Aristotle
Senior Member
- Sep 9, 2012
- 1,599
- 126
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When discussing the history of slavery from Africa to the North America, the most common argument brought up is that Africans sold their own into slavery. It is not disputed that during the early 1600's (and earlier) slavery was a common commodity throughout Africa and the middle east. But what is most intriguing to me, is that in discussing slavery it appears that in hiding the guilt of the atrocities of slavery, many times people (mostly Caucasians) like to deflect this fact by stating that other cultures had slaves to.
As one had called it "The arab trade argument" in which when one argues that slavery happened elsewhere in the world, "it excuses an evil of one's own past by finding the same sort of evil done by others. Whites sold slaves, but Africans and Arab traders did too!" Which one may make the comparison of such to that of an eight-year old who may steal cookie from a cookie jar, but when busted the child says "well Jimmy did it too" one evil is not excusab;le by another evil.
However those who use the African selling their own argument fail to realize that in doing so, they are derailing the fact that in history the Transatlantic slave trade was the biggest most economical (and racist) aspect of Caucasian history when it comes to building their economic revenue off other human beings. The main purpose of using this derailing argument is to take attention away from what whites did by turning the tables. The part of slavery in Caucasian history and to those that benefited from it, makes Whites uncomfortable. But instead of facing up to it, many have built a defense against it:
-Africans sold their own
Africans still selling slaves
-Arab traders sold slaves
All races practiced slavery
-Whites stopped slavery
-My family never owned slaves
-Slavery was the past
-Blacks are living in the past
-Get over it
-Whites got to where they are because of hard work
-Blacks are better off here than in Africa
-Africans were savages
And so on....
One of the fact that many proponents of this view forget to state was that in the times of the transatlantic slave trade most of the african countries did not sell slaves nor was it a common practice in West Africa. Folks forget that the transatlantic slave trade was on a much larger scale. Overy 12 million were sold into slavery in less than 400 years, something so large that it changed the "genetic map of the world."
As one had called it "The arab trade argument" in which when one argues that slavery happened elsewhere in the world, "it excuses an evil of one's own past by finding the same sort of evil done by others. Whites sold slaves, but Africans and Arab traders did too!" Which one may make the comparison of such to that of an eight-year old who may steal cookie from a cookie jar, but when busted the child says "well Jimmy did it too" one evil is not excusab;le by another evil.
However those who use the African selling their own argument fail to realize that in doing so, they are derailing the fact that in history the Transatlantic slave trade was the biggest most economical (and racist) aspect of Caucasian history when it comes to building their economic revenue off other human beings. The main purpose of using this derailing argument is to take attention away from what whites did by turning the tables. The part of slavery in Caucasian history and to those that benefited from it, makes Whites uncomfortable. But instead of facing up to it, many have built a defense against it:
-Africans sold their own
Africans still selling slaves
-Arab traders sold slaves
All races practiced slavery
-Whites stopped slavery
-My family never owned slaves
-Slavery was the past
-Blacks are living in the past
-Get over it
-Whites got to where they are because of hard work
-Blacks are better off here than in Africa
-Africans were savages
And so on....
One of the fact that many proponents of this view forget to state was that in the times of the transatlantic slave trade most of the african countries did not sell slaves nor was it a common practice in West Africa. Folks forget that the transatlantic slave trade was on a much larger scale. Overy 12 million were sold into slavery in less than 400 years, something so large that it changed the "genetic map of the world."