re: Ben Affleck wanted his slave owner ancestor 'censored' from Finding Your Roots

Of course Affleck and Gates were dishonest. Liberalism REQUIRES dishonesty. Dishonesty is the single largest component of Liberalism, followed closely by moral preening and resentment. Without dishonesty all the Marxist assumptions about race, gender and class that comprise Liberalism would fade away into a gigantic sea of facts where famous pampered white actors and angry Race Pimps would have to face The Truth . And we wouldn't want that.

I teach AP Highschool; though I'm sure most fifth grade students know slavery was racially motivated. Unless they are raised by racist slack jawed trailer trash falsifying obvious history.

"Many black southerners"

Many is a pretty subjective word - so it seems stupid to get faux angry at the use of the word w/o a clear definition.

I pray for your students' sake , you are more logical in your classroom and less subjective

There was a racial hierarchy. Many whites such as Jefferson believed Native American were more intelligent and capable of being civilized. They viewed blacks as animalistic and in need of bondage for their own good.

Vice-President of the Confederacy:

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Our new government is founded upon exactly the opposite idea; its foundations are laid, its corner- stone rests, upon the great truth that the negro is not equal to the white man; that slavery subordination to the superior race is his natural and normal condition. This, our new government, is the first, in the history of the world, based upon this great physical, philosophical, and moral truth.

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Thomas Jefferson in Notes on Virginia:

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They seem to require less sleep. A black, after hard labour through the day, will be induced by the slightest amusements to sit up till midnight, or later, though knowing he must be out with the first dawn of the morning. They are at least as brave, and more adventuresome. But this may perhaps proceed from a want of forethought, which prevents their seeing a danger till it be present. When present, they do not go through it with more coolness or steadiness than the whites. They are more ardent after their female: but love seems with them to be more an eager desire, than a tender delicate mixture of sentiment and sensation. Their griefs are transient. Those numberless afflictions, which render it doubtful whether heaven has given life to us in mercy or in wrath, are less felt, and sooner forgotten with them. In general, their existence appears to participate more of sensation than reflection. To this must be ascribed their disposition to sleep when abstracted from their diversions, and unemployed in labour.

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He's listing all of the racial inferiorities of blacks, slavery is clearly racially justified.

ETA: There's thousands of quotes I could pull.

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white guilt

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He should give away all his money.

We ready knew that show was fricking stupid.

Lol- oops... I guess the history teacher is teaching revisionsist history

Of course slavery was racially motivated. I'm as die-hard Southern as it gets, but lets not get ridiculous. A primary reason for African slaves was the color of their skin. If one of those pesky Irish or Scottish slaves ran away, they could blend into the colonial populace too easy. An African? Not so much.

Plus, by the time the slave trade commenced Europe was so far ahead technologically than Stone-Age Africa that it was easy for feelings of racial superiority to develop to justify the institution of slavery.