My children are half Norwegian, if they try to tell me it's ok to rape pillage and plunder........................
Can we blame our ancestors for our own shortcomings?
by undercover 443 Replies latest jw friends
-
-
sammielee24
I cannot EVER agree that one people have EVER suffered more than another. What is most sad, is that so much of history that would equalize suffering and force our acceptance of ALL people having done so, is in the hands of the government of a country that has much to gain from eliminating stories or suffering that might not serve their purpose. In America we seem want to reduce ancestral suffering to only Africans or Indians, somtimes Japanese or Chinese but we leave out the importance of and prejudice of so many other cultures like the Russians and the Irish. We don't learn about the slave trade prior to the African slave trade because how noble would it be to expose the suffering of so many by the wants of a few? America has chosen to ignore it's part in the white slave trade even before it was common to import black slaves to work. We hear much about how there should be reparation for those brought into the USA as African slaves, those who did not want to become part of that history - but we do not acknowledge all of those children who also were kidnapped or sold into slavery in Britain, who worked until death in the USA under the terms of slavery for life which was later classified as 'indentured servitude'. Children, men and women who were sold, held in ships, beat, whipped and most certainly who did not want to become part of this history but for who there has never been any mention of their suffering or reparation or how their offspring should feel victimized by that suffering. Would it not behoove us to teach our kids about ALL the injustices - not just the Holocaust but the genocide in Russia as well. The poor of England and how they were cast off by their own country into slavery and misery and death. The pirating of Europeans and subsequent slavery in Ethiopia? Until we teach all children about the power of government, of politics and of the corporate and banking elite in using them all as slaves, don't we just foster more of the same division? It is not about culture or race in so much as it has always and will always be about class - the powerful using the weak, no matter what language they speak or what color they are or what gender - power rests in the hands of the ruling elite, generally found amongst the wealthiest of the world, who will write rules and make policy, create laws and do anything they must to hold on to their identity through that power. sammieswife.
..
-
snowbird
In a recent thread about an NFL player being allowed to return to play after being convicted and serving time for a felony, it was suggested that maybe his ancestory played a part in his attitudes and actions.
Those of you were playing along at home know the deal...
Is it fair to lay blame on one's ancestors in how one acts in today's society?
I think not...
Isn't the NFL player African-American?
Isn't his ancestry African-American?
Then this thread is about African-Americans!
Sylvia
-
beksbks
Show me any other group that has come so far while grappling with emotional and psychological scars that would have long ago leveled those of lesser stamina!
Well I've given you two groups who have suffered more and come even farther. But my original answer of a group actually should cover it all. It doesn't matter what ancestral group anyone comes from, we are human beings, and our imperative is to survive, thrive, live, love, sing, etc. etc. etc.
-
OUTLAW
I blame 24hr convience stores!..No one should be able to get what they want 24hrs a day! It`s just not right.. If you forgot to buy toilet paper that day too bad!. Just stick a cork in your ass and wait till a real store opens! ..............LOL!!...OUTLAW
-
snowbird
It is not about culture or race in so much as it has always and will always be about class - the powerful using the weak, no matter what language they speak or what color they are or what gender - power rests in the hands of the ruling elite, generally found amongst the wealthiest of the world, who will write rules and make policy, create laws and do anything they must to hold on to their identity through that power.
That is so true, Sammieswife.
The subject of race relations in the USA is so fraught with spite and name-calling that it's almost impossible to, as my estranged Jamacian husband would day, pick sense out of nonsense.
I just have one final (I hope!) thing so say on the subject. I have been a victim of the disparity that exists between Whites and Blacks in the areas of education, healthcare, housing, etc.
I know the damage that has been done. I see it on a daily basis. For me to state that everything is fine, that it is alright with my world would make me the liar John Doe accuses me of being.
As for blaming our ancestors for our misdeeds, no!!! However, I assert that what was done to our ancestors often has a direct bearing on how we live our lives.
Sylvia
-
Farkel
snowbird,
:I am African-American.
Are you an African who just happens to be an American? Or are you an American who just happens to be African?
I am an American who just happens to have British ancestors. My ancestors came to this Country in 1856, a mere 160 years or so ago, yet I don't identify myself as a "British" American. Your ancestors came to this Country in the 1500's, a whopping 500 years ago, yet you still identify with "African?" What is so freaking special about your ancestor's culture that makes you still want to identify with it after half a millennia? I mean, after all, it was YOUR culture who sold your ancestors out, by capturing them and offering them into slavery, you know. Who would want to identify with creeps like that after 500 years?
I don't get it.
Farkel
-
daniel-p
Moved from the OTHER thread:
Snowbird: UC, Michael Vick's and my ancestors came to these shores in chains. They were subjugated and brutalized in the worst possible way, denied an education, stripped of their dignity. This spawned a legacy of apathy and self-loathing that characterizes many a Black family.
Some have overcome and gone on to lead exemplary lives; others have foundered and fallen through the cracks. Vick's family was one of the latter, he spent his early childhood in a housing project known by the street name "Bad Newz." He is reported to have said that as a child he often went fishing, even when they weren't biting, just to escape the daily stress of the project.
If these few facts I've presented to you doesn't show you how slavery contributed to Vick's (and others) delinquency, then you are the one in need of a reality check.
There's a difference between "delinquincy" and someone finding enjoyment in inflicting pain on helpless animals.
How about this: is a wife beater not responsible for beating his wife if he grew up in a trailer park?
The subject of slavery, African-Americans, Jim Crow, and Civil Rights really bites, doesn't it?
Yea, especially when it's not even the fucking ISSUE.
-
snowbird
I don't get it.
Farkel
I'm sorry that you don't.
I mean that.
Sylvia
-
snowbird
The subject of slavery, African-Americans, Jim Crow, and Civil Rights really bites, doesn't it?
Yea, especially when it's not even the fucking ISSUE.
That's what I thought.
(My reply from the other thread).
Sylvia