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« The Right: Losing the Language and Losing the Debate | Main | »

February 25, 2009

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J. UK

Good article.

Us Europeans did stop slavery.
We are also well on the way to stopping the death penalty.

Walt

There is no death penalty in Mexico already. It is truly the land of peace love and harmony. A utopia really.

Criscraft

As long as their is sin in this world there will always be a death penalty.

John

Great, great article. This article should be on page one of every newspaper in the country.

Sam

I can be sympathetic to many of your arguments, but you lose me here:

"But where would blacks be were it not for slavery? The answer is Africa, where people’s economic state is far, far worse than that of American blacks."

You fail to address the reason why the economic state of Africa is far far worse than that of American blacks. The root of the problems on the African continent lie hundreds of years ago with European colonization, the slave trade ripping up and pitting tribes against each other, and imperialism. With very few notable exceptions, sub-Saharan Africa was either ruled by whites, or, when the Europeans slowly trickled out and returned African countries to African rule, left virtually stranded with no real basis for forming non-violent societies.

Sorry. We may never know what would have happened on the African continent if not for slavery. Slavery did not just affect the Americas.

Sam

In summary: It is an invalid argument to say that American blacks should be "grateful" for slavery removing their ancestors from the "hell" that is modern-day Africa.

Philip France

Bravo to Selwyn Duke for another indisputably articulate and logical presentation. I have so many supportive points to make that I would like to scream, but I will narrow them down.

When do whites get to make claims for reparations to their denial of opportunities resulting from the institutionalized racism known as Affirmative Action?

I further the point of Selwyn's that it was white Christians who brought us out of the dark ages and into the advanced culture that we now enjoy the benefits of. Simply follow the arc of history and, unless you are an utterly deluded fool, you will plainly see that cultural and technological advancement is commensurate to the arc of the spread of Christianity.

Lastly, in the U.S. it was evangelical Christians who championed civil rights. The Democrats and liberals hijacked this cause after the heavy lifting was done. The evidence of the Left's embrace of civil rights has resulted in the victimization of blacks as a political tool that far too many have swallowed hook, line and sinker. Evidence abounds that the number one factor in the economic disparity between blacks and other assimilated races and cultures is single motherhood. Liberals/Leftists are alone in the blame for this travesty. I further this point by correctly pointing out the media and cultural elitist demonization of successful Afro-Americans such as Clarence Thomas, Thomas Sowell, Walter E. Williams, Michelle Malkin and Bill Cosby. Add to this the eradication of discussion about historical black innovators such as George Washington Carver.

Racial bigotry is a tool employed by the political Left to sow discord into an otherwise harmonious society. The evidence is abundant that what racial bigotry exists in America today exists because of white liberals and black militants.

Shaun

Ive heard this argument many times before and some truth lies here no doubt. However, Ive often wondered why the Africans allowed themselves to be taken over by a vastly inferior numerical force? Why did these "great civilizations" as afrocentrists put, be succumbed by European politics? Better yet, why didn't Africans sail across the mediterranean and enslave Europe. It is true that European colonization had many positive and negative effects on the socio-economic picture of Africa but at some point you just have to realize the African people are to blame. When you consider the colossal failure of nearly all of sub-saharan Africa versus other former colonies and maltreated peoples' you realize that something is surely different there. Maybe in a another 50 years and several trillion in IMF extorted funds wasted well come around to accepting this picture. Maybe

Shaun
UCA

Sam

You are mistaking my argument for a different one. I do not think that the civilizations of sub-Saharan cultures were more advanced than or superior to those of the European civilizations. (And now, quite frankly, we'll never know what could have become of the continent, but what's past is past, and that's all water under the bridge.) Does that mean, however, that the European civilizations had a right to enslave and subjugate the peoples of the Africa continent? Absolutely not. Were the peoples of Germany somehow deserving of having their land taken from them and their customs and religion quashed out by the Romans in antique times, just because they didn't bow to Zeus and didn't have the technological and strategic advantage of legions and cavalry? No. Also, your argument forgets that Africa was still divided into several splintered tribes at the time of European colonization, whereas Europe had the might of united nations behind it. A side note, but one worth pointing out.

And if the Africans had been more technologically advanced, you suggest that they should have sailed up and enslaved Europe. Why on earth would that have been better? Your reasoning implies that, well, someone would have had to enslave SOMEONE (forgive my use of capslock, I don't think this supports HTML coding for italics and the like), so it might as well have been the African continent (and southeast Asia) that got it, right? Sorry if I don't subscribe to this particular worldview.

Shaun

Sam,

"You fail to address the reason why the economic state of Africa is far far worse than that of American blacks"

That was what I repsonded to. Slavery and colonization are detestable to me. Stains on the history of Europe. Your replies, according to me, are attempting to excuse african failure on whites. My examples show a clear lack of capability in African societies that would have existed regradless of European intervention. That was my point!

Shaun

T. Bruce

Your comment affirms that an occasional use of Sarcasm has its place. We are reaping the benefits of the influx of the Mexican Utopia into our own country. Isn't that special?

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