Why do some people feel like the affects of slavery are over?

Question

Why can't people understand that the affects of slavery are still being felt. You can't just rape and mame someone let them go and say well I let them go we should be even now. My whole family and almost every other black person I know Are still experiencing the effects of slavery. Have you ever heard of the Willie Lynch speech? Please read it and then tell me If you still feel the same way.

http://www.thetalkingdrum.com/wil.html

Hell as far as I'm concerened slavery still exist to a certain degree. What about Black men and women getting extra long sentences fo what some considerto be petty crimes? and Prisons getting paid ***and paying the prisoners pennies on the dollars. I mean there is so much evidence I don't have time to write it all.

I don't hat any one. i just feelike the affects are real and people want dismiss the whole event. That's unfair! Jewish people have recognition for what happened to their people..I just want the same recognition for what happened to my people. No hate here.

Hey Bluff mike even Though it was a common practice in Africa to sell and enslave their prisoners of war you and I both know they didn't actively try to erase their slaves history, they didn't torture...It wasen't the same what they did could possible be equivicated to indentured servatude

I'm also sure that If they would have known how the people they sold would have been handeled...they would not have wished it on their worst enemy.

nindemon please don't worry your little heart. Once again I'm only...(let me stress the only) I'm only asking for recognition and for people to not act like everything is a okay. But trust me I'm not holdong my breath for reperations,but yeah it damn sure would be nice.

What I want more than anything is for Black people to be more aware I want the atrocities to stay fresh in their minds, because then maybe just maybe a fire will ignite and we as a people will get motivation to take control of our lives just like I have.

and by the way people the prison example was just that...one example

Answer 1

Princess, after everyone has acknowledged that slavery happened and it was bad, then what do you want them to do? After everyone acknowledged that nearly 100 years of Jim Crow Laws, set blacks back farther than any other race in America, then what do you want them to do? Do you want them to say, “Okay Princess, I now understand why you can’t get ahead in life.” Do you want them to say, “Okay Princess, we’ll start treating your people fair and with respect…but didn’t we do that back in the sixties?”

As an American, you expect to have equal rights. You expect that your elected official will care about keeping your neighborhood safe and clean, and provide funding for recreational activities and well equipped schools. You expect that the judicial system will fairly prosecute all criminals the same and not give lighter sentences to whites. – BTW, this reminds me of the Rosa Parks incident. I read that Rosa wasn’t the first to refuse her seat. There was a teen in a similar situation. The movement was going to use her to start the boycott but they didn’t. You want to know why? It was because she was pregnant. They felt it important to use someone who was above reproach to be the focus of the movement. Rosa Parks was that lady. She was blemish free, therefore an excellent candidate to build a movement around. –

I’m not saying that the issue of black criminal being harshly sentenced shouldn’t be looked into because it should. It just should not be the forefront of any black movement. Personally, I don’t think that black criminal should have lighter sentences; I think that whites should have harsher sentences to match what blacks are given. I am not soft on crime. I don’t think that a police beating after a black criminal, who is high on crack, takes the police on a high speed chase, should be the high point of a movement. These Jesse Jackson’s and Al Sharpton’s should be mainly focus on those innocent blacks who were beat or killed by police for no reason except that they were black. We need to stop focusing on criminals and blacks just doing bad things.

Are you telling us that blacks are just plain stupid? Are you trying to tell us that because of inequality, Jim Crow, and slavery, blacks are unable to think for themselves, make wise decisions, and stay out of trouble? Are you telling us that because of those things, blacks should not be responsible for their own behavior and their own lot in life? Maybe you are saying that because of those things, blacks have decided not to even try to be “good” or make their lives better because the “man” will always try to bring him/her down.

What happened to blacks was bad, horrifying, degrading, dehumanizing, etc; but what does that mean for us today? It means that we have to try harder. We have to try harder that any other race to make a good life for ourselves because we have been stripped to the bone. We have to take our destiny into our own hands. Why do you expect the descendents of slave owners to not only acknowledge that they were/are evil but care more about you life than you do and meet the needs of the black community. Maybe he would if he cared about your vote, but he doesn’t. Don’t expect an evil, corrupt, and mismanaged enterprise (the government) to be able to help solve the problem in the black communities for his solution would be poorly executed and not really beneficial in meeting the needs of blacks. So as blacks, we have to focus on repairing our own souls and rebuilding our own sense of decency and respect for ourselves along with holding ourselves responsible for the outcome of our own lives. This is America: hard work; staying out of trouble; reading books and gaining knowledge; raising our kids’ right; making wise financial decisions; and taking responsibility for our own community/lives, will always work in improving a situation. Empowerment comes from within.

Answer 2

Well what can we do? Do you expect all of us white people to buy you a house, a car, and dinner? Do you expect all fo us to treat you like a movie star? Slavery have been over for almost 150 years, so it's not like anyone who was live during the slavery era is still alive.

beside that,also look at Africa, majority of them are totally messed up even after with years of UN and world help. So that may should tell you something.

Plus I know many black people who are extremely successful with what they do. I know a couple who are polices, some who are a business man, some who are a professional fighter, two who are a teacher, and more. They never use slavery as a excuse about anything. So it sound like you probably are looking for a excuse about something you failed at. My suggestion; grow up and stop try acting like a victim because today you can go out there and do well in life if you give it a try!

Answer 3

The complete legal aspects of slavery (and resultant behaviors) have been over for around thirty years; however, with over 300 years of American Apartheid, the social and psychological effects will -- and to an extent as far as history and lineage are concerned -- remain forever. It's among the worst periods in America's history, and as with the Holocaust, it should be remembered. Unfortunately, there are those who remember the most sinister aspects of that time and they appear to revel in it, i.e., racists (or culturalists if you prefer). There will always be fear and hatred directed toward any given segment of a culture; one of the darkest of human foibles.

Prisoners, regardless of culture (or race), are all paid the same, that is IF there is any type of "work" program in that particular states prison system.

Studies have shown time and again, the greatest number of prison inmates are African Americans and are more often than not in many states given harsher prison sentences for the same crime than Caucasians.

As long as people continue to elect war-mongering, hate-filled bigots into office this will NEVER change, and for this I hold the population at large fully responsible.

Best Wishes!

Answer 4

ok lets put it this way im sure the jews feel the same way they will never get over what has happened too them either. but i think people have to learn to move on so we all can make the world a better place and think about the future how we can change things .and about the prison systems listen it cost alot of money for tax payers we pay. for giving the prisoners 3 hots and a cot plus computer rooms getten there hair done watching tv with there friends that are in there with them. and playing gym and working out everyday too think of the homeless and elderly who dont have the luxeries the prisoners have .its not just blacks its latinos and whites also some things in life isnt fare too alot of people!

Answer 5

Aside from those whose lives were directly affected by slavery, the effects are over, yes. I don't believe there is anyone still alive who lived in 1865. For them, the effects lived on through their lives, undoubtedly. But today, long after the end of that horrible institution, you cannot claim slavery as a motivation or an excuse.

Furthermore, slavery is completely unrelated to what you describe regarding long criminal sentences. This may be a viable issue separately from slavery, but there is no clear connection.

There's no doubt that slavery was a terrible injustice. And other injustices may have been committed over time also. But you cannot allow something so far in the past to dominate your life. Injustices happened to my great grandmother and great grandfather also...things which you may not be able to relate to ... but they were still injustices. This simply is something to overcome and move past. As long as we dwell in the past, we are prisoners of the past. In the present, there is no slavery, aside from some isolated places in Sudan, and we need to live like free people, not people dominated by our history.

Answer 6

Well no, the effects of slavery are not totally gone, but I think that the main problems are gone, as in forcing African Americans to work in white homes without pay, but yes, the secondary problems, like the ones you speak of, still exist. Racism, overall discrimination, will always be around because people, humans, will always have the capacity to create hate.

Answer 7

Slavery should not be used as a scapegoat for anything. The affects from the time of the civil rights movement are still strong today, yes, but it should not be used to justify laziness and wrong doing. Everyone at one point has an ancestor that has been a slave. It's time to get over it.

Answer 8

Hear me out please. I am American Indian. Perhaps no one but the Black American can share in the depth of the atrocities that befell our two races and yet...

I don't feel it.

Some of my people remain on the reservation in utter squalor suffering through discrimination, disease, alcoholism, poverty etc. I am not. I have not abandoned my heritage - just the opposite. I speak my native language (I taught myself) and have been a drummer for the World Indian and Eskimo Olympics. Many of my people insist on living in the past and reliving the horrendous things that happened to us - I have today and it is what I make it. It is a good day.

Part of the Native American Religion/Philosophy is to live in the moment - it is part of every indigenous peoples philosophy to one extent or another and so I assume it was in your past too - if we live in today - this moment... it's all good.

Answer 9

Affirmative Action , for one thing, even though it won't stop your whining and crying. You should be complaining to the Africans that sold you, though.

If you're so angry about being ripped fromt he bosom of mother Africa, why won't you go home? Easier to whine and moan in America than to be butchered in Seirra Leone?

Answer 10

prejudice will always exist as long as people teach HATE to their children.
however, though there is still inequality, let's be realistic too ~~ if you follow the RIGHT ROAD (and stay away from crimes) ~~ you would NOT have to worry about the criminal justice system... At some point , we have to TAKE RESPONSIBILITY for our own actions.