Ahhhh. I love the smell of debate in the morning! So my sister made a post over on her blog about "The current conversation of race in America". I largely understand this to mean, "What do people talk about when they discuss race, in America?". Which of course brings up all the wonderful questions about race and racism.
One of the points she brings up is about various ethnic groups getting riled up about stuff after "the hell they've been through". Now this is something I would argue vehemently against. Not that there were people of various ethnic groups that were put through very close to hell on earth. There is no denying that Africans were treated much worse than animals on their route to the colonies, or that they were treated much like animals at the colonies. And if you put some effort into it you can find that the romans raided various people and used them as slaves as well. And no one can forget the roughly 6million jews that died in Germany in the span of just a few years.
There is certainly no arguing those points. What I would argue, is that no black american (I don't see how they're any more african american than I am scottish american) today has any claim to being abused in the era of slavery, and a shrinking minority of them have any claim to the heavy racism that followed after. As for hispanics being treated as a sort of second class citizen, well I haven't seen any of it towards legal ones (but honestly I don't spend much time in circles where I would). And if illegal immigrants are treated as second class citizens, well, honestly can they expect any better?
Now I'm not saying that everything is lovey dovey and we should just forget the past. It's important to remember our heritage and know what made our ancestors the people they are, and thus the people we are. However, I also don't think that I should feel bad for something that my ancestors may or may not have been involved in (at this point I'd have to do some pretty heavy research to find out).
That's it for now, but please feel free to make comments or responses. Though if you're one of the non-existent people who read my blog and I don't know, please post your blog after you make a rebuttal.
~joe
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