re: Just overheard a guy say "slavery wasn't racist"

Slavery is about people with power using the people that have no power. There have been white slaves, black slaves.

Black slave gatherers in Africa didn't round up other black people to sell into slavery because they hated black people.. it was because they had the power to do so.

They saw a market and they took advantage of it by gathering and selling their countrymen that had no power.

Black slave owners didn't own black slaves because they hated black people.. they owned black slaves because they had the power to do so.

Same thing is applied to white slave owners.

Even today. In other countries, those with power buy and sell those with no power. Look at libya.

It's not race related. It's power related.

Luckily, we've(usa) laws now, to prevent people with power from literally owning those without power.

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Was it shitty? You betcha. But after their seven years were up they could walk away

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False. Less than half of whites had indentured servitude contracts.

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Slavery was not about racism. What is so funny?

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American slavery morphed into something that was uniquely about racism.

Lybians are selling slaves now and none of those involved are white.

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There were laws that used to be on the books, that you couldn't breed Irish with Blacks, because Irish stock was inferior to black stock

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So facts are racist now?


Ba dum chi

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This is a solid point, but it only further illustrates how complex and (in a sad way, so we're clear) fascinating this entire issue is to discuss an analyze. Sadly, most Americans just aren't up to it. Collectively, we're pretty lazy, intellectually, and are much happier being spoon fed simple (yet horribly wrong) answers.

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What discussion are you looking for? Yes, there were some black slave owners and white indentured servants. So what? The entire institution was a horrible blight on humanity - and particularly for a country nominally dedicated to and founded upon "individual freedom". No amount of parsing or searching for deeper meaning can ever change that fact.

I understand that you are adult enough to have the conversation, but your hand-wringing mostly only gives cover to those sorts who would like to get bent out of shape because someone said American slavery was racist.

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I've been quite clear - something beyond, "White southerners = bad; everyone else = clean hands" - as long as you concede that's bullshite (and I think you will), then we're good to go.

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Yes, it's bullshite. More accurate would be:

White southerners = bad; everyone else = mostly bad but with a significant minority of much, much, much better than white southerners. I think you'll agree that part of the problem is that a lot of white southerners won't even agree to the "white southerners = bad" part of the equation no matter what the rest says.

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White southerners and the freed slaves/their descendants seem to be the only folks considered, when American chattel slavery was in fact a global issue.

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Yes, northern banks in particular, IMO.

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Yes, northern banks in particular, IMO.

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And textile mills, railroads, anyone using timber, food or other raw materials produced in the South, while pretending they were superior to those actually engaging in slavery...

The North was neck deep in slavery, the South was drowning in it - a subtle difference, I suppose, but I'm not sure how important it was. Certainly the South paid for it. And paid for it and paid for it and paid for it.

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Certainly the South paid for it. And paid for it and paid for it and paid for it.

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I disagree. I think the Civil War is one of the few (if not the only) wars where the losers got to write the history.

I'm really going to miss the word "baw" when posters stop using it. It's almost as awesome as " broseph " was.