White Guilt

I often read post that touch on the subject of race and people are always writing about how slavery and oppression ended for black people ages ago and they should just get over it. Why are they still angry ? I'll tell you some reasons.

1) during the (400) years that black people were enslaved for some strange reason a general dislike of the white man came about and trust me you'd be surprised what can be passed down through genetics alone.

2) The amount of gold and jewels stolen from our home land our infrastructure in Africa destroyed.

3) Next time your sitting with a black person ask them to go onto ancestry.com and see what comes up when they type in their name they were separated from family and most black people will never be able to trace their root any further than a few generations and some cant even do that.

4) 40 years is not a long time the father of a teenager today could be 40 years old or 60 for that matter as a young person my dad could still sit me down and tell me of the segregation he had to go through 40 years ago and do you think that as soon as the laws were changed that white people just started letting us hop on the bus beside them overnight.

5) For 400 years black men were encouraged to (breed) with as many black women as possible without marrying them in order to replenish the slave trade and black people also did not try to be close to each other in fear that they would get too attached and feel it more when their child or loved on was sold and it is still carried in us today.

6) Yes we may need more encouragement to learn after 4oo years of being told that you're people are stupid and trust me after 400 years you'd start to believe it especially when you weren't allowed to go to school while the white kids were and even now it's still believed among some black people due to things being passed down in families.

7) They lost their languages and their names. ( I'm sure they weren't in Africa calling each other Jonathen and Alex)

8) anyone who fails to see that black people who are just as much or even more educated than certain white people have a harder time gaining recognition in the corporate world.

9) All other races except white are labeled in America mexican-american, latin-american, african-american even native american but only the white man is just American why not European-american ?

10) It's still okay for countries in Europe to have grudges against each other for centuries because of an old war but black people cant be a bit stung.

11) Now white people are complaining about BET and how black people are racist and causing segregation and conflict when a black police officer that went to school and studied just as hard as the white ones just 40 years ago wasn't allowed into the police station or allowed to arrest a white suspect.

12) This may be a new generation btu im sure Rosa Parks grandchildren weren't too chuffed when their grandmother told them of how how she was thrown off the buss for not giving up her seat to a white lady.

13) And just like how there are still people alive from the 60's who were segregated and thrown off buses the segregators are still alive too a black performer may go to an old folks home and sing now and it's all jolly but 40 years ago they were stoning your mama in the streets its hard to look past.

14) Our identity has been altered more that any other race on earth most black people today have 28% European DNA even the dark skinned ones and you can look at the light skinned ones and remember that once upon a time no black person had skin that light in tone unless they chose to marry outside of their color group.

15) Unlike the chinese and other enslaved people black people lost alot of their their culture also but managed to keep food and music and dance which are things that can easily be kept unlike religious activities.

Mod Edit: All Caps – Please Review This Link.


[edit on 5/8/2008 by Gools]

reply to post by crazyashdenton15


16) Hatred grew among the black slaves themselves as they came from different countries in africa and couldnt understand each others languages, religions and customs.

fifteen reasons to feel guilty about...cool
what about the black slave owners? should their descendants feel guilty also?..your post almost made me shed a tear....

Originally posted by blimpseeker

fifteen reasons to feel guilty about...cool
what about the black slave owners? should their descendants feel guilty also?..your post almost made me shed a tear....

Not to dismiss your valid point regarding black slave owners, but it would seem you've quite the Dark Heart with regards the entirety of the OP's focus and post.

 

i wish i could feel bad, but sadly for you i cant.

i have black faimly whom i love just as much if not more than most of my white faimly.

being 25, i have no guilt for what my people before me did. as a matter of fact my faimly can only be traced back to the 1890's in the US, doubtfuly here long enough to own slaves. much as im sure not all black people could trace both or even one of their faimly members back to being slaves. black people did imagrate after slavery you know.

Originally posted by Annie Mossity
Not to dismiss your valid point regarding black slave owners, but it would seem you've quite the Dark Heart with regards the entirety of the OP's focus and post.
 

No, it's just seemed that we have all heard all those reasons why blacks "shouldn't" suceed and yet when they have parents that give a darn black kids turn out ok even living in a bad neighborhood.

Forget the 16 reasons why you shouldn't succeed and hustle, work hard, study hard and you will make it out of the ghetto.

What about me?
I'm Irish?

My point will be missed.

Find me a group of humanity that wasn't at some point, someone elses slave.

Originally posted by bobafett1972
What about me?
I'm Irish?

My point will be missed.

Find me a group of humanity that wasn't at some point, someone elses slave.

Dude...you're not black how dare you claim special treatment!

Originally posted by bobafett1972
I'm Irish?

My point will be missed.

Find me a group of humanity that wasn't at some point, someone elses slave.

I'll have to agree with that. Why do I have to feel any guilt? My family came over here during the Famine. They got treated like crap. Don't see too many people crying real tears over them.

"No Irish need apply" were the signs outside of shops and businesses during that time. They were dirt farmers and probably lived worse off than some slaves in the South.

reply to post by blimpseeker


I don't think I read anything about him giving reason's not to succeed. He gave 16 reason's to be angry. And frankly, they all sound like legitimate reason's to hold a grudge to me.In the time line of the whole slave trade and segregation, 40 years doesn't seem like that much time at all. A generation not much more.

I personally don't feel any guilt as my family never was involved in the slave trade but it isn't hard to see that 40 years isn't going to get rid of the resentment and anger felt over it. There's plenty of examples around the world of countries that now are allies but there people's still hold centuries old grudges. Some of them don't even involve slavery.

[edit on 8-5-2008 by GAOTU789]

I have a question: Why is everyone only going back to 1968? If I remember correctly, the Civil War ended in 1865. One of the benefits from that conflict was that the slaves were freed.

Slavery is gone from our society, but its affects are not. It has only been around 40 years since the peak civil rights movement. Black people are still mistreated, and the amount of racism and closed-mindedness I see around me everyday is absolutely disgusting.

I have black friends, and family as well, and everytime I hear a racist comment, or a "Why do they still feel bad about that?", I cringe, and it angers me to no end.

Well, if I want to know about racism first hand, I can always speak to my niece about it. She got a lot of crap and racial remarks thrown at her while she was in high school.

Since she's a blond haired white girl in a Hawaiian school, you won't hear to much about it.

Originally posted by wisefoolishness
Slavery is gone from our society, but its affects are not. It has only been around 40 years since the peak civil rights movement. Black people are still mistreated, and the amount of racism and closed-mindedness I see around me everyday is absolutely disgusting.

I have black friends, and family as well, and everytime I hear a racist comment, or a "Why do they still feel bad about that?", I cringe, and it angers me to no end.

Odd, I get treated the same way! Though there are those that would argue the fact. I guess it is tough being a human all around huh? Most do not really even care, they just want someone else to blame for something completely unrelated...

Shnit Happens.

Its that simple. Do I expect white people to feel guilty for something done by their ancestors? No, I don't really care. Though it is funny to see a when a white tries to justify those past actions of their ancestors.

I'm not a hypocrite and If I were white, I wouldn't feel guilty for something I didn't do. I would try my best to empathize though, it seems many don't subscribe to the same philosophy... Not that I care. When I'm poor, I recieve no love from black or white so it makes no difference to me. You all are equally unimportant and meaningless.

Calamity unifies Man though, allows you to share and relate to common struggle.

reply to post by bobafett1972


Everyone gets treated like crap at some point, and they have the right to be pissed.

reply to post by bobafett1972


i for one am equal opportunity, reguardless of race, religon, or creed, i will blame you for completely unrelated things.

much as i am blaming you for makeing me respond to this post.

Though the sentiment is in the right place and anger is part and parcel to the whole slavery fiasco that is a shameful reminder of what we used to be as a country and as people I think that continuing to dwell on things that happened so long ago is somewhat defeatist in nature. It's tantamount to saying that there is no point in trying to succeed as an individual because of atrocities that happened many generations ago.

It is important to remember the mistakes of the past so that we do not repeat them, however, hatred, and anger only begets more hatred and anger. The white people whom enslaved Africans are long since dead. The scope of their sins might be magnified for black people in modern society, however what needs to be remembered is that many white people died to pay for the sins of slavery. Nothing, I mean nothing could ever truly make up for that, but the fact is when black people settle for thug life, no one is doing that to them besides themselves. Yes there are white people that still discriminate based on color, and that is unfortunate, but the majority of people these days are going to look how you carry yourself, the level of your grammatical skill, the level of maturity, and the level of intelligence you project. When someone walks into my job chewing on a straw with a dew rag on their shoulder looking for work, the chances of them getting a job at my establishment is slim to none. Of course they think it's discrimination, and things to tend to remain in the same viscious circle because of some imagined slight that fuels the belief in a sometimes imaginary anti-black sentiment in white people.

I really do hate to say it, but it is time to let some of that go. The past is just that.... the past. It's painful to think of what was done to our ancestors in the past, sure, I get that, but I don't sit around and dwell on the fact that my ancestors in Scotland were oppressed by the British for hundreds of years, or that I carry in me the blood of a nationality that incited to world wars. It doesn't do me any good to dwell on such things, how can I succeed in life or as a person worrying about all that has happened in my lineage. I wish you the best of luck OP, I assume that you yourself are in fact black, and if that is the case, don't let your intelligence go to waste on such things. Go out and change help change the world as a positive, caring, intelligent influence. My best friend is black, and I do understand the inherent challenges that can pose.... but he never let it get to him. He graduated with honors from high school, spent five years in the Navy, and is now studying to become a radiology technician. He didn't come from a wealthy family, his father fixes TVs for a living for Chrissakes, but he is one of the best damn people I have ever met, and he will be my brother till the day I die. Just some food for thought, good luck.

[edit on 8-5-2008 by Osiris1953]

[edit on 8-5-2008 by Osiris1953]

Originally posted by wisefoolishness
reply to post by bobafett1972

 

Everyone gets treated like crap at some point, and they have the right to be pissed.

Yeah okay. But 300 plus years of anger? Thats pushing it. I am all for not forgetting but, sometimes, enough is infact enough. I get to be labelled white AND carry the weight of all the wrongs in the world, all at the same time!

Originally posted by bobafett1972
What about me?
I'm Irish?

My point will be missed.

Find me a group of humanity that wasn't at some point, someone elses slave.

Well, im Scottish, and my people were brutally raped and slaughtered at one time in history

I suppose I could hold a grudge *shrug*

But there is NO WAY im going to feel ANY guilt for what other people did. Sorry, I dont play that game. Time for ALL people to take responsiblity for their own lives that they live TODAY and stop BLAIMING the past. Learn from it, but stop living in it.


[edit on 8-5-2008 by greeneyedleo]