Indentured servitude for blacks did not begin to end until the 60s. We are the first generation to be free of that shit. You don't reverse nearly 200 years of abuse in 40 years no matter how much you want that to be true.
That is not strictly speak true. The discrimination and overt racism that existed before the progress in civil rights was unjust but it was not indentured servitude.
Not it all cases but in many cases that was true. However, it was presented under the guise that the servant was part of some weird extended family as in "she's been with the family forever". If not by law, they were indentured by economics.
Even if it was true most of the people that are supposed to benefit from affirmative action at places like UM where not alive in the 60s. Again you look at an injustice done to one set of people to another, and then punish a group that looks like the first set to benefit a group that looks like the second set. Moral reponsibility does not follow skin color. A white person is not responsible for the sins of previous white people, and an injustice done to one black person can not be healed or erased or made fair by benefits provided to another black person.
Your view of things suggests that all guilt is absolved at the time the perpetrators die. However, that has not been the general view of societies at large as I have pointed out previously. Another example of that sense of morality that prompts us to correct past wrongs is exemplified by the special treatment and benefits present day Native Americans receive from state and federal gov'ts. This special treatment is fairly costly....that's why I think we are getting off cheaply with AA.
A culture is responsible for its sins whether they were perpetrated by the current generation, or by previous generations
To whit, racists still abound in this society........first ring suburbs are now experiencing white flight like cities did 20 years ago. And don't come back and tell me whitey may be moving for any number of reasons.
They are moving for any number of reasons. Of course in some places racism is one of those reasons. But moving away from people you don't life is not an abuse of the person you don't like even if it is done for racist reasons, and in many cases it is not done for racist reasons.
I agree......I only pointed it out to show that racism is still a serious problem.
Do you think that we have to pay reparations (at least in the form of affirmative action) because people move away from other people they don't like? If your answer is yes, I disagree. If it is no then your whole point about people moving away is not really relevant to the affirmative action question.
While not very neighborly <g>, we have the freedom to live where we want and I don't think that should be denied to us no matter the motivation.
Okay, that's cool. We'll make sure that we keep their progress at levels just above that of Africans and then they will have to be grateful to us for that 'luxury'.
Their progress and wealth is well above, not just above Africans, but still that is not a reason for them to be grateful not would I expect their gratitude either to me or to the previous generations that made their ancestors slaves. However the fact that they are so much better off then the vast majority of Africans does neatly counter the argument that we made the lives of today's blacks much worse by the slavery of their ancestors. It does not mean that their ancestors where not done a grave and horrible injustice, but there are none of them left for whom we can try to rectify that injustice.
I understand your argument but I don't know I agree with it.....I would have to think about it.
ted |
