DISCUSSION FORUM

Why when discussing the lasting results of slavery the positive aspects are never mentioned. While slavery is an obvious horrible stain on our country's history, what conditions would the descendants of slaves be living in today had their forefathers never been forced to come to this country? In a vast majority of the cases they enjoy a far higher standard of living than if they were still in Africa. While this may be a very controversial statement I have a hard time seeing an arguement against it.

It's not a controversial statement because it's the simple truth, when taken as a statement of fact.

It's also not particularly interesting. Most Americans, of all races, are significantly better off than if their ancestors had not come to the U.S. This tells us little about fairness among Americans today, or about what our nation has done historically to the different groups who have come to our shores.

Should we judge a white citizen by the standard of living, or other conditions, prevailing in his ancestors' home country today? Would an American whose ancestors came here from, let's say, Russia in the 19th century, stand for that comparison today?

Put another way, why do you even raise the issue? Do you believe that racial inequality is excused in our society on the grounds that Africans are largely impoverished today, even though our society's racial inequality is largely the result of generations of our own Jim Crow segregation and discrimination?

I agree with what you say that almost every other nationality is better off now that they are in America. But don't you think that constantly saying not enough has been done to fix the wounds of slavery and dwelling on how African Americans are still being wronged today because of slavery does nothing but hold back moving forward? African Americans aren't the only people treated poorly when they came here and aren't even the only ones that were enslaved. Asians were enslaved in this country but you don't constantly hear about it holding them back. Is an Asian who never was a slave at a disadvantage to a white or Mexican person because of something that happened over 100 years ago? Hardly!

I think that if it's the truth, it needs to be said. I also think that hiding from the truth is what holds us back and prevents us from moving forward together.

The truth is that slavery and discrimination have left a terrible legacy in our society, one which is not yet eradicated. This can be seen, for instance, in the persistent racial gap, by any socioeconomic measure of progress, which has persisted with only modest progress since slavery. We live with this legacy every day. The truth is that black Americans do still face prejudice and discrimination today, and this can be traced directly back to our history of slavery and Jim Crow.

How would the cause of racial progress be helped by remaining silent about these facts?



That's an interesting statement. I agree that many groups have suffered in our nation's history, and that we must never lose sight of that fact.

However, the obstacles faced by Asian Americans today are not the same as those faced by black Americans, and that's due in large part to the differences in their history. Lets start with the fact that Asians were never enslaved in this country. The history of Chinese immigrants in the 19th century is, indeed, a painful one, which is why California apologized this summer for that history. But it did not amount to anything like chattel slavery, nor were Asian families kept in chattel slavery for centuries in this country. Asian families were not systematically stripped of their language, culture, and religion, or kept apart from each other, or forced to breed for their masters. Nor did they face anything quite like the Jim Crow laws of the century following slavery. Again, Asian Americans did face a very difficult history, but it was quite different, and its legacy has been different.

Slavery and racial discrimination is always been a problem in the society, wherever we are in the world. This is the sad fact about this. Many people have been putting gaps with the other races in the different countries. This was constituted with the fact that most of the people who have been working as slaves to the other country were mostly the race that was being looked down in the society.