Why do people say get over slavery when the ramifications of it are still present in America?

Question

And legal segregation only ended 50 years ago?

tay, thanks for proving my point.

Dont we need to understand our past to plan for our future?

I am not angry or resentful towards white people for the actions of their ancestors. Dont they believe it was an atrocity? My reason for asking this question is for people to understand that slavery has impacted African Americans in a way that they can never truly understand thus they should be more sensitive to the issues that still plague African Americans.

Answer 1

Because it wasn't done to you, and it wasn't done by me. What else could you want me to say or do? Don't you think my people are still paying for this? We are constantly being called racist because of our skin color. We are being asked to pay people we have never harmed. And blacks are given many opportunities and excuses that we are not because of their skin color. When will it end? When can we all just be people?

I would like to be nice and more sensitive, but black people seem overly sensitive and get angry for reasons we do not understand. Understanding has to go both ways. Don't ask us to be open or to reach out to you if you won't accept us anyway.

Answer 2

People do not want to take responsibility for the horrible things that their great grandparents' did to your great grandparents.

People do not want to take responsibility for what they did not personally do. We are 50 years after segregation. We hope that our generations have learned to treat all people better than they did back then.

Back then it seemed Whites (and some other races) did not believe Black (*****) people were even human. They believed they were a different animal than a White person. They did not always believe in treating animals and Blacks well. Some of us can even find ancestors that sold Blacks.

We have now learned how wrong this was. The thing is that there is no way to make the past right with Blacks since they were abused so long. Even the monetary gift equal to 40 acres and a mule would not be enough to make up for the horrible things the Whites did to the Blacks, the American Indians, the Asians, and some other groups.

We don't know how to make the situation right. All I can do is treat everyone with dignity even when they don't always give me the dignity I deserve as a human. I believe in treating everyone well, and on the level of Lords and Ladies, so I don't look down on anyone.

Answer 3

I am so sick of black people saying that white people are the cause of there problems. there are good an bad in everyone. there are people from all walks of life all colors some have it ez some have just rough. let me ask you some thing how do you know that there was not any white people that was beaten that was trying to help black people. it seens that you want all the white people to hand everthing over to you an keep saying we are sorry. for the hundred time i an alot of other white people did not have any thing to do with the slavery. i have worked with black some have been good workers an some would get mad if they were toll to get to work. now there are white people that are the some way also. as long as you black people keep on with trying to put the blame on the people of today we will never look at each other as just people. you know i dont know if i had some one from back then that was mistreated. but if i did i would not blame you. an i will tell you why. because you were not there!

Answer 4

As far as actually getting your point across or getting anything done about the racism in this country, I say forget about slavery. It just doesn't help the argument because of the exact reactions you mention. Besides, I feel it is important to focus on the here and now. It's easy for people to dismiss slavery - "that was before even our grandparents" - but not so easy to dismiss people getting rejected for jobs because of their skin tone right now, every day.

And, slavery is not what caused all the problems for black Americans - ignorant, asinine, elitist white people with no respect for a human life are what caused all the problems and they still do today. Pointing to an institution like slavery makes the offense less personal. Pointing to the people who bought and sold human beings to work them to death for their own gain better exposes the horror of it all.

Answer 5

The more time people spend being angry and resentful, the less time there is for being positive and productive.

Granted, I have never been a slave. But I have been a victim. After being a victim, remaining angry and resentful kept me victimized. By choosing to stop being a victim, I took away the power that the perpetrator held over me. I gained my freedom and worked hard for what I wanted.

We are what we think we are.

I don't think that when people say this, that (most) of them are trying to invalidate the atrocity. I think they are trying to say...Move on. Be MORE than what your past might try and dictate. You are no longer a slave or victim, but if we continue to think like one, that will keep us trapped in the cycle. The ramifications are still present, because we remain stuck.

Be who you want to be, regardless of your past.

I hope you feel me on this.

Edit: To those who say Slavery no longer exists in the US, you may want to check the 13th amendment. Because it does exist and it is a legal form of punishment to those that have been convicted of a crime.

Answer 6

"Get over it" isn't really what should be said. Instead it should be "move on". The ramifications are still around; but, are much harder to find than 40 years ago. The only way to get passed the ramifications is to move on. Realistically, those that do not see a problem with our history of slavery will probably never change their minds. Those that use our history of slavery to try and make a point are only hurting the healing process. Nobody alive today had any direct involvement in slavery so there is nobody to hold accountable. I don't mean that we should forget it, history tends to repeat itself and that is a time that should not be replayed. I just believe that at this point we need to simply move on.

Answer 7

I don't know why they say that. African Americans were still being treated like dirt less than 50 years ago. I would say that the African American community is still traumatized from what they had to endure. It will take many more years for many of them to finally come to terms with what happened. But to say "get over it" - that has to come from someone that has never had to endure any pain - they simply have no clue what there talking about.

Answer 8

I used to sit on my Great grand mothers knee as child an she would tell me stories about growing up on the plantation as a child. Life was very hard for her as a child she had to worked with her parents. Her parents were slaves on a plantation she moved to Canada after her father was lynched for trying to start a school. She lived with relatives who had escaped and moved there. She taught herself two read she started a school She moved back to the states to take care of her sister and she was shocked at the immense poverty that was caused by Racist laws and fear. After her sister died she became active in the civil rights movement she been threatened, locked up blasted with hoses bitten by dogs and for her age at that time she still carried on. She was very active in civil rights until she became sick and moved back to Canada where she died. She was in her 100's when she passed away we weren't really sure they didn't keep records. I realize now that she was a strong woman I also realized that slavery wasn't such a long time ago and for our ppl we have accomplished so much in such a short period of time.
No I will never forget I am the decendants of Slaves and I will forget my great grand mother and all that she taught me. Would you tell Armeanians, and Jews to forget they history I think not. 50 years is not a long time ago ppl, and Slavery still exist in this world today
Are ramifications still present yes of course don't pretend that its not!

Answer 9

Because they do not want to hear about it.

The thing about that is that people seem to use the word slavery to describe the whole mistreatment of the black race. Blacks did not have to be slaves to be hated and oppressed. 90% of the people who oppress blacks were not slave owners.

In the "***** in our History" it is estimated that no less than 4 out of every 5 ***** ship to the New world was dead. Africa would have lost 50 million Africans to this. None of those people who died where slave masters but ship owners, crews, and captains. 100 years after slave were emancipated they were still victims of oppression like the "St.Louis Massacre" so this prove that because no one own a slave do not mean blacks was not oppress.

The one who went out to gathering to have what they call a "Picnic" which means to pick a ****** for lynching. Those were not slave owners, in fact non slave owners treated them worst because those Blacks were no value to them.

Fact,to forget the past is the same as forgetting your history. Becuase your history goes hand in hand with that of whites. So you can't in no way dicuss fully your history without discussing the mistreatment of whites. If you forget your current history then you can't blame it on whites because you made the choice to listen to them by saying forget the whole thing, this time you wasn't force to. Now think about all that effects the decision to forget and not remeber the past. It would mean you support the crimes being committed against your people. It means the people that where oppressed 400 years for yours and mostly their benefit go in vain. You let others slander against your ancestors by saying "their all died", when they unwillingly died to benefit them. Israel was slaves 400 years and freed by God not Pharoah to serve him. Surely after that long they would know the difference between Slavery and oppression vs freedom. God never wanted Israel to forget this because that was why he freed them to remember the good he has done. The enemy has decieve us by saying the Lincoln freed the slaves. Making it seem as if the oppressors are the heros. But 100 years latter they still wasn't free. It was God that your people was praying about freedom they never had, It was your people who was singing many songs about freedom to God. God didn't get us freedom to forget our past or history he wanted that to be a reason to understand how good he has been to you. Israel was curse for forget this let's not do the same, they forgot him even before the left the land. They never made it to the promise land.

Answer 10

It's a hard thing to even bring up because you are afraid of looking racist or something. You get tired of hearing about how white people are the cause of black people's problems. Saying that we just get things handed to us is just idiocy. I came from a very poor home where we often lived without electricity, my mom was a single mom who was trying to work and support 3 children by herself, I've lived in some of the poorest and dirtiest places I've ever seen, I had to work and save money to buy my clothes and my first car, I got into drugs and alcohol and got kicked out of school, and got pregnant at a young age.

I decided to make a better life for my son and I started finishing school and got straight A's. I got a President's scholarship to a community college because I worked hard, it was not handed to me, although there are thousands upon thousands of scholarships out there just for being born African American. I met my husband who is a hard worker and would work 3 jobs to support his family before he would let us go without electricity.

Life is hard, that's the way it is no matter what race you are. Some people are rich and some people do get things handed to them, but it has nothing to do with race. Teaching generation after generation to dislike or blame white people for slavery that happened in a part of America before we were even born sounds like racism to me.

I do feel bad that it happened as an event in history, just as I do for the holocaust or the horrible treatment of the Native Americans, but I refuse to feel guilty, I can no more control the fact that I was born a white American, as you can control being born a black American. All we can do is MOVE ON and make the world better for ourselves and for future generations.