Thursday, April 22, 2021

Slavery May Have Defined America More Than I Had Realized Before.

 While I won't blame innocent generations of white people for the misdeeds of their ancestors, slavery did have a significant impact leading to where the generations of whites/blacks are now. Slavery ended in 1865 meaning it's only been 156 YEARS SINCE SLAVERY ENDED.


That's pretty recent and while its true that things have gotten better, niether did it suddenly get better as soon as slavery was abolished. Slavery began in 1619 and lasted 246 years meaning that historically, THEY HAVE BEEN SLAVES IN AMERICA LONGER THAT THEY HAVE BEEN FREE.


Unfortunately, it seems highly likely that previous generations of American slavery are one of the major reasons behind the prosperity divide between Black/White Americans and why the Black people ended up developing more and more ghettos whereas white people prospered reinvesting their fortunes already amassed through slavery and up until recently I hadn't really put it into perspective.


White Americans had a 246 year headstart during which Black Americans were slaves and provided free labor (excluding cost of living) Then after a 246 year & very profitable years Black Americans finally began building themselves up, yet the following 156 years Blacks/Whites had to further their communities, for Black Americans a lot of those years were hampered due to racial inequality issues (MLK's "I have a dream" was in 1963).


Compared to the gimped 156 years Black Americans had, White Americans have had a total of 401 years to build their communities during which time they had full civil liberties and opportunities and 246 of those were the slave years.


This was a huge economical advantage that White Americans had over Blacks and both races are where they are today because of slavery.


There is a thought that bothers me now. This has not necessarily changed. Things like immigration while not as terrible as slaves, borders and current views on immigrant still creates a system where there are a group of people who we can take advantage of, a minority group which exists due for another social injustice (immigration laws) that in the future our generation will seem ignorant for.

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