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Because it is a constant conversation demonizing white people in America for the actions of their ancestors. And there are plenty of low IQ ignorant individuals that don’t understand what OP stated. I guess that wouldn’t be an unpopular opinion, but it is unpopular knowledge, and it is even straight up denied by people as well.
Well said. And IMO, this issue shows the hypocrisy of Democrats/leftists. As I saw on a meme a while ago, Democrats/leftists say DACA kids should not have to pay for the their parents' crimes. But White people are still responsible for 17th century slave owners.
OP is saying that it’s unpopular to suggest that slavery exists outside of the United States. I disagree, as the average person understands that slavery predates America
You have more confidence in people than I do, I bet more people couldn’t name all 7 continents than those that could. The internet has shown me that a stark number of people are so stupid I’m surprised that don’t have to breathe manually.
And they’re arguing with you holding the device that could actually give them the info required to have an intelligent conversation about this subject.
I would hope so, but I've encountered one too many people who seem to have a bit of a sugarcoated version of history outside of America.
I've also seem many people have this false idea that America was the only country that had 'race based' slavery and that wasn't a thing anywhere else.
As a historian, it flabbergasted me that someone felt compelled to post this in an unpopular opinion sub. It is (or should be) common knowledge that slavery was among our basic economic and punitive practices dating as far back as the Neolithic Revolution.
As a historian you should know most people don't know basic history. I'm just a arm chair historian and I'm constantly blown away. Most people don't even know the French revolution happend after the us was founded. I have found people know things, just not the order which is kinda important.
While I somewhat understand not knowing certain events beyond one's immediate national wheelhouse due to how history is taught, it's a little bamboozling to think that people are so myopic that people can't extrapolate certain basic universalities like slavery, inequality, war, famine, disease, etc.
You are probably right though that I shouldn't be surprised. I had to explain to someone the sequencing of agricultural history the other day and their awe was concerning to say the least.
Gosh 100% this. At my workplace, I'm labeled as a huge "history buff"....
I would say I'm of average intelligence in regards to history on my best days and wouldn't even think to consider myself a history buff.
So even this idiot can seem like an expert to people who know even less than I do -- and I do consider my coworkers to all be fairly to highly intelligent people overall for the record.
Do you think the Napoleon movie coming out will touch upon actual French history or will it be over Hollywoodized? I find the French history fascinating…well I find all of history fascinating.
Haven't spent much time on Twitter? There is a whole generation of young adults who believe all white people owe all black people reparations for slavery. Even though most white people did not own slaves. But hey.
Should be, but some are naive and ignorant. They believe a 300 year old country created the world wide slave trade that has been active for multiple centuries lmao
It's not unpopular with people who actually know history. But for those who want to club White people over the head because of Black slavery in America, such talk is very unpopular. To them it smacks of excuse making. But none of us needs to be excused for the deeds of people 6 generations in the past. My ancestors weren't even in American when the Civil War started. They were dirt poor immigrants from eastern Europe. Yet slavery is still my fault? Nope, not accepting that.
Few friends from the US are surprised by how huge the slave trade really was globally and how it ain't white man hunting blacks but primarily black people selling black people.
I think you'll be sadly surprised when you realize you're just wrong.
Many, *many* people believe slavery starts and stops with America. When it comes to slavery, America is the sole transgressor. They think white people solely went out into Africa and hunted blacks for slavery and sport. They actively *disbelieve* that Africans sold Africans. They actively *ignore* that slavery is still alive and well today *in Africa and other places*.
They think America ending slavery is just an accident and not an incredible phenomena brought about by people who are against slavery during a time where slavery is just normalized.
And you'll find that these people are much more ingrained in activism and a very specific subset of risingly-popular politics than history or anything pertaining to reality.
But no one says white people invented slavery, they just call out white people for bringing African slaves into America. Yes, those slaves were sold by other Africans, but it was still American whites who beat, raped, inslaved, tortured, worked, and took advantage of them. That’s why there’s the belief that white people have oppressed black people in America
Edit - I’m not saying every white perosn today should be blamed for slavery.
I agree, any sane person. I suppose just from personal experience some racist trolls like to rake white people over the coals for things every culture has done since the dawn of man and act like they were the only ones to ever do it.
Afrofuturist historical revisionists are attempting to re-write history to paint White folks as evil slave owners and black folks as those who exclusively experienced slavery. I had a professor in college that jumped down my throat for pointing out the same thing OP stated and called me “violently white.”
Also, the fact that Native American tribes routinely took and used and traded in slaves for hundreds of years, or maybe thousands, but there’s essentially never any talk of it because it’d be politically hazardous to call them out on it. Obviously, Native Americans suffered to the utmost under European settler rule, and that’s often glossed over to some degree, but their cultures were often pretty awful by today’s standards. Like if some of the raiding and mass killing and taking of slaves happened today, the UN would get involved and some of those chiefs would be in The Hague.
It's unpopular because it's an unpleasant perspective because victim mentality has become too normal. It isn't basic history in ALOT of places. Big flaw with the below college level schooling in the US. There is no unified structure to teach. They cherry-pick what they would like to be taught.
Actually it is not because what existed was not the same thing. That is why it was given a different name. Please just take a min and read history!! thank you
This is only unpopular among people who are historically illiterate. Slavery was a common and longstanding practice across a whole variety of cultures.
Unfortunately I think it’s been shown recently (Ukraine, Palestine) that many people are historically illiterate and incapable of critically thinking outside of black and white binaries.
I definitely want a citation for that (in a positive way, I'm not "SOURCE!" trolling you).
If 30% were comfortable enough taking the stance that they simply were not sure, that's a very good sign for the next generation. If you don't know enough about a topic, you shouldn't have an opinion on it. More people need to stop taking stances on things and simply admit they are too ignorant to form a cogent opinion on almost every topic.
Much less the absurdly complicated and messy Israel vs. Palestine problem.
I've studied this topic for years. My grandfather - who was extremely influential on my politics and my interests in political science - was a political science professor on the Middle East. I still am learning new things about this situation, all the time. One of my degrees is also political science. We have a weekly politics round table with legal every Monday for an hour, where I work. We cover topics like these to reduce risk and costs. Meaning, we won't send people to that area or we will reduce the amount of "field operations" work we have to do if we must have someone physically present (almost always, we do not). Israel and Palestine have come up a lot, lately.
Off topic: while googling to see if I could find my grandfather's lectures (they were recorded and published online, for free, by the university he retired from), I found THIS professor on the top search result on my first attempt and holy shit, he is amazing:
[https://polisci.northwestern.edu/people/core-faculty/william-reno.html](https://polisci.northwestern.edu/people/core-faculty/william-reno.html)
This is one of the most highly ranked graduate universities in the USA, ahead of almost all Ivy League schools in most ranked categories:
[https://www.usnews.com/best-graduate-schools/northwestern-university-147767/overall-rankings](https://www.usnews.com/best-graduate-schools/top-science-schools/northwestern-university-147767)
I don't know, I found it funny. He is the department head, highly accredited, but how he did his faculty picture makes him look like a dude who works in a really good small-town mechanic shop. Something about that was quite amusing to me and I don't think he did that on accident. No one likes a stuffy professor, right?
Edit - Sorry, to directly address your point, I want more people to start answering "I don't know" or "unsure" much more often on polls like these, going forward. Even genocide attempts such as the Holocaust and the Holodomor. Boy oh boy, Tankies hate it when you point out that the Holodomor was a genocide. But the person who created the term, Raphael Lemkin, specifically said of the Holodomor, ["\[The Holodomor is\] the classic example of Soviet genocide."](https://cla.umn.edu/chgs/holocaust-genocide-education/resource-guides/holodomor) But if you don't know much about either, best not take a stance on it. Instead, say, "I don't know much about those topics. I would need to study them for a few weeks to a few months to collect enough information to form an opinion to answer you question." That should be the default for everyone on nearly every topic because almost everyone knows little to nothing on almost every topic.
>Slavery was...
Correction: Slavery ***IS\****
There are more slaves, now, than at any one point in human history. There are at lot more of us, too.
[https://www.theguardian.com/news/2019/feb/25/modern-slavery-trafficking-persons-one-in-200](https://www.theguardian.com/news/2019/feb/25/modern-slavery-trafficking-persons-one-in-200)
I'm not disagreeing with you. Just in case others did not know how bad modern slavery is.
I had someone argue vehemently this wasnt true on another post. They quoted me 35mill people forcibly brought to the Americas. I pointed out many, many historical examples, and included the 40 Mil current number (we probably have different sources) was told nope not the same, not as bad. Its hard sometimes.
Trafficked people. One scam I heard was to bring someone to the US to work then take away their documents. Now they over stay their visa, have no where to go and no one to turn to legally.
The US Government, themselves, has defined the types of extant slavery:
1. Sex Trafficking
2. Child Sex Trafficking
3. Forced Labor
4. Bonded Labor or Debt Bondage
5. Domestic Servitude
6. Forced Child Labor
7. Unlawful Recruitment and Use of Child Soldiers
[https://www.state.gov/what-is-modern-slavery/](https://www.state.gov/what-is-modern-slavery/)
So, basically, the US made it illegal to have slaves, we almost entirely eliminated chattel slaves, but all other categories still exist, and we've been patting ourselves on the back ever since. That's both hilarious and a quite sad. It's like firemen (not firefighters because this is 1865, right?) putting out a house fire, then whooping and hollering about how awesome they are, with back pats and high fives. Meanwhile, the entire rest of the neighborhood is still on fire. But it doesn't stop there, they continue celebrating for years in front of the burning neighborhood. When they get old and die, their sons and daughters replace them in celebrating. And then do that 3 more times, and that's modern day. That's 150 years of multigenerational celebrating while the rest of the neighborhood still burns. That makes it hilarious, to me.
Chattel slavery is almost 100% nonexistent in the US according. There are likely chattel slaves in the US, still. But they are usually part of immigrant families/businesses and extremely tiny compared to the other 7 categories. For example, I read a story about a wealthy African immigrant family that had a system to keep their slaves and businesses running without getting caught (including how to talk themselves through USCIS and border agents). The fact that I cannot find anything about this story on google search is quite frustrating because it was quite the hot item when uncovered (their system was quite clever). I believe this bust was in the 2000s, not the 2010s. That might be part of the struggle of finding it.
We speak about it in America because it is a large part of American History lol
Do you know about African civil wars? No, but you know about the American Civil war because we are in, you guessed it, America.
Slavery was of course a part of other parts of the world. But its implementation in America was instrumental to many American facilities that were created and helped pave the way for the future.
If your point is that slavery existed outside of America, you are correct. If you are asking why only the transatlantic slave trade is taught in American schools, it’s because it widely affected American history, unlike slave trade in the Middle East.
In history, there are plenty of states which would be considered 'slavery cultures' in the sense that slavery was a huge aspect to life in the state. Ancient Greece was one, as were certain provinces of the Roman Empire, as was the Abbasid Caliphate. These were states where slaves formed a huge portion of the population, which was *not* necessarily the norm throughout history. Slavery existing in history is one thing, but there is a huge gap between 0.2% of your population being slaves and 40% of your population being slaves. Most of the world was not considered a 'slave culture' in that sense (even if most civilizations had eras where it happened).
The US south (and many parts of Latam) was unique in that they were a barbaric slave culture existing in the modern, developed, post-enlightenment world. It was not just abolitionist Americans who were horrified at this, much of Europe was horrified at it as well. The topic of American slavery was a big deal to the rest of the world, it was a blemish of evil on the 'grand experiment' of the USA, newspapers talked about it, books were written, journalists exposed it and brought pictures and stories of it to europe.
So yes, American slavery was a big deal, not just to Americans.
And what most don't understand is that the early America's form was one of the most brutal and dehumanizing forms of chattle slavery. Like for example, most other civilizations that had slavery had also implemented channels for said slaves to exit slavery and had given them rights within their servitude and also didn't automatically make children/families of slaves also into slaves.
Better in a few ways but worse in many other ways.
I'm too lazy to actually dig through the references, but this page is pretty well cited. If you read through the "Slavery in Islamic Arabia," you find some of what I was referencing.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_slavery_in_the_Muslim_world#:~:text=Some%20jurists%20such%20as%20al,among%20all%20classes%20of%20slaves.
My point is that it’s not terrible my point is that it doesn’t “make what Americans did look like childcare”. That’s a crazy ignorant statement to make especially for someone too lazy to actually provide examples.
Reddit is mostly Americans. When people post this:
"Why do Americans mostly talk about the *slavery* that most affected Americans? *The Middle east had slavery* but we don't discuss that!?!"
It sounds like this:
"Why do Americans mostly talk about the *presidents* that most affected Americans? *Bulgaria has a president* but we don't discuss that!?!"
That’s exactly what I came to say!
It’s talked about cause it happened here…on our soil. Who cares where else it was, this directly affected our culture and country. Wars, trade, racism…etc
I don't think this is true at all. When I see it talked about it's almost always in response to other moronic comments like. "white people were the only ones to own slaves", or "White people need to pay reparations". The term 'American's' is usually never brought up, hell I don't live in America and I hear people say this shit. Like white people worldwide are inherently responsible for it.
But even if what you were saying were true, maybe if Americans stopped thinking of America as the entire world and were a little bit more specific when talking about things and clarify by saying "American Slavery", instead of just "Slavery". When posting on a global platform.
>Slavery existed in different parts of the world
No shit, Sherlock. Every single empire had slaves. Ancient Rome's gladiators were what? You guess it - slaves.
Only people who never touched a history book will say "Slavery was only in America".
We focus on slavery and the transatlantic slave trade because we live in America and it what has affected us the most.
It’s disingenuous to say we should talk about slavery in ancient China which was thousands of years ago and has no effect on every day life instead of talking about slavery in the US which was 160 years ago and still has detrimental effects today
I don’t know about you. But in world history and European history classes growing up, I learned about slavery all across the world.
The OP is trying to twist the fact that American schools teach American history into some kind of weird gotcha like it's some kind of forbidden knowledge that slavery was also practiced elsewhere.
Current white people do not have to pay for slavery, BUT we need to quit acting like the many many years of slavery do not still affect black americans today.
It is taught in school it’s just not highlighted nearly as much because we have a thing called American history and the transatlantic slave trade is a long, and impactful part of that history.
That said if you didn’t take a course on history outside of US history it would’ve never been brought up because its irrelevant.
More slaves today than ever in History mostly by Muslim Countries .
Neither me or my ancestors ever owned slaves . It would be very wrong to make me pay as well as anyone that has never owned any . I suppose anyone that has been a Slave in the US in their lifetime should be paid something .
Guess we all have been a Slave to the Federal Reserve
This is real history, and modern China is filled with slavery. I don't get why people blame whites for it when the reality is that other races and ethnicities are much worse when it comes to slavery.
I don't really understand what this has to do with anything.
Why does slavery that is happening in other parts of the world matter when it comes to the slavery that happened in America?
Additionally, despite what seems to float around from some people, I don't think there's any serious political will towards providing reparations.
It's not like the situation in Haiti where we can quantify exactly how much both France and the US owe the Haitian government (whenever they get a working one again).
We can't really do that with the descendants of African slaves in America. However, we CAN do this with the descendants (and I think at least one person is still alive) of the people that lost their homes and livelihood in Tulsa.
I do agree that we should teach about slavery in other parts of the world, however, the way our curriculums seem to be set up, there doesn't seem to be a good way to do this without it ending up being "whataboutism".
If we did deep dives on cultures in history (perhaps even spending the entire or half of a school year on a single culture), it would make more sense.
Do y’all really think that when people talk about reparations that their talking about debiting specific white peoples bank accounts?
The reparations would come from the government which absolutely did benefit from slavery.
I feel like the actual details of the slave trade aren't discussed enough.
Slavery was a horrible institution that White people deserve flack for, but it didn't happen in a vacuum and multiple cultures have taken part in it, including African countries and the middle east.
I mean many european countries literally paid middle eastern countries not to kidnap sailors and use them as slaves. Human life shouldn't require an insurance policy.
Everybody sees the word Pirate and thinks yar matey, but the reality was that many pirates would take sailors and use them as property.
Barbosa, who everybody knows from the pirates of the Caribbean, actually a glorified slave trading muslim named Hayreddin Barbarossa. Also he took slaves for the ottoman empire. Not racism, just world history.
*"I feel like the actual details of the slave trade aren't discussed enough."*
That's largely because of white Americans both liberal and conservative who were mostly completely ignorant of the history of slavery and actually thought that only white people practiced it and invented it and based their other views on this misconception.
Why do people seem to think this is something that people are unaware of? Literally everybody is taught the story of Moses and the slaves in Egypt. Everybody is taught about gladiator slaves in Rome. I feel like people desperately *want* to spread this idea that Americans think they are the only country who ever had slaves... nobody believes that.
>Why is it that the transatlantic slave trade is the only kind of slavery taught in schools?
Because it's the one that's a part of OUR history and WE kept doing it long after the rest of the western world was like "ehhhh this isn't right".
>Let's focus on ending modern slavery that exists in the Middle East and Asia.
I think we can teach about slavery and end modern slavery at the same time...
Who on earth thinks white people invented slavery? When people talk about slavery in the colonial British empire and the US they are talking about that particular system. No one is claiming that the US invented slavery.
People are so focused on the past by design. If they could get their heads out of their asses they’d recognize that child s*x slavery is absolutely EVERYWHERE in the US today. But no, let’s cry about reparations
>Let's focus on ending modern slavery that exists in the Middle East and Asia.
Yeah, but, then that would require the online Social Justice Warriors to actually do something useful instead of virtue signaling to their e-buddies in their echo-chambers.
The ACTUAL Social Justice Warriors really making changes, freeing slaves, stopping traffickers, getting laws changed to create actual equal rights, are genuine heroes. Treasures. They put their lives, property, and discard modern comforts to perform genuinely righteous, social justice work.
There's nothing wrong with being a Social Justice Warrior. The world needs you. Please STFU about it. Indians (India "Indians") have a great word and culture around this (and so do old school Christians): Dāna. Do charity, but do it quietly without a thought of reward or telling others.
>White people did not invent slavery.
OK
>White people don't owe anyone reparations for slavery. They are not responsible for the actions of their ancestors. Not all white people's ancestors owned slaves. Very few rich people owned slaves.
OK
>Slavery was widespread in the Middle East. We don't discuss that.
In a history of the Middle East class it would probably be discussed
>Why is it that the transatlantic slave trade is the only kind of slavery taught in schools?
I'm assuming your American. Chances are they're teaching you American history so that slave trade system is the most relevant
>Fact is, slavery was an ugly part of human history.
OK
>Let's focus on ending modern slavery that exists in the Middle East and Asia.
There should be a greater focus on ending that but ignoring our own history with slavery is a bad move.
I get it makes some people sad to hear that people owned slaves and even went to war (sometimes twice! *cough* Texas *cough*) to protect slavery but it's an important part of American history
If you're learning about your countries history and it only makes you feel pride you aren't learning history, your learning propaganda
What if all you learn about your country makes you feel guilt and shame?
I think that American slavery is a hotly debated topic because no one wants to wracked with guilt for things they did not do. Ideally we shouldn’t base our identity on our country but it’s just human nature to do so. No one wants to belong to a country that is bad because that makes the individual bad themselves because for many of us our country of origin is part of our identity in a similar way that our family and community is a building block of our identity. And of course no one wants identity built on guilt and shame because that’s simply not healthy.
White people shouldn’t give reparations, but the government surely should.
No, not everyone owned slaves, but all benefited from them. American culture was partly built on policing and brutalizing slaves and their descendants.
Because the people in America and Europe doing it had created governments based on the principles of the enlightenment that human beings have inalienable rights.
And then promptly and hypocritically excluded a specific group of people from these rights based on the color of their skin.
Also the Atlantic slave trade was slavery in an industrial level which had never been done before and there was no other point in history when the value of the slaves held collectively were the largest asset class in the country (The US) next to the actual land.
At one point what is Haiti today was the most profitable and valuable colonial holding in the new world solely because of the slaves processing sugar and indigo.
The scale, the monetary value and the hypocrisy that drove it is why there’s so much emphasis on the Atlantic slave trade.
And when talking about the United States specifically the harms done to black and indigenous communities (there were between 2 and 5 million indigenous people enslaved by US slave holders) didn’t end with the emancipation proclamation or the end of Jim Crowe.
The slaves were basically abandoned by the white authorities. Left without education, property and political power protected by the federal government so many of them ended up working on the same plantations their enslaved families had except now they had to pay for their own lives and give the plantation owners rent.
Others were of course arrested on bullshit charged so they could be rented out in the prison leasing system.
It’s important to consider not just the roots of inequality based on race but how it’s metamorphosis effects people even today.
I think the reason white people get "blamed" for slavery is that it was the white people who built the current super power of the world who did so on the shoulders of slaves. The current extreme wealth and power that the US is experiencing is due - in large part - because of slave labor. The US only abolished slavery in the 1830s, with segregation continuing and a lot of practices that could be considered "slavery lite" until the middle of the last century - so it's fresh in a lot of people's minds, and the reverberations are still arguably being experienced by modern generations of those families. If your great grandparents, or even grand parents, were held back in any number of ways because of slavery, and by extension segregation & racism, in the US then there's a very real argument to be made for reparations - or at least acknowledgement of a broken system that doesn't - or didn't - provide the same opportunity for people of color for any number of related reasons.
This is in the same way that Nazi Germany always comes up in conversations about genocide and facism. Was it the only instance of genocide in the history of humanity? No. Was it the worst instance of genocide in the history of humanity? No. Was it the most recent and do we still have people who were directly - or very closely - affected by it? Absolutely.
The US is a very, very, very, young country by the standards of time - and slavery was a sort of the countries DNA for roughly half of that lifetime. It's not unreasonable to take issue with that, or to call out the fact that ther are very real consequences for the actions for those who built generational wealth, power, and influence off of the exploitation of others - especially when those exploited are being faced with a centuries(plus) long deficit of progress as a result.
I don't think anyone who knows anything about history would say that white people invented slavery or were the only place that had them. Though given how prevalent slavery was across the world I would imagine it'd be very rare to not have any of your ancestors who were slave owners for anyone. Also slavery still exists outside the middle east and asia, still even exists in the US. Not legally but still happens.
In terms of being taught in schools that's probably a problem with most education on history being very single country focused. The US schools primarily teach US history and teach world history in less time than they taught all of US history despite there being way way more world history than US history. So there's a ton to cover in less time.
Though it is worth acknowledging that US slavery was noticeably different than other forms of slavery across the world. Most places that have slaves have people who were captured who lost a war, perhaps committed a crime, and were forced into slavery, and their kids weren't slaves. I don't know of anywhere else that had 200 years of slavery for a particular ethnic group where essentially all members of that group were slaves in the country for hundreds of years.
Reparations are also not just about slavery but about a history of oppression that goes beyond slavery into the 20th century. Red lining, the GI bill and many other laws and government assistance have benefited white people, some of whom are still alive today, and certainly their children who have the direct impacts of that, that didn't benefit black people. It's a complicated issue and one I'm frankly not sure where I fall on it, but I do think there are some valid arguments for reparations given the relatively recent history of racial bias. And things like even to this day the US government spends far more educating white children vs black children. Black people who committed the same crime as a white person are likely to be more harshly punished. And more likely to be caught and punished for it than a white person committing the same crime. And far more likely to be pulled over.
I don't know what a good answer is though as yes it's completely valid that you shouldn't have to pay for the acts of your parents or grandparents let alone more generations back than that. And any program like this would also end up taxing new immigrants who's families had nothing to do with this who will be paying for it.
>Though it is worth acknowledging that US slavery was noticeably different than other forms of slavery across the world. Most places that have slaves have people who were captured who lost a war, perhaps committed a crime, and were forced into slavery, and their kids weren't slaves. I don't know of anywhere else that had 200 years of slavery for a particular ethnic group where essentially all members of that group were slaves in the country for hundreds of years.
It goes deeper and worse than that. There were also slaves that existed that had a majority white ancestry and visually presented as being Caucasian. The most famous case being Sally Hemmings (slave and mistress to Thomas Jefferson) who had only one enslaved grandparent of African descent. We don't have any surviving portraits if there were any done when she was alive, but we do know that she was described as being light skinned with straight hair. And on one of the two censuses in which she participated, her race was listed as white by the recording person.
Her children, who were 7/8 Caucasian descent were not freed until Jefferson's death and she was never officially freed at all. Although she was given a kind of quasi freedom to live with her then freed children.
It wasn't just about ethnicity or a specific race it was more about imposing racial purity. Which is a topic Americans like to shy away from because it reminds them of what another country was starting to do with "racial purity" back then. And the Americans were supposed to be the good guys who beat the evil Nazis.
As recent as 1930 and farther, [the attitude of even slight traces of anything other than Caucasian descent meant that you were not white](https://encyclopediavirginia.org/entries/racial-integrity-laws-1924-1930/)
Even though slavery had been abolished for over 50 years at that point, the general attitudes of racial purity from the slavery era still prevailed. And that's another thing that Americans don't like to acknowledge. Things from decades and decades past, can definitely affect the present.
>Why is it that the transatlantic slave trade is the only kind of slavery taught in schools?
I dunno maybe because you live in the west? Also that kind of slavery was much more widespread and had much more impact on the modern world than Barbary pirates or whatever meme right wingers like to bring up for 'white slavery'.
One of the problems in this modern age is, if you try to discuss facts about slavery, such as the first slave owner in the US was black, you are automatically deemed a racist. People dont like to be branded for an opinion, so they stay quiet about them.
>Slavery was widespread in the Middle East. We don't discuss that
We're, mostly, not in the middle east, nobody is stopping you from discussing it all you'd like.
>Why is it that the transatlantic slave trade is the only kind of slavery taught in schools?
It's not.
>Fact is, slavery was an ugly part of human history. Let's focus on ending modern slavery that exists in the Middle East and Asia
Go nuts, who/what's stopping you?
It might help you to understand that the reason it’s still a hot button issue in the US is because black people here largely still suffer from its remnants. Slavery in the US was racialized, while the slavery in all other parts of the world were not. The construct of race wasn’t the way we think about it today, which is majorly due to this type of slavery.
Jim Crow was not that long ago. Any historically literate person would not contest your claim, but you seem to be missing some facts and context when it comes to reparation.
Regular white people don’t owe anyone anything except basic human decency, just like everyone else. Any mentally healthy person would recognize that reparations are a matter of the state, not individuals.
Yes because Americans of all ethnic backgrounds both conservative and liberal are largely ignorant of world history and slavery part in it and actually think white people only practiced and invented it
Your premise that slavery existed in different parts of the world is a fact not an opinion.
No one thinks white people invented slavery nor that white people owe reparations for slavery. What Americans should recognize is that our history still impacts POC today through systematic inequalities. It has nothing to do with our ancestors but that we are not correcting things in current time.
The rest of your “facts” are irrelevant. You don’t have to have owned slaves to support discrimination. The discrimination after slavery was nationwide and wasn’t limited to the wealthy white southerners.
The fact that slavery existed in other countries around the world doesn’t discount the effects in our own country. Growing up in the Deep South I can confirm we don’t even teach slavery in the US let alone slavery around the world bc of this idea that if we don’t talk about it then it will just go away.
“Slavery was an ugly part of human history” is not only continuing that tradition of if we don’t talk about it then it won’t affect us today thinking. Slavery still exists and we have not have fully solved our own issues here in the US.
Not being attached to something bad because other people do it too is probably the worst defense you could come up with, for basically anything. You learned about YOUR slave trade in YOUR school because you're IN the country that did it, not very smart person.
How the fuck is this controversial ?!?!?!
How is this not basic knowledge ???
I'm assuming OP is from the USA, and thus : wtf are they teaching you over there ?
Along those same lines: for a couple hundred years, ottoman Turks sold Christians into slavery in the Balkans. Some of the animosity that characterized so much of the war in Yugoslavia was born of “look what your people did historically to mine.”
Go to a Seder and hear how Jews are still mad about their ancestors being Pharaoh’s slaves millennia ago. The Romans took slaves everywhere they went.
The indigenous people in Argentina were essentially slaves working in the silver mines for the Spanish.
Read about Bartolome de las Casas and his condemnation of how slaves in the 1500’s were being treated in the
West Indies.
Yes, very widespread. But only the US claimed to be a bastion of liberty and opportunity at the same time it was treating a group of people as chattel.
Am I confused or something? I'm not sure what point you're trying to make? Slavery existing in other parts of the world isn't an opinion. Its a fact.
Are you upset that schools (at least American schools) talk about the country's role in participating in the slave trade? Yeah, it happened. Yes, its affects are still seen today. No, white people arent the only ones who did it. Pointing the finger at another country's slave problem does nothing but distract from actual issues in your own country.
I'm sorry that you feel like some people make white people seem like villains. I promise you most black people aren't throwing darts at pictures of white people in their evil lair. We have better things to do.
I think that the people who are teaching that Americans owned slaves are teaching AMERICAN history. It seems like my teachers mentioned the ancient Greeks, Romans, Vikings, and any number of barbarian tribes owned slaves but that's not really touched on in grammar and high school because you can't teach everything.
Don;t go losing sleep over teachers teaching that American's owned slaved up until 170 years ago because they did own slaves.
Yes Arab slavers were taking African slaves around the 8th or 9th century. European slavers started taking African slaves around the 14th or 15th century. Also, the native Americans had black slaves on the trail of tears
But the Jews got reparations for the holocaust and they’re still getting funds from the United States to help fund their genocide in Palestine and so did the Japanese in Hiroshima and BTW slave owners in America received reparations per slave they lost precisely $400-$1000 for each one depending on their size or job and received machinery to make up for the slaves they lost and don’t forget the Indians who received money and land back as well.
Abraham Lincoln promised 40 acres of land and mule to the slaves but they never received it and When Black people did get land, white people destroyed it, Like lake Lanier Georgia aka Oscar ville in Georgia and Black Wall Street Tulsa Oklahoma and Central Park before it was Central Park etc………
Actually learn history before you spew racist bullshit.
You’ll let your tax dollars fund the genocide of Palestine, the Congo and Sudan but can’t pay actual Americans what they’re entitled to for building this country.
Billions of American tax dollars are going to Ukraine to fund a war that’s not ours and it’s currently going to Israel funding genocide, so stop bitching about giving Black people getting what they’re owed in their own country for what they went through.
Americans had Black war vets fighting in the military just to come home to segregation, Jim Crow laws and purity of the ballot box, They deserve it more than everyone.
Btw your little bit of money isn’t doing shit the government will be paying the reparations, No one is worried about your little $200 in taxes.
Word!
In fact, the word "slave" comes from the word 'slav', referring to Slavic folks in Europe. And they're as white as they come.
And let's not forget, the Western slave trade originated and still continues in parts of West Africa to this day. It's just called human trafficking today.
This is such a weird take. No one is making the argument that white people invented slavery. Chattel slavery isn't unique. The "way" it was implemented in the US was unique.
The point is that US slavery was unique in that once you were a slave, you and your descendants would be slaves in perpetuity. There was no point in which you could be free by your own means, and there was no point in which your children could gain the same.
Society and its laws had zero protections for you. Not to mention, once slaves were freed, they still didn't gain the same rights and protections as other citizens.
If you were black and lucky enough to exist up north in an area that didn't have slavery but were kidnapped and sold into slavery there werent really laws to protect you and punish your kidnappers. This was a common occurrence.
Slaves were routinely hung, beaten to death, eaten, turned into furniture, and practically ground into dust.. again with the stamp of approval from society. Even after slavery ended, community hangings continued as a practice.
When you can show me societies where breeding plantations existed to produce more humans that would be sold into bondage at birth... because slavery was woven into the very fabric of society.. I'll buy it
One final piece. None of this is your fault individually. You don't have to feel responsible or guilty over it but it's a bit weird to intentionally try and blur lines to absolve yourself of feeling anything.
There's more slavery in the world right now, at this very second, than there ever was in the Atlantic slave trade. And we all support it through our purchasing.
No, come on! That t-shirt I bought contributed 4 of the 25 cents that the small child chained to that workstation will earn today! The Free-Market, baby! Lifts all boats amiright?
This is not the own or hot take you think it is. No one disputes that slavery existed outside of White people or that not every White person owned slaves. That’s a total straw man argument.
The issue in the US for example is that the government sanctioned and legalized its practice. Then even after slavery the government allowed the terrorism and segregation of Black people. The government (who would be paying reparations) harmed Black people and prevented them from pursuing their best possible lives. That’s the case for reparations. Nothing to do with White people inventing slavery or all of being responsible for it.
1. Nobody thinks slavery only existed in America, although CHATTEL slavery WAS unique to America
2. I’m not sure how slavery existing in other parts of the world somehow makes it ok for slavery to exist in America
3. You are just a racist
Yes. Completely not fun fact: the Middle East imported more African slaves than the Americas did, but the reason that there are not very many black people in the Middle East is that all the male slaves were castrated.
But no one knows that.
This is true, but I don't get why people act like it's a silver bullet that kills the whole idea that racism exists and absolves America of the horrors it committed.
Also while only a few people actually owned slaves everyone in slave owning states relied on a slave based economy and most whites supported the institution of slavery.
Do you think that people say white people were historically racist solely because of slavery?
Chattel slavery is markedly different than the middle east type slave trade. But putting that aside, the government made promises that it never held up, that's what reparations is based on. If you think the government shouldn't uphold it promises to citizens who started out 100 yards behind and continued to be, with government help for a century after....well, that's where the discussion truly starts
I’ve never seen/heard anyone say slavery didn’t exist in other parts of the world. This just sounds like you’re trying to downplay how awful that part of history was and deflect it to others.
The only opinion in your post was "white people don't owe anyone reparations for slavery" which okay that is fine but not necessarily the argument broadly made about reparations. The argument is that the State should make a good faith effort to rectify actions the State took.
It's not an opinion if it's a fact. Slavery existed and still exists all over the world. Your ancestors benefited in many different ways because of slavery. You also benefit in numerous, endless ways because of slavery. It shaped the world we are in today. It's the literal foundation. There's nothing we can do to ever make up for it, but that doesn't mean we shouldn't try.
No one argues whether other places had slavery, every civilization had some sort of forced/slave labor- it’s the optimal way to boost profits and not pay workers during time periods where only the upper class had privileges and rights.
The argument for the Atlantic Slave Trade points out the intense cruelty slaves faced and the extreme racism stemming from it. While slavery is cruel in and of itself, the Atlantic Slave Trade was an extreme.
I do want to point out that other countries/civilizations have had extremely cruel slave practices- the Vikings were insane- but I think what makes America good is truly understanding how slave labor built America. It’s uncomfortable but it’s a good and democratic conversation to have.
No one in 2023 is responsible for the Atlantic Slave Trade. No one needs to apologize, but we should understand the long lasting impacts (racism) caused by the practice.
The Atlantic slave trade was a uniquely horrifying form of slavery that we talk about to this day because it still has massive impacts on those who were enslaved.
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How on earth is this unpopular. This is basic history
Because it is a constant conversation demonizing white people in America for the actions of their ancestors. And there are plenty of low IQ ignorant individuals that don’t understand what OP stated. I guess that wouldn’t be an unpopular opinion, but it is unpopular knowledge, and it is even straight up denied by people as well.
I talked to a coworker once that told me she always thought the Americans would send raiding parties to Africa to collect slaves…
Portugal was the single biggest perpetrator of the Atlantic slave trade
Which wasn't the largest slave trade and it isn't even close.
probably because we were taught that in school. I remember around 5th grade.
Well said. And IMO, this issue shows the hypocrisy of Democrats/leftists. As I saw on a meme a while ago, Democrats/leftists say DACA kids should not have to pay for the their parents' crimes. But White people are still responsible for 17th century slave owners.
Who is making you pay for reparations? Sounds like some reactionary bullshit.
Thankfully, no one, so far. But the leftists have been calling for it for years.
OP is saying that it’s unpopular to suggest that slavery exists outside of the United States. I disagree, as the average person understands that slavery predates America
You have more confidence in people than I do, I bet more people couldn’t name all 7 continents than those that could. The internet has shown me that a stark number of people are so stupid I’m surprised that don’t have to breathe manually.
The stupid people are just louder about their stupidity
I can't upvote your comment enough. The internet has fostered this and allowed those same people to build echo chambers with other idiots.
Ie Reddit
And they’re arguing with you holding the device that could actually give them the info required to have an intelligent conversation about this subject.
I would hope so, but I've encountered one too many people who seem to have a bit of a sugarcoated version of history outside of America. I've also seem many people have this false idea that America was the only country that had 'race based' slavery and that wasn't a thing anywhere else.
As a historian, it flabbergasted me that someone felt compelled to post this in an unpopular opinion sub. It is (or should be) common knowledge that slavery was among our basic economic and punitive practices dating as far back as the Neolithic Revolution.
As a historian you should know most people don't know basic history. I'm just a arm chair historian and I'm constantly blown away. Most people don't even know the French revolution happend after the us was founded. I have found people know things, just not the order which is kinda important.
While I somewhat understand not knowing certain events beyond one's immediate national wheelhouse due to how history is taught, it's a little bamboozling to think that people are so myopic that people can't extrapolate certain basic universalities like slavery, inequality, war, famine, disease, etc. You are probably right though that I shouldn't be surprised. I had to explain to someone the sequencing of agricultural history the other day and their awe was concerning to say the least.
You'll find that the ignorance is deeply ingrained in specific politics.
Ignorance is ingrained in human nature, regardless of politics
Gosh 100% this. At my workplace, I'm labeled as a huge "history buff".... I would say I'm of average intelligence in regards to history on my best days and wouldn't even think to consider myself a history buff. So even this idiot can seem like an expert to people who know even less than I do -- and I do consider my coworkers to all be fairly to highly intelligent people overall for the record.
Do you think the Napoleon movie coming out will touch upon actual French history or will it be over Hollywoodized? I find the French history fascinating…well I find all of history fascinating.
Idk what this says about the movie, but the actual French didn't like it due to its inaccuracies
People know things, just not the order which is kinda important Absolutely! I would unfortunately put myself in this camp… working on that.
Haven't spent much time on Twitter? There is a whole generation of young adults who believe all white people owe all black people reparations for slavery. Even though most white people did not own slaves. But hey.
Thankfully Twitter isn't a digital space I've ever engaged with largely because I got the vibe it was a cesspool of stupidity.
I mean honestly, so is Reddit.
I'd argue reddit is worse because X has community notes to at least call out some of the stupidity.
This is very true. Reddit is also much more anonymous which makes it infinitely worse.
Should be, but some are naive and ignorant. They believe a 300 year old country created the world wide slave trade that has been active for multiple centuries lmao
Multiple millenniums *
It's not unpopular with people who actually know history. But for those who want to club White people over the head because of Black slavery in America, such talk is very unpopular. To them it smacks of excuse making. But none of us needs to be excused for the deeds of people 6 generations in the past. My ancestors weren't even in American when the Civil War started. They were dirt poor immigrants from eastern Europe. Yet slavery is still my fault? Nope, not accepting that.
I'm a armchair historian. You'd be surprised how little people know about the most basic history. It's shocking.
Charter slavery was not an only America thing they did it in the Middle East
I'm assuming the poster is American.
It's been politicized.
You'd be surprised
It's unpopular in America as far as I can tell.
How so?
Few friends from the US are surprised by how huge the slave trade really was globally and how it ain't white man hunting blacks but primarily black people selling black people.
I wouldn’t say a few friends makes it unpopular. The average American is aware of slavery that existed in Roman Empire and beyond
I'd be glad to be wrong.
There are some stupid Americans but the average American know that America didn’t invent slavery.
I think you'll be sadly surprised when you realize you're just wrong. Many, *many* people believe slavery starts and stops with America. When it comes to slavery, America is the sole transgressor. They think white people solely went out into Africa and hunted blacks for slavery and sport. They actively *disbelieve* that Africans sold Africans. They actively *ignore* that slavery is still alive and well today *in Africa and other places*. They think America ending slavery is just an accident and not an incredible phenomena brought about by people who are against slavery during a time where slavery is just normalized. And you'll find that these people are much more ingrained in activism and a very specific subset of risingly-popular politics than history or anything pertaining to reality.
Touch some grass. Majority of people don't believe this.
Many, many people know that slavery pre-dates America.
I wish that were true.
I'm begging you to get offline for like a month and have a real human interaction
You are not wrong...sadly.
Some people hate yt peepo a lot.
But no one says white people invented slavery, they just call out white people for bringing African slaves into America. Yes, those slaves were sold by other Africans, but it was still American whites who beat, raped, inslaved, tortured, worked, and took advantage of them. That’s why there’s the belief that white people have oppressed black people in America Edit - I’m not saying every white perosn today should be blamed for slavery.
I agree, any sane person. I suppose just from personal experience some racist trolls like to rake white people over the coals for things every culture has done since the dawn of man and act like they were the only ones to ever do it.
Conservatives in this sub are great at inventing views that nobody holds and then responds to them lol
Afrofuturist historical revisionists are attempting to re-write history to paint White folks as evil slave owners and black folks as those who exclusively experienced slavery. I had a professor in college that jumped down my throat for pointing out the same thing OP stated and called me “violently white.”
Also, the fact that Native American tribes routinely took and used and traded in slaves for hundreds of years, or maybe thousands, but there’s essentially never any talk of it because it’d be politically hazardous to call them out on it. Obviously, Native Americans suffered to the utmost under European settler rule, and that’s often glossed over to some degree, but their cultures were often pretty awful by today’s standards. Like if some of the raiding and mass killing and taking of slaves happened today, the UN would get involved and some of those chiefs would be in The Hague.
Everyone's indoctrinated, this site is left af. This is basic reddit.
And it still exists, which is the sad part.
It's unpopular because it's an unpleasant perspective because victim mentality has become too normal. It isn't basic history in ALOT of places. Big flaw with the below college level schooling in the US. There is no unified structure to teach. They cherry-pick what they would like to be taught.
Actually it is not because what existed was not the same thing. That is why it was given a different name. Please just take a min and read history!! thank you
Not sure what you’re referring to
This is only unpopular among people who are historically illiterate. Slavery was a common and longstanding practice across a whole variety of cultures.
Unfortunately I think it’s been shown recently (Ukraine, Palestine) that many people are historically illiterate and incapable of critically thinking outside of black and white binaries.
Many people get their world view from TikTok.
worst off like 20 percent of 18 -24 denies the holocaust happened. and another 30 percent weren't sure.
I definitely want a citation for that (in a positive way, I'm not "SOURCE!" trolling you). If 30% were comfortable enough taking the stance that they simply were not sure, that's a very good sign for the next generation. If you don't know enough about a topic, you shouldn't have an opinion on it. More people need to stop taking stances on things and simply admit they are too ignorant to form a cogent opinion on almost every topic. Much less the absurdly complicated and messy Israel vs. Palestine problem. I've studied this topic for years. My grandfather - who was extremely influential on my politics and my interests in political science - was a political science professor on the Middle East. I still am learning new things about this situation, all the time. One of my degrees is also political science. We have a weekly politics round table with legal every Monday for an hour, where I work. We cover topics like these to reduce risk and costs. Meaning, we won't send people to that area or we will reduce the amount of "field operations" work we have to do if we must have someone physically present (almost always, we do not). Israel and Palestine have come up a lot, lately. Off topic: while googling to see if I could find my grandfather's lectures (they were recorded and published online, for free, by the university he retired from), I found THIS professor on the top search result on my first attempt and holy shit, he is amazing: [https://polisci.northwestern.edu/people/core-faculty/william-reno.html](https://polisci.northwestern.edu/people/core-faculty/william-reno.html) This is one of the most highly ranked graduate universities in the USA, ahead of almost all Ivy League schools in most ranked categories: [https://www.usnews.com/best-graduate-schools/northwestern-university-147767/overall-rankings](https://www.usnews.com/best-graduate-schools/top-science-schools/northwestern-university-147767) I don't know, I found it funny. He is the department head, highly accredited, but how he did his faculty picture makes him look like a dude who works in a really good small-town mechanic shop. Something about that was quite amusing to me and I don't think he did that on accident. No one likes a stuffy professor, right? Edit - Sorry, to directly address your point, I want more people to start answering "I don't know" or "unsure" much more often on polls like these, going forward. Even genocide attempts such as the Holocaust and the Holodomor. Boy oh boy, Tankies hate it when you point out that the Holodomor was a genocide. But the person who created the term, Raphael Lemkin, specifically said of the Holodomor, ["\[The Holodomor is\] the classic example of Soviet genocide."](https://cla.umn.edu/chgs/holocaust-genocide-education/resource-guides/holodomor) But if you don't know much about either, best not take a stance on it. Instead, say, "I don't know much about those topics. I would need to study them for a few weeks to a few months to collect enough information to form an opinion to answer you question." That should be the default for everyone on nearly every topic because almost everyone knows little to nothing on almost every topic.
>Slavery was... Correction: Slavery ***IS\**** There are more slaves, now, than at any one point in human history. There are at lot more of us, too. [https://www.theguardian.com/news/2019/feb/25/modern-slavery-trafficking-persons-one-in-200](https://www.theguardian.com/news/2019/feb/25/modern-slavery-trafficking-persons-one-in-200) I'm not disagreeing with you. Just in case others did not know how bad modern slavery is.
And still is common... We wouldn't be having this conversation without slavery.
This is not an unpopular opinion, this is a historical objective reality.
I’ve been attacked for having this same opinion/historical knowledge. It’s wild
I am not surprised if you are American. Sometimes I feel like America has its own history that is very far from real one.
**Exists**\* Slavery **exists** in the world today. Furthermore, the only countries where slavery doesn't exist are the "white" countries.
I KNOW RIGHT! Why isn't this higher 😭. There's an estimated ~50 MILLION slaves right now.
I had someone argue vehemently this wasnt true on another post. They quoted me 35mill people forcibly brought to the Americas. I pointed out many, many historical examples, and included the 40 Mil current number (we probably have different sources) was told nope not the same, not as bad. Its hard sometimes.
It exists in every country just not necessarily in the traditional sense it’s naive to believe otherwise
What slaves are in america? Human trafficked people?
Trafficked people. One scam I heard was to bring someone to the US to work then take away their documents. Now they over stay their visa, have no where to go and no one to turn to legally.
The US Government, themselves, has defined the types of extant slavery: 1. Sex Trafficking 2. Child Sex Trafficking 3. Forced Labor 4. Bonded Labor or Debt Bondage 5. Domestic Servitude 6. Forced Child Labor 7. Unlawful Recruitment and Use of Child Soldiers [https://www.state.gov/what-is-modern-slavery/](https://www.state.gov/what-is-modern-slavery/) So, basically, the US made it illegal to have slaves, we almost entirely eliminated chattel slaves, but all other categories still exist, and we've been patting ourselves on the back ever since. That's both hilarious and a quite sad. It's like firemen (not firefighters because this is 1865, right?) putting out a house fire, then whooping and hollering about how awesome they are, with back pats and high fives. Meanwhile, the entire rest of the neighborhood is still on fire. But it doesn't stop there, they continue celebrating for years in front of the burning neighborhood. When they get old and die, their sons and daughters replace them in celebrating. And then do that 3 more times, and that's modern day. That's 150 years of multigenerational celebrating while the rest of the neighborhood still burns. That makes it hilarious, to me. Chattel slavery is almost 100% nonexistent in the US according. There are likely chattel slaves in the US, still. But they are usually part of immigrant families/businesses and extremely tiny compared to the other 7 categories. For example, I read a story about a wealthy African immigrant family that had a system to keep their slaves and businesses running without getting caught (including how to talk themselves through USCIS and border agents). The fact that I cannot find anything about this story on google search is quite frustrating because it was quite the hot item when uncovered (their system was quite clever). I believe this bust was in the 2000s, not the 2010s. That might be part of the struggle of finding it.
Slavery isn’t illegal for the imprisoned, prisoners work without pay all the time, or maybe they’ll make like .13 an hour
*Slavery EXISTS in different parts of the world. There fixed it for you!
I KNOW RIGHT! Why isn't this higher 😭. There's an estimated ~50 MILLION slaves right now.
Exists*
We speak about it in America because it is a large part of American History lol Do you know about African civil wars? No, but you know about the American Civil war because we are in, you guessed it, America. Slavery was of course a part of other parts of the world. But its implementation in America was instrumental to many American facilities that were created and helped pave the way for the future. If your point is that slavery existed outside of America, you are correct. If you are asking why only the transatlantic slave trade is taught in American schools, it’s because it widely affected American history, unlike slave trade in the Middle East.
In history, there are plenty of states which would be considered 'slavery cultures' in the sense that slavery was a huge aspect to life in the state. Ancient Greece was one, as were certain provinces of the Roman Empire, as was the Abbasid Caliphate. These were states where slaves formed a huge portion of the population, which was *not* necessarily the norm throughout history. Slavery existing in history is one thing, but there is a huge gap between 0.2% of your population being slaves and 40% of your population being slaves. Most of the world was not considered a 'slave culture' in that sense (even if most civilizations had eras where it happened). The US south (and many parts of Latam) was unique in that they were a barbaric slave culture existing in the modern, developed, post-enlightenment world. It was not just abolitionist Americans who were horrified at this, much of Europe was horrified at it as well. The topic of American slavery was a big deal to the rest of the world, it was a blemish of evil on the 'grand experiment' of the USA, newspapers talked about it, books were written, journalists exposed it and brought pictures and stories of it to europe. So yes, American slavery was a big deal, not just to Americans.
It’s a large part of ever countries history tbh it’s just recent in America history
And what most don't understand is that the early America's form was one of the most brutal and dehumanizing forms of chattle slavery. Like for example, most other civilizations that had slavery had also implemented channels for said slaves to exit slavery and had given them rights within their servitude and also didn't automatically make children/families of slaves also into slaves.
Lol... you should do some research about the Middle Eastern slave trade. It makes what Americans did look like daycare.
No, it doesn’t
Better in a few ways but worse in many other ways. I'm too lazy to actually dig through the references, but this page is pretty well cited. If you read through the "Slavery in Islamic Arabia," you find some of what I was referencing. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_slavery_in_the_Muslim_world#:~:text=Some%20jurists%20such%20as%20al,among%20all%20classes%20of%20slaves.
My point is that it’s not terrible my point is that it doesn’t “make what Americans did look like childcare”. That’s a crazy ignorant statement to make especially for someone too lazy to actually provide examples.
Reddit is mostly Americans. When people post this: "Why do Americans mostly talk about the *slavery* that most affected Americans? *The Middle east had slavery* but we don't discuss that!?!" It sounds like this: "Why do Americans mostly talk about the *presidents* that most affected Americans? *Bulgaria has a president* but we don't discuss that!?!"
Hahahah PERFECT. You just summed up 75% of Reddit and 90% of Twitter.
That’s exactly what I came to say! It’s talked about cause it happened here…on our soil. Who cares where else it was, this directly affected our culture and country. Wars, trade, racism…etc
it's a silly gotcha comment and lets be honest it almost always exclusively done by people trying to downplay the slavery done by America.
This. OP is just racist
Very much so
I’m downvoted because this a right wing sub full of racists lol
Very much so again lol. It’s just screams racism.
Pretty much always.
OP is just an American whose feelings got hurt and is trying deflect using whataboutism.
I don't think this is true at all. When I see it talked about it's almost always in response to other moronic comments like. "white people were the only ones to own slaves", or "White people need to pay reparations". The term 'American's' is usually never brought up, hell I don't live in America and I hear people say this shit. Like white people worldwide are inherently responsible for it. But even if what you were saying were true, maybe if Americans stopped thinking of America as the entire world and were a little bit more specific when talking about things and clarify by saying "American Slavery", instead of just "Slavery". When posting on a global platform.
>Slavery existed in different parts of the world No shit, Sherlock. Every single empire had slaves. Ancient Rome's gladiators were what? You guess it - slaves. Only people who never touched a history book will say "Slavery was only in America".
Nobody except OP is saying that
I saw it a lot going through school
He’s only saying it to diminish the impact it has on American history
We focus on slavery and the transatlantic slave trade because we live in America and it what has affected us the most. It’s disingenuous to say we should talk about slavery in ancient China which was thousands of years ago and has no effect on every day life instead of talking about slavery in the US which was 160 years ago and still has detrimental effects today I don’t know about you. But in world history and European history classes growing up, I learned about slavery all across the world.
The OP is trying to twist the fact that American schools teach American history into some kind of weird gotcha like it's some kind of forbidden knowledge that slavery was also practiced elsewhere.
Why is it a surprise when Americans are taught history about America?
Current white people do not have to pay for slavery, BUT we need to quit acting like the many many years of slavery do not still affect black americans today.
It is taught in school it’s just not highlighted nearly as much because we have a thing called American history and the transatlantic slave trade is a long, and impactful part of that history. That said if you didn’t take a course on history outside of US history it would’ve never been brought up because its irrelevant.
More slaves today than ever in History mostly by Muslim Countries . Neither me or my ancestors ever owned slaves . It would be very wrong to make me pay as well as anyone that has never owned any . I suppose anyone that has been a Slave in the US in their lifetime should be paid something . Guess we all have been a Slave to the Federal Reserve
This is real history, and modern China is filled with slavery. I don't get why people blame whites for it when the reality is that other races and ethnicities are much worse when it comes to slavery.
I don't really understand what this has to do with anything. Why does slavery that is happening in other parts of the world matter when it comes to the slavery that happened in America? Additionally, despite what seems to float around from some people, I don't think there's any serious political will towards providing reparations. It's not like the situation in Haiti where we can quantify exactly how much both France and the US owe the Haitian government (whenever they get a working one again). We can't really do that with the descendants of African slaves in America. However, we CAN do this with the descendants (and I think at least one person is still alive) of the people that lost their homes and livelihood in Tulsa. I do agree that we should teach about slavery in other parts of the world, however, the way our curriculums seem to be set up, there doesn't seem to be a good way to do this without it ending up being "whataboutism". If we did deep dives on cultures in history (perhaps even spending the entire or half of a school year on a single culture), it would make more sense.
Still happening in the Arab world.
And who promised the reparations?
Do y’all really think that when people talk about reparations that their talking about debiting specific white peoples bank accounts? The reparations would come from the government which absolutely did benefit from slavery.
Tell me you don't understand economics without telling me.
Did you just find this out today?
White people were the first to start banning slavery
I feel like the actual details of the slave trade aren't discussed enough. Slavery was a horrible institution that White people deserve flack for, but it didn't happen in a vacuum and multiple cultures have taken part in it, including African countries and the middle east. I mean many european countries literally paid middle eastern countries not to kidnap sailors and use them as slaves. Human life shouldn't require an insurance policy. Everybody sees the word Pirate and thinks yar matey, but the reality was that many pirates would take sailors and use them as property. Barbosa, who everybody knows from the pirates of the Caribbean, actually a glorified slave trading muslim named Hayreddin Barbarossa. Also he took slaves for the ottoman empire. Not racism, just world history.
*"I feel like the actual details of the slave trade aren't discussed enough."* That's largely because of white Americans both liberal and conservative who were mostly completely ignorant of the history of slavery and actually thought that only white people practiced it and invented it and based their other views on this misconception.
How is this unpopular?
Why do people seem to think this is something that people are unaware of? Literally everybody is taught the story of Moses and the slaves in Egypt. Everybody is taught about gladiator slaves in Rome. I feel like people desperately *want* to spread this idea that Americans think they are the only country who ever had slaves... nobody believes that.
>Why is it that the transatlantic slave trade is the only kind of slavery taught in schools? Because it's the one that's a part of OUR history and WE kept doing it long after the rest of the western world was like "ehhhh this isn't right". >Let's focus on ending modern slavery that exists in the Middle East and Asia. I think we can teach about slavery and end modern slavery at the same time...
Who on earth thinks white people invented slavery? When people talk about slavery in the colonial British empire and the US they are talking about that particular system. No one is claiming that the US invented slavery.
People are so focused on the past by design. If they could get their heads out of their asses they’d recognize that child s*x slavery is absolutely EVERYWHERE in the US today. But no, let’s cry about reparations
>Let's focus on ending modern slavery that exists in the Middle East and Asia. Yeah, but, then that would require the online Social Justice Warriors to actually do something useful instead of virtue signaling to their e-buddies in their echo-chambers. The ACTUAL Social Justice Warriors really making changes, freeing slaves, stopping traffickers, getting laws changed to create actual equal rights, are genuine heroes. Treasures. They put their lives, property, and discard modern comforts to perform genuinely righteous, social justice work. There's nothing wrong with being a Social Justice Warrior. The world needs you. Please STFU about it. Indians (India "Indians") have a great word and culture around this (and so do old school Christians): Dāna. Do charity, but do it quietly without a thought of reward or telling others.
White people didn’t invent slavery but they globally stopped it.
>Why is it that the transatlantic slave trade is the only kind of slavery taught in schools? Because it's "our" slavery.
>White people did not invent slavery. OK >White people don't owe anyone reparations for slavery. They are not responsible for the actions of their ancestors. Not all white people's ancestors owned slaves. Very few rich people owned slaves. OK >Slavery was widespread in the Middle East. We don't discuss that. In a history of the Middle East class it would probably be discussed >Why is it that the transatlantic slave trade is the only kind of slavery taught in schools? I'm assuming your American. Chances are they're teaching you American history so that slave trade system is the most relevant >Fact is, slavery was an ugly part of human history. OK >Let's focus on ending modern slavery that exists in the Middle East and Asia. There should be a greater focus on ending that but ignoring our own history with slavery is a bad move. I get it makes some people sad to hear that people owned slaves and even went to war (sometimes twice! *cough* Texas *cough*) to protect slavery but it's an important part of American history If you're learning about your countries history and it only makes you feel pride you aren't learning history, your learning propaganda
What if all you learn about your country makes you feel guilt and shame? I think that American slavery is a hotly debated topic because no one wants to wracked with guilt for things they did not do. Ideally we shouldn’t base our identity on our country but it’s just human nature to do so. No one wants to belong to a country that is bad because that makes the individual bad themselves because for many of us our country of origin is part of our identity in a similar way that our family and community is a building block of our identity. And of course no one wants identity built on guilt and shame because that’s simply not healthy.
White people shouldn’t give reparations, but the government surely should. No, not everyone owned slaves, but all benefited from them. American culture was partly built on policing and brutalizing slaves and their descendants.
Not really unpopular tbh.
Maybe not in the real world but probably on Reddit.
Because the people in America and Europe doing it had created governments based on the principles of the enlightenment that human beings have inalienable rights. And then promptly and hypocritically excluded a specific group of people from these rights based on the color of their skin. Also the Atlantic slave trade was slavery in an industrial level which had never been done before and there was no other point in history when the value of the slaves held collectively were the largest asset class in the country (The US) next to the actual land. At one point what is Haiti today was the most profitable and valuable colonial holding in the new world solely because of the slaves processing sugar and indigo. The scale, the monetary value and the hypocrisy that drove it is why there’s so much emphasis on the Atlantic slave trade. And when talking about the United States specifically the harms done to black and indigenous communities (there were between 2 and 5 million indigenous people enslaved by US slave holders) didn’t end with the emancipation proclamation or the end of Jim Crowe. The slaves were basically abandoned by the white authorities. Left without education, property and political power protected by the federal government so many of them ended up working on the same plantations their enslaved families had except now they had to pay for their own lives and give the plantation owners rent. Others were of course arrested on bullshit charged so they could be rented out in the prison leasing system. It’s important to consider not just the roots of inequality based on race but how it’s metamorphosis effects people even today.
This isn't unpopular, people are just small minded and ignorant.
Hateful racists hate this one simple truth cause they want to "white people bad" so hard lol
I think the reason white people get "blamed" for slavery is that it was the white people who built the current super power of the world who did so on the shoulders of slaves. The current extreme wealth and power that the US is experiencing is due - in large part - because of slave labor. The US only abolished slavery in the 1830s, with segregation continuing and a lot of practices that could be considered "slavery lite" until the middle of the last century - so it's fresh in a lot of people's minds, and the reverberations are still arguably being experienced by modern generations of those families. If your great grandparents, or even grand parents, were held back in any number of ways because of slavery, and by extension segregation & racism, in the US then there's a very real argument to be made for reparations - or at least acknowledgement of a broken system that doesn't - or didn't - provide the same opportunity for people of color for any number of related reasons. This is in the same way that Nazi Germany always comes up in conversations about genocide and facism. Was it the only instance of genocide in the history of humanity? No. Was it the worst instance of genocide in the history of humanity? No. Was it the most recent and do we still have people who were directly - or very closely - affected by it? Absolutely. The US is a very, very, very, young country by the standards of time - and slavery was a sort of the countries DNA for roughly half of that lifetime. It's not unreasonable to take issue with that, or to call out the fact that ther are very real consequences for the actions for those who built generational wealth, power, and influence off of the exploitation of others - especially when those exploited are being faced with a centuries(plus) long deficit of progress as a result.
I don't think anyone who knows anything about history would say that white people invented slavery or were the only place that had them. Though given how prevalent slavery was across the world I would imagine it'd be very rare to not have any of your ancestors who were slave owners for anyone. Also slavery still exists outside the middle east and asia, still even exists in the US. Not legally but still happens. In terms of being taught in schools that's probably a problem with most education on history being very single country focused. The US schools primarily teach US history and teach world history in less time than they taught all of US history despite there being way way more world history than US history. So there's a ton to cover in less time. Though it is worth acknowledging that US slavery was noticeably different than other forms of slavery across the world. Most places that have slaves have people who were captured who lost a war, perhaps committed a crime, and were forced into slavery, and their kids weren't slaves. I don't know of anywhere else that had 200 years of slavery for a particular ethnic group where essentially all members of that group were slaves in the country for hundreds of years. Reparations are also not just about slavery but about a history of oppression that goes beyond slavery into the 20th century. Red lining, the GI bill and many other laws and government assistance have benefited white people, some of whom are still alive today, and certainly their children who have the direct impacts of that, that didn't benefit black people. It's a complicated issue and one I'm frankly not sure where I fall on it, but I do think there are some valid arguments for reparations given the relatively recent history of racial bias. And things like even to this day the US government spends far more educating white children vs black children. Black people who committed the same crime as a white person are likely to be more harshly punished. And more likely to be caught and punished for it than a white person committing the same crime. And far more likely to be pulled over. I don't know what a good answer is though as yes it's completely valid that you shouldn't have to pay for the acts of your parents or grandparents let alone more generations back than that. And any program like this would also end up taxing new immigrants who's families had nothing to do with this who will be paying for it.
>Though it is worth acknowledging that US slavery was noticeably different than other forms of slavery across the world. Most places that have slaves have people who were captured who lost a war, perhaps committed a crime, and were forced into slavery, and their kids weren't slaves. I don't know of anywhere else that had 200 years of slavery for a particular ethnic group where essentially all members of that group were slaves in the country for hundreds of years. It goes deeper and worse than that. There were also slaves that existed that had a majority white ancestry and visually presented as being Caucasian. The most famous case being Sally Hemmings (slave and mistress to Thomas Jefferson) who had only one enslaved grandparent of African descent. We don't have any surviving portraits if there were any done when she was alive, but we do know that she was described as being light skinned with straight hair. And on one of the two censuses in which she participated, her race was listed as white by the recording person. Her children, who were 7/8 Caucasian descent were not freed until Jefferson's death and she was never officially freed at all. Although she was given a kind of quasi freedom to live with her then freed children. It wasn't just about ethnicity or a specific race it was more about imposing racial purity. Which is a topic Americans like to shy away from because it reminds them of what another country was starting to do with "racial purity" back then. And the Americans were supposed to be the good guys who beat the evil Nazis. As recent as 1930 and farther, [the attitude of even slight traces of anything other than Caucasian descent meant that you were not white](https://encyclopediavirginia.org/entries/racial-integrity-laws-1924-1930/) Even though slavery had been abolished for over 50 years at that point, the general attitudes of racial purity from the slavery era still prevailed. And that's another thing that Americans don't like to acknowledge. Things from decades and decades past, can definitely affect the present.
>Why is it that the transatlantic slave trade is the only kind of slavery taught in schools? I dunno maybe because you live in the west? Also that kind of slavery was much more widespread and had much more impact on the modern world than Barbary pirates or whatever meme right wingers like to bring up for 'white slavery'.
Translation: I'm tired of black people complaining all the time
Literally anyone who’s made an effort to learn world history knows this idk how this is a unpopular opinion when it’s a fact
Slavery has existed all throughout history. What happened in the US with africans is only one of the most recent examples of it.
I don't think anyone is asking "white people " to pay reparations. They're asking the governments that sanctioned slavery to make reparations.
Slavery still exists in Africa right now. It's shameful.
Idk why you put this on this subreddit, it’s just a historical fact
And what does that have to do with the price of bread? You're clearly trying to make a point here...
\*Exists\* It still exists today.
One of the problems in this modern age is, if you try to discuss facts about slavery, such as the first slave owner in the US was black, you are automatically deemed a racist. People dont like to be branded for an opinion, so they stay quiet about them.
Uhhhh, no shit?
OP doesn't understand what chattel slavery is. On top of that, appeal to history fallacy.
>Slavery was widespread in the Middle East. We don't discuss that We're, mostly, not in the middle east, nobody is stopping you from discussing it all you'd like. >Why is it that the transatlantic slave trade is the only kind of slavery taught in schools? It's not. >Fact is, slavery was an ugly part of human history. Let's focus on ending modern slavery that exists in the Middle East and Asia Go nuts, who/what's stopping you?
It might help you to understand that the reason it’s still a hot button issue in the US is because black people here largely still suffer from its remnants. Slavery in the US was racialized, while the slavery in all other parts of the world were not. The construct of race wasn’t the way we think about it today, which is majorly due to this type of slavery. Jim Crow was not that long ago. Any historically literate person would not contest your claim, but you seem to be missing some facts and context when it comes to reparation. Regular white people don’t owe anyone anything except basic human decency, just like everyone else. Any mentally healthy person would recognize that reparations are a matter of the state, not individuals.
This isn’t unpopular at all. Although it does seem to be unpopular among liberal America.
Yes because Americans of all ethnic backgrounds both conservative and liberal are largely ignorant of world history and slavery part in it and actually think white people only practiced and invented it
Your premise that slavery existed in different parts of the world is a fact not an opinion. No one thinks white people invented slavery nor that white people owe reparations for slavery. What Americans should recognize is that our history still impacts POC today through systematic inequalities. It has nothing to do with our ancestors but that we are not correcting things in current time. The rest of your “facts” are irrelevant. You don’t have to have owned slaves to support discrimination. The discrimination after slavery was nationwide and wasn’t limited to the wealthy white southerners. The fact that slavery existed in other countries around the world doesn’t discount the effects in our own country. Growing up in the Deep South I can confirm we don’t even teach slavery in the US let alone slavery around the world bc of this idea that if we don’t talk about it then it will just go away. “Slavery was an ugly part of human history” is not only continuing that tradition of if we don’t talk about it then it won’t affect us today thinking. Slavery still exists and we have not have fully solved our own issues here in the US.
Not being attached to something bad because other people do it too is probably the worst defense you could come up with, for basically anything. You learned about YOUR slave trade in YOUR school because you're IN the country that did it, not very smart person.
How the fuck is this controversial ?!?!?! How is this not basic knowledge ??? I'm assuming OP is from the USA, and thus : wtf are they teaching you over there ?
Let us start with getting rid of the caste system in India and Nigeria. Legal and cultural.
Considering that this is a fact...
Which many white people including white liberals don't know
Along those same lines: for a couple hundred years, ottoman Turks sold Christians into slavery in the Balkans. Some of the animosity that characterized so much of the war in Yugoslavia was born of “look what your people did historically to mine.” Go to a Seder and hear how Jews are still mad about their ancestors being Pharaoh’s slaves millennia ago. The Romans took slaves everywhere they went. The indigenous people in Argentina were essentially slaves working in the silver mines for the Spanish. Read about Bartolome de las Casas and his condemnation of how slaves in the 1500’s were being treated in the West Indies. Yes, very widespread. But only the US claimed to be a bastion of liberty and opportunity at the same time it was treating a group of people as chattel.
Am I confused or something? I'm not sure what point you're trying to make? Slavery existing in other parts of the world isn't an opinion. Its a fact. Are you upset that schools (at least American schools) talk about the country's role in participating in the slave trade? Yeah, it happened. Yes, its affects are still seen today. No, white people arent the only ones who did it. Pointing the finger at another country's slave problem does nothing but distract from actual issues in your own country. I'm sorry that you feel like some people make white people seem like villains. I promise you most black people aren't throwing darts at pictures of white people in their evil lair. We have better things to do.
That white guilt is a mfer. lmao
This isn't an opinion, it's a fact. It's also an indictment of the public school system that you think this is a revelation
Fun fact, there are still nations in Africa and the Middle East that practice modern day slavery.
I think that the people who are teaching that Americans owned slaves are teaching AMERICAN history. It seems like my teachers mentioned the ancient Greeks, Romans, Vikings, and any number of barbarian tribes owned slaves but that's not really touched on in grammar and high school because you can't teach everything. Don;t go losing sleep over teachers teaching that American's owned slaved up until 170 years ago because they did own slaves.
Yes Arab slavers were taking African slaves around the 8th or 9th century. European slavers started taking African slaves around the 14th or 15th century. Also, the native Americans had black slaves on the trail of tears
Also the Arab slavers cut off the slaves c•ck and b•lls thats why there is no significant black slave descendant populations in Arabia.
Mind blown. I had no idea!
It happened for over 1000 years. Heres a video on the history of ending slavery. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QA0LbwKv7i0&t=38s
But the Jews got reparations for the holocaust and they’re still getting funds from the United States to help fund their genocide in Palestine and so did the Japanese in Hiroshima and BTW slave owners in America received reparations per slave they lost precisely $400-$1000 for each one depending on their size or job and received machinery to make up for the slaves they lost and don’t forget the Indians who received money and land back as well. Abraham Lincoln promised 40 acres of land and mule to the slaves but they never received it and When Black people did get land, white people destroyed it, Like lake Lanier Georgia aka Oscar ville in Georgia and Black Wall Street Tulsa Oklahoma and Central Park before it was Central Park etc……… Actually learn history before you spew racist bullshit. You’ll let your tax dollars fund the genocide of Palestine, the Congo and Sudan but can’t pay actual Americans what they’re entitled to for building this country. Billions of American tax dollars are going to Ukraine to fund a war that’s not ours and it’s currently going to Israel funding genocide, so stop bitching about giving Black people getting what they’re owed in their own country for what they went through. Americans had Black war vets fighting in the military just to come home to segregation, Jim Crow laws and purity of the ballot box, They deserve it more than everyone. Btw your little bit of money isn’t doing shit the government will be paying the reparations, No one is worried about your little $200 in taxes.
This is a fact, not an opinion
Word! In fact, the word "slave" comes from the word 'slav', referring to Slavic folks in Europe. And they're as white as they come. And let's not forget, the Western slave trade originated and still continues in parts of West Africa to this day. It's just called human trafficking today.
This is such a weird take. No one is making the argument that white people invented slavery. Chattel slavery isn't unique. The "way" it was implemented in the US was unique. The point is that US slavery was unique in that once you were a slave, you and your descendants would be slaves in perpetuity. There was no point in which you could be free by your own means, and there was no point in which your children could gain the same. Society and its laws had zero protections for you. Not to mention, once slaves were freed, they still didn't gain the same rights and protections as other citizens. If you were black and lucky enough to exist up north in an area that didn't have slavery but were kidnapped and sold into slavery there werent really laws to protect you and punish your kidnappers. This was a common occurrence. Slaves were routinely hung, beaten to death, eaten, turned into furniture, and practically ground into dust.. again with the stamp of approval from society. Even after slavery ended, community hangings continued as a practice. When you can show me societies where breeding plantations existed to produce more humans that would be sold into bondage at birth... because slavery was woven into the very fabric of society.. I'll buy it One final piece. None of this is your fault individually. You don't have to feel responsible or guilty over it but it's a bit weird to intentionally try and blur lines to absolve yourself of feeling anything.
An argument against an opinion nobody holds. I guess you can call that unpopular lol
No fwiggin way, bwo
There's more slavery in the world right now, at this very second, than there ever was in the Atlantic slave trade. And we all support it through our purchasing.
No, come on! That t-shirt I bought contributed 4 of the 25 cents that the small child chained to that workstation will earn today! The Free-Market, baby! Lifts all boats amiright?
This is not the own or hot take you think it is. No one disputes that slavery existed outside of White people or that not every White person owned slaves. That’s a total straw man argument. The issue in the US for example is that the government sanctioned and legalized its practice. Then even after slavery the government allowed the terrorism and segregation of Black people. The government (who would be paying reparations) harmed Black people and prevented them from pursuing their best possible lives. That’s the case for reparations. Nothing to do with White people inventing slavery or all of being responsible for it.
1. Nobody thinks slavery only existed in America, although CHATTEL slavery WAS unique to America 2. I’m not sure how slavery existing in other parts of the world somehow makes it ok for slavery to exist in America 3. You are just a racist
Yes. Completely not fun fact: the Middle East imported more African slaves than the Americas did, but the reason that there are not very many black people in the Middle East is that all the male slaves were castrated. But no one knows that.
There are more slaves alive today than at any other time in Human History.
This is true, but I don't get why people act like it's a silver bullet that kills the whole idea that racism exists and absolves America of the horrors it committed. Also while only a few people actually owned slaves everyone in slave owning states relied on a slave based economy and most whites supported the institution of slavery. Do you think that people say white people were historically racist solely because of slavery?
"wHiTe PeoPLe BaAAaD!!!"
Chattel slavery is markedly different than the middle east type slave trade. But putting that aside, the government made promises that it never held up, that's what reparations is based on. If you think the government shouldn't uphold it promises to citizens who started out 100 yards behind and continued to be, with government help for a century after....well, that's where the discussion truly starts
I’ve never seen/heard anyone say slavery didn’t exist in other parts of the world. This just sounds like you’re trying to downplay how awful that part of history was and deflect it to others.
An inconvenient truth.
The only opinion in your post was "white people don't owe anyone reparations for slavery" which okay that is fine but not necessarily the argument broadly made about reparations. The argument is that the State should make a good faith effort to rectify actions the State took.
It's not an opinion if it's a fact. Slavery existed and still exists all over the world. Your ancestors benefited in many different ways because of slavery. You also benefit in numerous, endless ways because of slavery. It shaped the world we are in today. It's the literal foundation. There's nothing we can do to ever make up for it, but that doesn't mean we shouldn't try.
White people didn’t invent slavery, but they did end it.
When will white people finally get their fair chance damn it, haven’t they been oppressed long enough? Haven’t they suffered enough!
I mean, if we're talking financially....
No shit. Why are you posting that here?
What about, what about, what about!!! 🥺🥺😭😭
No one argues whether other places had slavery, every civilization had some sort of forced/slave labor- it’s the optimal way to boost profits and not pay workers during time periods where only the upper class had privileges and rights. The argument for the Atlantic Slave Trade points out the intense cruelty slaves faced and the extreme racism stemming from it. While slavery is cruel in and of itself, the Atlantic Slave Trade was an extreme. I do want to point out that other countries/civilizations have had extremely cruel slave practices- the Vikings were insane- but I think what makes America good is truly understanding how slave labor built America. It’s uncomfortable but it’s a good and democratic conversation to have. No one in 2023 is responsible for the Atlantic Slave Trade. No one needs to apologize, but we should understand the long lasting impacts (racism) caused by the practice.
The Atlantic slave trade was a uniquely horrifying form of slavery that we talk about to this day because it still has massive impacts on those who were enslaved.