White Guilt

I don't feel any guilt over things other people have done.

 

guilt isn't the point and doesn't solve anything. don't screw everything up for someone else, is.

 

How about feeling any pride about stuff other people did? Remarkably most people do experience that (not talking just about some form of white pride here, but cultural/societal, by association or on a national level etc. etc.)

 

I can echo Karen's statement, I don't feel bad for things that I had no part in.

And right. It's pretty curious how people are so "proud" of their country, nationality, or other accidents of their birth.

 

I love and hate all people..it really is the content of someone's character that gets my respect.. Not the color of their skin.

 

White people have done shitty things but we are far from the only people in history to have done such things. I personally didn't do any of it and I'll not hold myself responsible for the actions of others. I didn't choose my race. It was a complete accident....nothing to be proud of or ashamed of.

 

I mostly feel guilt about being a human in general. Slavery exists today and no one really does anything about it.

 

I feel ashamed for not being a bird.

 

Rarely.

I'm much more likely to root for organizations or places that I've associated myself with by my own free choice. Those choices reflect my own priorities and judgment, so I feel more of a legitimate connection.

If my early ancestors had used a time machine to ask me, "What do you think of the idea of importing black slaves to work our plantations?", my response would have been something like, "You're out of your fucking mind! That's the worst possible thing you could do!" If they had contacted me and I said anything other than that, black people alive today would have a legitimate reason to hold it against me. Of course, those ancestors would have never considered asking the opinion of a woman anyway.

 

I disagree. They still would not have a legitimate reason to blame you for their ancestors enslavement if you said stuff among the lines of 'that is your concern, not mine' or even 'do what you will' Perhaps if you would have actively encouraged and supported them it would become slightly different. But it would depend on the details and this is of course a highly hypothetical scenario :-D

 

Right.. They didn't even say thank you

 

They smelled your fear and thought it was best to ignore you.

 

Of course you do! The sun rose in the east today, didn't it?

 

Think about if they were not your ancestors, but relatives from now. Are you responsible for their deeds if you said 'that's your concern' instead of outright saying 'no, don't do that'? Why would it change with time travelling ancestors?

 

If I fail to speak against racism seen in relatives, friends, and people who work for me, that gives minorities a real reason to be pissed with me. But I'm not ultimately responsible for anyone's actions except my employees, while they're on the job. I can't control anyone else's behavior. I can only hope to influence.

The people who made the decisions about importing Afircan slaves into America are the ones who are fully responsible for all the terrible shit that resulted. If I give somebody bad advice (on any subject) and they act on it, that gives me partial responsibility.

 

Yeah, Birds are much smarter than sheep.

 

People are very myopic and have short memories. The whole "whites enslaving blacks" was merely the most recent, public and largest economic slave industry, and as Meliai stated, slavery still exists today, just underground.

Before anyone goes dredging up history to try to find justification for their present woes, I ask, how far back and who's history do we consider?
Every race, ethnic group and culture has at one time or another had slavery as a main economic resource.
Collecting slaves was second only to claiming land and territory for most ancient civilizations up until a few hundred years ago.
So the slave traders who ran the Atlantic slave trade that most people think of when talking slavery really didn't do anything new or nefarious, they simply employed the technology available and turned it into a very major and lucrative global enterprise.
Good business tactic if viewed as the economic venture that it was.
Let's also remember that the vast majority of those taken and sold into slavery were captured and sold by other African's, not whites.


It is curious though how hated the Americans are in regards to slavery, even though it was mostly the Portuguese, French, Spanish, British and Dutch who were actually buying people and reselling them, not Americans, the New World colonies were simply the biggest customer.

 

I don't care. I don't accept that excuse.

And who is saying that what the Europeans were doing at that time was morally okay? I'm talking about Americans because I live here.

 

your not caring does nothing to alter the reality or facts of history, does it?
I didn't offer it as an excuse, simply the harsh reality of the time and the slave trade.
Nor have I said it was/is morally ok.


Thank you Karen for illustrating a phenomena that happens all too often around here, ascribing opinions, attitudes or beliefs to a person even though nothing they have communicated would suggest such.