Do whites owe blacks an apology for slavery?
472854
well unless you have slaves yourself you don't owe me anything but the respect that i deserve as a man.many of our ancestors did things that don't make us proud but last time i checked i didn't have any warrants for stealing horses how bout you...
238427
Okay, To let it be known, all things that happened in th past is brought up for a reason, to let us know what the deal was. If u havent noticed, history repeats itself in some way. Black slavery was the harshest outta all slaverys as most people have said. Yet, also, alot of other nationalities have been enslaved as well. Its just that ours were the worst. Yer bro-n-law is wrong by the way. U mite wanna educate him, and show him what the deal is, that it wasnt just blacks, it was everyone. Also, it really doent need to be brought up, unless its n a history class. \n\nHave yall seen the Dave Chappelle show, when he did the thing on Slavery Compensation. (i thought that was pretty funny) yet, if thats the case, shouldnt everyone else that was enslaved as well get paid too?? It wouldnt be fair. Ill honestly say that none of us (blacks) deserve to get paid. Paying us in money, for sumthin that has traumatized possibly the whole world is actually priceless. There isnt enuff money in the world to say, "oh its aight"\n\nFinal answers:\nWhy people complain?? Because it still hurts and its the most recent (sort of) Yer bro-n-law is wrong. Most races have went thru some type of slavey in some point of time.\n\nhope i helped
505880
ROB, no one never pays for the crime America has commits against the black race, never. It the simple fact that to this day This nation has gone unpunished. I'm not talking slavery or things that are over which that can't be change. I'm talking about a country that keeps committing crimes against others and have too must pride to admit any wrong doing. That's my view as the last guy said it my be over BUT doesn't fix such crimes committed.\n\nI don't know what special treatment we had for 30 years, But a Law that supposedly give us equal rights. I'm sorry to say but were not the ones who had 400 years of the benefits from slavey nor did we heritage those benefits or have to benefit of just being white. Just go back 40 years ago to King's death for preaching truth they killed him. \n\nSo I feel ROB that my ancestor died in vain for the benefit of their slave masters descendants. Like any man, if someone in my family kill your relatives because of hate, would you have a right to be upset? Then I were to tell you get over the death of your relative that I know one of my people killed. Would you not be even more upset that the one who committed a crime against you told you to forget it? Then would you fell betrayed that he got away with it? Now imagine tens of million of your own people died or anyones people died for the benefit of the decsendants that killed them, would you not feel betrayed?
984446
I totally agree.  I always say this but you have to be careful who you say it too because they'll think ur racist.  im not racist in the least. in fact, i took a black women's histor class last year at the university level and the whole year was devoted to talking about how bad the 'white man' is and i had to sit there and take it.  i think we should stop being persicuted for what happened to their ancestors.  Noone alive today was either a slave OR a slave owner so the sympathy card should stop being played.  white people can't blame their downfalls on anyone but in the opposite case, its always okay to blame white people for anything that goes wrong. I think its about time to give it a rest because the sooner we get rid of the double standard, the sooner we can get rid of racism too.
725098
I completely agree with you. A lot of people who have written above believe that people should pay for their ancestors mistakes. Prejudice against white people is socially accepted and white empowerement is frowned upon. For any other race it is important for adults to teach their youth that their race is beautiful and equal to all others however if white adults teach this to their young it is sometimes mislabeled as white supremecy. Also a lot of other cultures forget that not only whites in the past have enslaved and treated people badly. I wonder if people know that some Native American tribes such as the Cherokee also kept Aficans as slaves. Or about all the problems in Africa even know with genocide and slavery. Not only Hitler supported genocide has no one heard of Darfur?
541950
I hate it when a black person assumes that because I am white I support slavery or ever had an ancestor who had slaves. They seem to forget it was blacks who sold them into slavery and white's who fought to free them. Not all whites supported slavery!  I think it was horrible but I am also sick of them thinking they are entitled because of it.  What about the jews? They were wronged too, what do they get?  The Indians we stole this land from were wronged, what do they get?  I think it is unfair that they can have all black beauty pageants, all black colleges, all black scholarships, we cannot have an all white anything or we would be in big trouble for discrimination, not that I would want to anyway, but how fair is that????!!!!!  I think everyone should have the same rights and I am sick of hearing how they think they have less rights when they actually have MORE.  They will get a job even if less qualified and I have seen first hand how they can sit around and do nothing and cannot be fired, by law, because company would be in trouble if they fired them.  I like black people, but it angers me to no living end that they get away with stuff like that!  I have black friends and have heard them make remarks about getting retribution one day.  That is a real pisser offer for me!!!!  I have done nothing wrong to them!
1003760
Come on now! We white folks owe blackie 40 acres and a mule. Lets face the facts, Al Sharpton and Jesse Jackson are racist pigs. However they hide that fact. By hiding it they can get air time on t.v and radio. If you have racist attitudes or remarks you won't receive and publicity. So they get in all the papers, on all the t.v shows, and all the radio stations brainwashing people into believing we owe blackie and that we should feel ashamed of ourselves.\n   The only thing we owe black people is an opportunity. By lowering standards for a certain race of people so they can get into school or get certain jobs over more qualified people is not only wrong but counter productive.\n   By the way, I'm a Native American. I have more reasons to cry about whitey than anyone, but I don't. I understand that most people will hire or accept you if you are qualified. Especially if you can make your employer money. Every employer is racist because the only color they favor is green\n    So put down the malt liqueur, stop selling drugs, put your backwards hat on the correct way, pull your pants up to your waistline and remove yourself from the welfare line and do something for a change.
268006
i have, even though they were my anscestors, i still say, i am sorry that that happened.  My family is black, i am white. it is not a guilt that i neccesarily carry in my own heart, it is just a true and deep human desire for me to say to someone, i am sorry that someone hurt you.\na friend looses a loved one, we say were sorry even though its not our fault the loved one died.\nwhen a race that i happen to belong to dehumanizes another race, just because of skin color? the least i can do is say, im sorry; know that "I" take no pride in that, and know that i see how it has hurt and affected millions.\n\nto those who say, well it wasnt me? it might not have been you, but you would surely say something to a friend who is hurt; \nit places no blame on you directly, takes nothing away from your pride, and promotes human understanding, all in about 3 seconds.
38346
How hasn't it... I am a 7th generation daughter of a slave and Looking back over the last 141 yrs, our people have went from being slaves of white owners to being slaves of themselves...like gangs and racial seperation among ourselves. We need to wake up and get our crap together.
998892
Although I'm not a black man and thus I suppose my opinion can't count here. I don't believe that the people of today are responsible for the sins of their fathers.\n\nIf anything, perhaps the KKK should be made to pay restitutions.
766085
"The whole 'because whites were so bad in the past' is a ridiculous excuse, and not an answer."\n\nSorry, but it IS an answer and a valid one.
1176382
The racism I see happening most often is reverse racism. This is very much the media's doing and parents teaching their children hatred. There is never mention of the white people that fought and died to end slavery in this country. There weren't just families that lost loved ones on the battle ground but people that were part of the underground railroad and people that spoke out and risked everything in doing so. Through the years I have seen black people express hatred for whites because of slavery and their own ancestry. I am not saying there isn't more to fuel the fire...I am saying  slavery is the first thing mentioned.  Because of the sacrifice many made to end it there should be some sort of honor for them from the black community...but there is not. The end of slavery is celebrated as if not one white man died for it or gave a limb. Some blacks hate all whites as if all were the descendants of slavers instead of liberators. Whole family lines were wiped out in a war to abolish slavery and keep a country united. Why the hatred now? Where is the balance? Where is the truth? Why does the media want to fan the flames of bitterness. Why can't there be reconciliation now?
1143744
Below is an article from Race Traitor (http://racetraitor.org). I thought that being a sociology major that it might interest you.\n\n\nNow that White Studies has become an academic industry, with its own dissertation mill, conference, publications, and no doubt soon its junior faculty, it is time for the abolitionists to declare where they stand in relation to it. Abolitionism is first of all a political project: the abolitionists study whiteness in order to abolish it. \n \nWhiteness is not a culture... Whiteness has nothing to do with culture and everything to do with social position. It is nothing but a reflection of privilege, and exists for no reason other than to defend it. \n\nVarious commentators have stated that their aim is to identify and preserve a positive white identity. Abolitionists deny the existence of a positive white identity. We at Race Traitor, the journal with which I am associated, have asked some of those who think whiteness contains positive elements to indicate what they are. We are still waiting for an answer. Until we get one, we will take our stand with David Roediger, who has insisted that whiteness is not merely oppressive and false, it is nothing but oppressive and false. As James Baldwin said, "So long as you think you are white, there is no hope for you."\n\nWhiteness is not a culture. There is Irish culture and Italian culture and American culture - the latter, as Albert Murray pointed out, a mixture of the Yankee, the Indian, and the Negro (with a pinch of ethnic salt); there is youth culture and drug culture and queer culture; but there is no such thing as white culture. Whiteness has nothing to do with culture and everything to do with social position. It is nothing but a reflection of privilege, and exists for no reason other than to defend it. Without the privileges attached to it, the white race would not exist, and the white skin would have no more social significance than big feet.\n\nBefore the advocates of positive whiteness remind us of the oppression of the white poor, let me say that we have never denied it. The United States, like every capitalist society, is composed of masters and slaves. The problem is that many of the slaves think they are part of the master class because they partake of the privileges of the white skin. We cannot say it too often: whiteness does not exempt people from exploitation, it reconciles them to it. It is for those who have nothing else. \n \nEither America is a very democratic country, where cab drivers beat up city councilmen with impunity, or the privileges of whiteness reach far down into the ranks of the laboring class. \n\nHowever exploited the poor whites of this country, they are not direct victims of racial oppression, and "white trash" is not a term of racial degradation analogous to the various epithets commonly applied to black people; in fact, the poor whites are the objects of race privilege, which ties them to their masters more firmly than did the arrows of Vulcan bind Prometheus to the rock. Not long ago there was an incident in Boston in which a well-dressed black man hailed a taxi and directed the driver to take him to Roxbury, a black district. The white cab driver refused, and when the man insisted she take him or call someone who would, as the law provided, she called her boyfriend, also a cabdriver, on the car radio, who showed up, dragged the black man out of the cab and called him a "nigger." The black man turned out to be a city councilman. The case was unusual only in that it made the papers. Either America is a very democratic country, where cab drivers beat up city councilmen with impunity, or the privileges of whiteness reach far down into the ranks of the laboring class.\n\nWe are anti-white, but we are not in general against the people who are called white. Those for whom the distinction is too subtle are advised to read the speeches of Malcolm X. No one ever spoke more harshly and crit
975959
NOPE, \nWHITE PEOPLE I GUESS DESERVE EVERYTHING THEY HAVE COMING TO THEM.\nIT'S NEVER RACIST WHEN WHITE PEOPLE ARE VICTIMIZED BY MINORITIES AND IMMIGRANTS IN THEIR OWN COUNTRY, BECAUSE IT'S IMPOSSIBLE FOR WHITES TO GET VICTIM STATUS ACCORDING TO THE CHURCH OF POLITICAL CORRECTNESS.\nEVEN IF WHITES BECOME THE MINORITY AND ARE A CONSTANT TARGET OF ABUSE AND ATTACKS, THE CHURCH OF POLITICAL CORRECTNESS WILL SECRETLY BE PLEASED ABOUT IT.\n\nIF YOU ARE WHITE AND CHRISTIAN IN ORIGIN YOU ARE TO HANG YOUR HEAD IN SHAME AND CONSTANTLY APOLOGIZE FOR THINGS WHICH AREN'T EVEN YOUR FAULT AND ACCEPT YOUR GUILT AND PERPETRATOR STATUS, WHEN YOU ARE VICTIMIZED, YOU ARE TO SAY TO YOURSELF "I DESERVE IT BECAUSE OF WHAT OTHER PEOPLE DID CENTURIES AGO AND FOR WHAT OTHER WHITE PEOPLE DO IN OTHER COUNTRIES".\n\nTHIS IS WHY PC MINDSET IS TREASONOUS, THEY ARE SELF-LOATHING AND WOULD SEEK TO HAVE THEIR OWN PEOPLE, THEIR CULTURE AND THEIR TRADITIONS AND CORE WESTERN VALUES DESTROYED,\nEVEN IF THEY WERE REPLACED WITH EXTREMIST ISLAM WHICH WOULD OPPRESS THEM WORSE, THEY WOULD PREFER IT.\nTHEY ARE TRAITORS.
269873
After 400 years of slavery should blacks be ahead of whites economically no in fact hell no why?? Because climbing the economic latter is like a race those who starts first have the ultimate advantage so its like this whites started runninng the economic race 400 whole years before blacks even thought of any type of wealth infact whites used blacks to get where they are today 400 yrs of payfree labor (free money in white peoples pockets) gav them anothere boost many whites have what youde call old money, money passed down from generations, which was generated by slavery, then theres fertile land, nourished by blacks. No real apologies made, no reparations, racism still exists although the majority of racist have no reaal reason to be angry (whites ancestors didnt suffer in America). Good thing is no no Great thing is no naa Astonishing thing is, is that Blacks havnt lost faith theyre still running the race and are catching up, through the many years of suffering if blacks didnt learn to do anything else they learned to surive and fight, so while blacks are running the race today theyre still fighting and surviving. Blacks are way far ahead of whites as far as the total outlook on life simply because theyve struggled for so long and lived without that theyve learned to appreciate the more simpler aspects of life therefore broadening the view. When you start off poor there is soo much more to look foward to but when you begin rich you loose the ability to indulge on the simpler  plesures. The African American race has sooo much to proud of and I think that they should embrace theyre past to prevail in the future, Black generations have come farther than many other races and they werent carried with money like many others. I say give blacks another 10 yrs and they would have caught up creating a tie unvailing equality for all Blacks in America shrinking racism to a diminutive peice of crap.
967180
I think white people should stop apologizing and feeling guilty over slavery from 150+ years ago, and instead work on ending the misery of the 22 million slaves world wide today.
850820
It's not acceptable, and every African/Asian/Native/Latin/Arabic-American knows it. The notion that anyone else is responsible for what their grand-pappy did is asinine. Slavery is gone; it's not a personal problem for anybody. However, racism is not gone, and it is a real problem. HOWEVER, minorities perpetuate it just as much as they suffer from it.