Republic of Coldwater wrote:Yeah, no. Many plantations were burned and destroyed in the southland during the War of Northern Aggression, and Mississippi went from one of the wealthiest, to one of the poorest states in the Union as a result. The south was economically devastated following the war, and to assume that somehow, all white people, and American society has benefitted on the backs of slaves is simply asinine. Only a few remnants of slave labor hold some real economic benefit to the US, and it is so minute that the vast majority of Americans, even descendants of the Anglo majority at the time haven't benefitted much from slave labor.
And how much of that economic devastation came from losing the ability to count the black population as "wealth"? Excluding the money that was invested in slaves, the North had already surpassed the South economically before the Civil War and the gap was growing wider every year. It's easy to be wealthy on paper when you count a big chunk of your working class as "wealth" instead of "people."
No, not thank you for being purchased, but thank you, for being brought in the US. That is a singular event that doesn't encompass the trading, selling or subjugation of black people. And no, very few people truly benefitted up to 2015 from slave plantations.
Except the part where they got brought to the US was part of the slave trade...
I don't support perpetuating institutional racism. That, by itself, is the unwarranted expansion of governmental power. I am talking about a largely moral questions: should blacks be thankful that their ancestors were brought to the US? It is unfortunate that people were killed by institutional racism in the country you are from (also, just out of curiosity, which country?), but I don't understand how my belief that blacks should be thankful, which does not support slavery, segregation or institutional discrimination against blacks somehow makes me a supporter of these uncalled for programs.
It isn't perpetuating any ideology, it is a mere belief that blacks should be thankful for not being born in Africa where they would be objectively worse off, and I do not wish to bring any form of discrimination upon any people, for it is truly an expansion of government, and one with great moral issue.
Discrimination can come from other sources besides the government.