Re: Is white racism nec. all bad?

Lane Singer (lsd@ix.netcom.com)
25 Apr 1995 07:19:26 GMT

In <3ngnu7$d2t@ncar.ucar.edu> gary@ncar.ucar.edu (Gary Strand) writes:

>ls> Most African slaves were kidnapped from west Africa. There is every reason
> to believe that they shared a great deal in common, culturally, prior to
> having their culture, their language, their religion and their very iden-
> tities scoured away in order to make them the better to dominate and en-
> slave.
>
> So, West Africans belonged to some sort of large social group (empire, king-
> dom, whatever) and those in charge didn't mind having a good many of their
> number taken away? That's odd, unless those in power wanted those taken to
> be taken, and helped and/or profited in the kidnapping.

There had been a dominant kingdom there in the first millenium AD. By
the time of the slave trade, it had fallen, and there were numerous
factions at odds with one another. Picture theFormerYugoslavia.

>ls> It is their very culture, the sanctity of their identities, that have nur-
> tured the Jews, the Chinese, the Vietnamese and more, in establishing
> themselves prior to assimilation, a =voluntary= assimilation, in American
> life and culture.
>
> "Voluntary"? Yes, many immigrants were not kidnapped and brought to the US
> against their will. Most were made unwelcome where they were, so they left.
> What "choice" is there between staying and being persecuted for your lang-
> uage, religion, culture, &c, or taking a chance and leaving to come to the
> US? Don't forget that some of the Pilgrims left because of religious per-
> secution.

By voluntary, I meant voluntary assimilation, once they got here.
Imagine that you were kidnapped by people with a completely alien
culture, who then enslaved you and brutalized you. After you attained
freedom from that, you were in no-man's land: your own beloved world
was gone, and the one you now found yourself in was not only hostile
and harsh and discriminatory, but expected you to adopt, 100%, every
cultural nuance of those who had imprisoned you so unjustly.

--

Lane Singer