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In reply to the discussion: No! I will not Stop it! ... [View all]BainsBane
(53,155 posts)Is to say people of color have nothing unique to complain about, so shut up.
I'll give an example from my own family history to show the difference of forced labor for whites vs. blacks. My ancestors on my father's side came to America as indentured servants. They sold themselves into servitude to pay for passage to the New World. (Not all white indentured servants came voluntarily, but my understanding is that my ancestors did). Yet that sevitude was not permanent or inheritable. They worked off their debt, acquired land, and that side of the family grew prosperous. Contrast that with the experiences of Africans in America, the first of whom likewise held the status of indentured servants. Only within a generaton that servitude became permanent, marked by the color of their skin and passed down to their children--in other words, slavery. Those early Africans in Virginia who aquired land had it taken from them. The children of men who had been farmers and landowners were sold into slavery. Rather than having the opportunity to rise in America, they were reduced to chattle, viewed as less than human.
We were all "persecuted" historically doesn't begin to account for the stark differences in life expereinces and opportunities based on nothing more than skin color. We were not all persecuted in the same way, and the fact is some weren't persecuted at all.
To deny those circumstances historical and contemporary is to tell African Americans and other people of color that their life experiences don't matter. That is what you are saying.