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In reply to the discussion: I am sorry for slavery. Part of the privilege of being white is that I don't often need to [View all]Starry Messenger
(32,342 posts)Gates also highlights the role the chiefs and warlords had in slavery, which is just what everyone knows in studying the history of the slave trade. Unfortunately, he seemed to conclude from that this made them equally culpable, which is wrong. Also, a few kings were not "Africa", as the article that I linked to showed. The country itself resisted and several of those kings faced political unrest from their own citizens as a result.
He was writing an Op-Ed against reparations though, which some white people lunged at to support their own positions on responsibility for the entire slave trade on the European side.
(The NYT published letters from outstanding scholars to rebut Gates' conclusions. http://www.nytimes.com/2010/04/26/opinion/l26slavery.html)
Yes, it's a game here we see everyday. Infuriating.