden neighborhood in public housing projects, then that argument would have some merit. It would have a bearing because these were things he experienced himself personally. The brutality of the crime he experienced or saw as a child could help form the pattern of brutality that he practiced on those animals.

  But pointing to the history of slavery as having something to do with negative behavior on black people's part is a cop out. It's just excuse making for bad behavior.

  It's an insult to hard working, self-respecting blacks who want to be recognized for what they have accomplished. It's also an insult to white people who do not want to be identified with the horrors of the past but have worked to bridge the gap. Constantly attaching the slavery experience to one's behavior at every turn is like throwing it back in everyone's faces, as if white people today are responsible for what happened back then and communicating to young blacks now that the cards are stacked against them...they can't win. You do no one any good with this type of thinking.
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  purplesofa

  your welcome ql, Did not know if anyone would take the time to read.

  purps
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  SixofNine

  Now if one wanted to point to his exposure to living in a crime ridden neighborhood in public housing projects, then that argument would have some merit.

  Isn't that exactly what she's saying? Isn't that what anyone is pointing out when they point out the fact that the effects of slavery still infect American society? And the effects of slavery do infect American society. To not be aware of that fact is to be both willfully stupid and willfully blind.

  The past is prologue. Deal with it.
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  SixofNine

  It's also an insult to white people who do not want to be identified with the horrors of the past but have worked to bridge the gap.

  That would be me, and I'm not even a little bit insulted by the fact that brutality begets brutality. Nor am I insulted by the fact that success breeds succes. Another fact that doesn't insult me, but hasn't particularly worked in my favor, is that it takes money to make money.
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  snowbird

  Explain how, please, the brutality of what happened to people generations ago affects his behavior today?

  I will turn your words from page 2 back on you - with a slight modification, of course.

  Wow...just fucking wow

  Do you know anything about the Holocaust Middle Passage?

  Sylvia
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  keyser soze

  And the effects of slavery do infect American society. To not be aware of that fact is to be both willfully stupid and willfully blind.

  I don't think anyone has suggested otherwise. The issue is to what extent should it be used to rationalize despicable behavior in African-Americans.
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  snowbird

  The issue is to what extent should it be used to rationalize despicable behavior in African-Americans.

  Which depends upon each person's perspective. There can be no objectivity in issues such as these.

  Sylvia