If it were something exclusively said by black people I wouldn't mind at all. Also, note that I said "some".
If you said, "why do some black people pretend that everything that happens in their life is because of racism", as I'd be willing to bet you have said, I'd think that was fair enough. I've said it too. If you wouldn't have a problem with that then explain why you have a problem with this.
Yes, there were freed black people in America. My point is that if they found themselves in the wrong place at the wrong time or with the wrong person, they'd be abducted and sold into slavery. Never mind the horrific discrimination they faced. This happened 100% because of the colour of their skin. No white person was in danger of this. That is because this form of slavery was predicated on the idea that black people were subhuman, an idea deliberatly spread to morally justify slavery. Which brings us full circle to the line you questioned in the article. The belief that one race was inferior to another was the foudation of the trans Atlantic slave trade.
You keep on saying that "absolutely nobody voices any support for slavery" or that "everybody recognises that it's a horrible thing". You're wrong about that, but sure, I have no problem admitting that it's only a fringe. But what you're missing is all the racism that happened since the end of slavery. Racism was explicitly written into US law until 56 years ago.
The reason there's so much talk about black people and racism today is that so many people like you don't have a clue about what actually happend to black people in America. You think everything bad ended with slavery and that the civil war was fought so that black people could be freed. You're missing so much that you might as well know nothing at all. Just check out the short list that I included in the article.
The Atlantic slave trade to the Fourteenth Amendment. Segregation to miscegenation. Jim Crow laws to sundown towns. Brown vs Board to the Little Rock Nine.
Do you know what these are? Could you talk for five minutes on any of these topics? This isn't ancient history and barely scratches the surface. In fact, the hangover of many of these things is still evident in American society today. Yet I'm betting you could only maybe talk about slavery and segregation for a minute or two before running out of knowledge. Never mind redlining or the Tulsa race massacre or contract buying or the one drop rule and on and on.
It's not that I don't see where you're coming from. Really. There is a lot of talk about black issues at the moment. Far too much is blamed on racism. There is a lot of anti-white sentiment and mindless whining around right now. I see it too. I'm against it too. But I'm trying to show you that the ignorance of many white people about the issues facing black people is a big factor in why things have gotten this bad.
Black people have been talking about the things happening to them in America for generations, and most white people have pretty much ignored them. As anybody would do when ignored, black people have raised their voices and they were still ignored. The increasingly loud, increasingly anti-white sound you're hearing now is, in part, the inevitable result of all that time black people have been mistreated and ignored. It's only if you take the time to understand what the problem is, that you'll be able to contextualise it. And that’s the best way to stop it.
