I brought it up for discussion, because that is what this discussion board is for. This isn't a conversation one can have in normal everyday life without the conversation devolving into snide comments, battles between superiority complexes, or someone getting so angry they want to hurt someone.
I don't see how any form of slavery can be justified, although that seems to be a common argument that old-school slavery was okay and New World slavery was the worst form of it. Leave it to Europeans to take something as bad as slavery and make it even worse.
If we all started in the 'Cradle of Civilization,' which may in fact be revisionist history as well, then yes black people started civilization, and the ancestors of all races are the same ancestors( and Asians too? probably not, there were likely multiple civilizations started at different places in the world from different beginnings of life. Adam and Eve are a fairy tale to explain an ethnocentric world view of the 'Genesis' ) . Maybe the people who became 'white' due to evolution of pigmentation via differences in climate and amount of sun were going North to get away from the oppressive cultures that enslaved other races in the 'cradle of civilization.'
Why was it okay for Egyptians to build their mighty empire on the backs of 'indentured servants'?
Why was it okay to force people into indentured servitude to begin with?
The responsibility for slavery is most likely shared by all cultural groups until recent history, so why make it out like some forms were acceptable, when all forms of slavery are abhorrent?
This is not a hurrah only for white males. Its good to acknowledge that there are people of all ethnicities and both genders that fought against it. When I state that if it was not for white male abolitionists slavery would still exist, I say that due to the fact that at that time, due to the racist power structure of America that only let white men vote, they were the only ones who had the political pull to actually change the oppressive laws.
Its very easy for a lot of people to hate, and that hate goes to the closest available target that resembles their idea of their enemy. Is it really that hard to love and understand commonalities of humanity. I wish the momentum and scope of Dr. King's dream had not died along with him. There were those close to him that could have carried that torch onwards, but everything seems to have devolved into simplistic easy forms of hate for most people again. We need another leader in this world to continue the dream of Dr. King. Would you, or do you, join in carrying on the dream and bringing about the reality of his Beloved Community?