Ah yes...the greatest of all generalizations and cop-outs in history: "race." Racists of all shapes and forms are, perhaps, the most pathetic, because, for some reason, people are categorized simply by skin color.
Now let's have a token melon history lesson here (if only the high schools had done their job!). Slavery is extremely old. It's even mentioned in the Bible in a few places (mostly supportive of it, ironic enough). That, itself, should say that this isn't a "white phenomena," as the world of the Bible was not Caucasian (don't let those white Jesus statues fool you
). Slavery is probably as old as man itself, as all governments were essentially autocratic, whether it be at the tribal level or at an imperial level. Hence, when you have all the power, it's much easier to force your subjects to do things they don't want to. What if you don't have enough subjects? You conquer your enemies and add them to your "work force." This was obviously the preferred way of doing things in everywhere from ancient Egypt to the Roman Empire to the more sophisticated form of slavery, feudalism.
Obviously, now, the point of contention here is likely the African slave trade of the 1600s to the 1800s. This was imported to the U.S. by the Dutch--I guess you can say, "white people." But it's not a simple case of the Dutch traders stealing people in Africa. Slavery in Africa was extremely common, as warring tribes would often conquer their enemies, only to enslave them. To think that Africa was immune to this practice is an incredible fallacy. So, quite often, the Dutch traders would come in to these African empires and trade goods for slaves. The African imperial leaders, seeing an opportunity for wealth, consented; hence, in many instances, these corrupt empires sold their own people away. To be fair, though, the Dutch often did kidnap Africans in addition to their "legally" traded slaves.
I think I've made my point clear here, but I'll make a quick synopsis:
1) labelling people by their race is stupid, because it wasn't "white people" who brought in the African slave trade, it was the Dutch, or, better specifically, corrupt Dutch businessmen using the Bible as justification for their actions (remember how I said the Bible supported slavery?).
2) slavery was not invented by white people, and surely was not used exclusively by white people, as it was used in Asian, Middle Eastern, and even African cultures as a convenient way to take out enemies and increase their workforce.
3) white people have been enslaved as well, as the Romans often enslaved the European "barbarians" as well, not to mention the sophisticated form of slavery, feudalism, which lasted well over 1000 years and wasn't even abolished in Russia until around the 1850s.
4) nothing is as simple as it seems, and that does include slavery.
Any comments?
Melon
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"He had lived through an age when men and women with energy and ruthlessness but without much ability or persistence excelled. And even though most of them had gone under, their ignorance had confused Roy, making him wonder whether the things he had striven to learn, and thought of as 'culture,' were irrelevant. Everything was supposed to be the same: commercials, Beethoven's late quartets, pop records, shopfronts, Freud, multi-coloured hair. Greatness, comparison, value, depth: gone, gone, gone. Anything could give some pleasure; he saw that. But not everything provided the sustenance of a deeper understanding." - Hanif Kureishi, Love in a Blue Time