Why are white people the only ones blamed for slavery?

Question

Why do they hardly mention in textbooks that the leader of the tribes actually sold people in their tribe to the white people? Why is this always shoved under the rug?

Also, while coming to America as a slave is not humane or right at all, why do people rarely consider that if Africans had never come to America as slaves then their descendants would have to live in AIDS and disease ravaged Africa?

Don't give me any BS about Africa being how crappy it is today because of white intervention. If whites left Africa alone, there would be no more Africans to even speak of.

micheleh27 - Im sorry, I wasn't aware that I PERSONALLY took and enslaved your ancestors. I must have a bad memory or something.

Get over it.

Answer 1

I totally agree and when people speak of their brothers and sisters suffering in Africa, why is it white Europeans like Bono and Bob Geldof are doing all the work to help them? Why are the majority of missionaries there white? I have never spoke to anyone that although they complain about the US would want to go live in Sierra Leone or Liberia. Another point to consider is I bet most of the them never considered the sources of their "Bling Bling" and are even aware of conflict diamonds and the impact and suffering those diamonds caused.
As far as white intervention in Africa, while under colonial rule, must countries thrived and when that ended, history shows that most descended into chaos. Take Zimbabwe for example, once the land was seized from white farmers, within 2 years, crops were either not planted or if they were, not harvested and it has resulted in starvation, inflation is in the 1000's and unemployment is at about 70%. Mogube is now thinking of giving back the land seized to the original white farmers. There was no genocide in Rwanda until the Belgium government pulled out. either.
As far as AIDS, many reseachers have found links to Africa and there is a road that leads to Nairobi which is called the AIDS superhighway because this is the path is supposedly traveled along from rural areas into the cities. And before we get blamed for the inception of AIDS, ebola and marburg viruses were and are specific to Africa.
As a white European, should I hate the Danes and Italians for raping and pilaging England when we were occupied by the Vikings and Romans? When you put it that way, sounds bit silly don't you think?

Answer 2

Once again there is a theory that if the Trans-Atlantic slave trade had not happened the whole world would be a better place so you really can't pass judgement and say that you know how Africa would be right now if the Europeans hadn't come over. And since I'm pretty sure that AIDS was bioengineered if slavery hadn't happened I'm sure there wouldn't even be a thing called AIDS

The slavery that happened in Africa and the slavery that was going in America was totally different. One was treated inhumane, the other wasn't. One had to fight for basic rights while the others did not.

And also if you would like to know Africans have been over to the Americas long before Christopher Columbus.

Most of the time when slavery is brought up on this board it is from people like you so maybe you should move on. That'd be great.

Answer 3

Africa probably would not at all be what it was if Europeans hadn't come to the continent and forced settlement. No one denies the tribes that sold Africans into slavery. It isn't shoved under some rug is actually mentioned in textbooks (I taught history). And, no, you didn't personally come and enslave people, but how stupid of you to assume we should be thankful for our ancestors being enslaved. No disrespect meant, I just actually think you are really dumb for such an arrogant and ignorant comment. So many people in this forum keep making comments about slavery and saying tha black people are "whining". What do you think you are doing now? We didn't make your ancestors come over and buy and steal our ancestors. Quit crying about it and get over it...they're your ancestors..deal with it.

Answer 4

We are still suffering the fall-out from the enslavement of Africans in America. The fall-out from the slaves the Romans took from parts of their empire is noticeable in Italy. We assume the dark-haired Italians are descendants of Roman Soldiers, but the Etruscans, as we can prove from their statues, were 'white' people. The dark hair comes from the settled slaves - some were, among others, from Turkey and North Africa. The Romans brought young people from England to be slaves in Rome where Pope Gregory the First saw the blond youths, and said famously: "Not Angles but Angels".

The slave trade exists in Europe where people are still being transported to work in sweat shops and brothels. It is a lucrative business and in a few centuries, decedents of slaves will be trying to rise above the stigma of what 'we' are doing today.

Answer 5

It's natural for people to look to blame the one they see who is abusing them verses the unknown man who got them sold in the first place.

Regardless, just because some tribe leaders did the selling, doesn't remove the fact that whites bought and paid for humans to labor in their fields. They're just as guilty.

Your second paragraph isn't actually true. People often consider how they got here and the alternative place they might be. One might call this "bitter sweet irony". Most Africans refused to go back to Africa when given the opportunity because of the very fact that they were sold by those tribe leaders. Some did go back and then returned.

Answer 6

In regards to slavery as an issue, Africans were brought over as slaves and that was wrong, they were mistreated when they came to America and that was wrong, they were not given the same rights as everyone else and that was wrong. You talk about how bad Africa is, even if you believe that it is a god awful place as you point out with the issue of AIDS you have to acknowledge that if White people hadn't intervened and brought them over to America then they would have been left to their own devices and that would have been "god's plan" for them. But the white people did intervene and now you want to say well, we treated them bad but it might have been worse? We need to take responsibility for the actions taken and sending them back to Africa isn't the answer for all you morons out there!

Answer 7

Slavery was wrong, there is no doubt about it. If it is not something you would want to go thru yourself, don't think its something that anybody else should endure, either. That being said...for the DNA to get together that brought each of us into existence, history had to turn out exactly as it did. So if there had been no slavery, the DNA that brought the Black people of the Americas today into existence never could have gotten together and they would not be here. We are a product of our past and that past can be either good or bad.

Answer 8

Tribal leaders did not sell there own people into slavery, they sold captives from other tribes to the Europeans and had they known what was in store for them I do not think that they would have done that. And as far as Africans living in AIDS and diseased ravaged Africa, well it was the white people that infected most of the people over there anyway. and is there a difference between the holocaust and the 400 years of slavery that blacks had to endure in America? 400 years, has any of you that is commenting on this subject ever read up on the history of slavery? Do any of you all truly know just what those slaves went through for 400 years?

Answer 9

It made you very glad to be able to pass on that bit of information but the world knew this already.

In Northern Thailand, a man can get a very young girl or boy for a few dollars for sex. His or her own family and village would sell the child. DOES THIS MAKE IT RIGHT FOR SOMEONE TO GO THERE AND GET THE CHILD? NO.

Also, when have you heard anybody in the news media in the last 6 months (I could say longer but to be nice I am going just start at 6 months) who is BLACK or any other color even TALK ABOUT SLAVERY?

AND for several centuries afterward taking slaves from Africa was abolished, like a terrible kind of test genetics, black people were INBRED here in AMERICA for the purposes of slavery.

You have an axe to grind and it still does not change the fact that all the people involved were wrong, including the people of this country who tolerated it and made money off it.

Answer 10

I kinda agree with you...

why don't we all hate on the Egyptians for enslaving the Jews?

or why does no one ever mention the "life-time endentured servitude" that many Irish Immigrants came to America under..

or how about all the Greeks and Romans that enslaved thier captives no matter what they looked like...

slavery was wrong... but it's a part of history... let's move on.