No, Slaves Didn't Build This Country

I wish it was that simple because "what was slavery's economic and social impact to our country and what would the US look like now if it didn't happen?" would be interesting. @docspor's friend's book's methodology and conclusions might be worthy of review and debate.

But no... I fear the OP simply wanted to express an anti-anti-racist wail. Or stir the pot again.

 

Agreed. One shouldn't fear chastising a "yo mamma" insult because it might result in a discussion on obesity in America.

The opening post was sophist and, in my ideal world, condemned as bad behavior by most of us.

 

Seems like a pretty basic explanation is that raw agricultural materials like cotton are a less lucrative and require less development than the industries that process them and turn them into ever more sophisticated commodities. They are still however, interdependent. Can't have industrial capitalism in the north without resource extraction in the south.

 

The thread speaks for itself.

 

Of course that's your contention. You're a first year grad student. You just finished some Marxian historian, Pete Garrison prob'ly, and so naturally that's what you believe until next month when you get to James Lemon and get convinced that Virginia and Pennsylvania were strongly entrepreneurial and capitalist back in 1740. That'll last until sometime in your second year, then you'll be in here regurgitating Gordon Wood about the Pre-revolutionary utopia and the capital-forming effects of military mobilization.

 

I said do you like apples?

 

I agree, to a certain extent, but none of those groups were sold as property, beaten/whipped, raped and imprisoned in that life. It was more than oppression. I don't believe in reparations. Move on.

 

I find it interesting that you are "tired" of hearing that "only african americans were ever oppressed." Please cite a source where someone, anyone, has said they were the only people oppressed in America?

This is like saying to homeless kids "well I'm tired of hearing you guys are homeless b/c those kids are homeless AND had no supper." It begs the question of what is important - the comparative level of oppression or the acts of oppression? We all know that women were treated as property in this country (a husband could kill his wife in many states until the 1900s) with no right to vote. That issue had threads on here. In those threads should we express being tired of women asking for pay equality today b/c Africans were enslaved?

My conservative side on this issue says that in todays world we should focus on income inequality and its effect on opportunity (the greatest correlation to economic success for a kid is not intelligence, two parents or anything but.... zip code). I don't think adding 1 black kid of two doctors helps integrate a school more than a kid of any color from a deprived background AND I think focusing on addressing opportunity based on income inequality will naturally address race/indigenous people, etc (as long as we guard against biases either way).

Nobody is saying blacks are saying they "were the only people oppressed" except white people trying to avoid conversations about the repercussions and effects we still feel in our country today from our "original sin." Or if it makes you feel better, one of our "original sins" including the devastation of the indigenous population and the mistreatment of Asian minorities. Basically, America needs to own up to our racist past, do our best to be the land of opportunity for all (including poor white, black, etc), and not a land of people clinging to their status and a body politic putting corporations above people (never seen a company drafted and sent to war but have seen minorities fight/die for this country only to come home and be treated as less than corporations).

 

@studegator, who built this country?

 

Indigenous Peoples' Day is a thing, and I'm sure you'd be welcome at the party!

 

so native americans have their own holiday, guess i missed it, or is it later this year?

 

Starship, obviously. Although they built it on rock and roll.

 

1. it was a city not a country
2. it's a stretch to call that rock & roll

 

I will posit that you can’t build a country without first building local jurisdictions. And we know that Starship did that.

 

hey, it was 80's music, what do you expect........

 

It's in October

A Proclamation on Indigenous Peoples' Day, 2021 - The White House

 

Indigenous Peoples' Day — October 11, 2021

Better yet, unless you are too tired, read, how the United States broke almost every treaty with the Indians.
In 1868, Two Nations Made a Treaty, the U.S. Broke It and Plains Indian Tribes are Still Seeking Justice | At the Smithsonian| Smithsonian Magazine

https://www.history.com/news/native-american-broken-treaties

Then go to a reservation out west, talk to them, and hopefully see the devastating affect it had, and many ways still has on them today

 

you are making my point about being mis-treated.

 

Lol, if you don’t agree with history as interpreted through a particular ideological lens, then you are a white supremacist. That is a good one.

White supremacy is a conspiracy theory and a metanarrative that reinterprets all of human experience through a lens of power dynamics born out of the ideology of the Frankfurt School, where they applied Marxist conflict theory to different cultural groups. Even years later…there are still the haves and the have nots, and they are still stuck in a zero sum game conflict for power, resources, etc). The haves are still the evil boogey man, and the have nots are the righteous victims. That is a very cartoonish understanding of people and reality, but people still believe it I guess.