Posted on Dec 9, 2015
Today is the 150th anniversary of the end of slavery. How much of an impact does slavery still have on African Americans today?
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Today marks the 150 Anniversary of the ending of Slavery. Earlier today the President gave a Speech to address it. Many People are still looking for Slave Reparations. It is still painful in a lot of ways and stands a Dark Place in our History. Slavery ended. But how much of a setback did it have on African-Americans?
American History
Slavery
People
Discrimination
Racism
Posted >1 y ago
Responses: 30
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Does anyone realize that the Native Americans were the 1st slaves in this country?
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Slavery ended? Are you sure about that? If slavery ended why do we have the highest court in the country saying that we would benefit from lower education? Why are we still on modern day plantation (the projects)? How is that a black man is consistently gunned down by law enforcement for walking down the street. Why is the black baby the number one aborted child in the US? Why is that mandatory prison sentences have been shown to target black men? For example the furniture used by most department of defense offices are produced by Unicor federal prison industries. Unicor pays inmates 5 cent an hour to produce a desk that they sell for well over $2,000. When you catch a black man with lets say a sizeable amount of Marijuana he gets sentenced to jail for a minimum of 3 years. Now you have a slave/prisoner to work for peanuts. So I would slavery has not ended, it just gave the illusion that it has been abolished.
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SFC (Join to see)
First off let me say I respect your opinion and your are entitled to it. Please correct me if I am wrong but you are of European descent. So how can you say what I say is BS unless you have to live as an African American in this country every day. It not an excuse I am well educated I have 5 degrees 2 of them being on the graduate level. However when I walk into a store or a bank I am treated like a criminal. You say that they shouldn't commit crimes. To a certain point I agree with you, but on the other side you have to look at the conditions that were created in order for these people to have to commit crimes. Also just as Americans of African descent are still suffering from the effects of slavery, Americans of European descent are still benefiting form the effects of Slavery.
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2LT Earl Dean
SFC (Join to see) - Sir No My family is of American Decent! I was Born and raised on the Sax and Fox Indian Reservation in the lower Easter part of Nebraska and the North eastern part of Kansas! My great grand father was left there by the Calvary to die after they had shot him and he lived! So that is where I came from! Look at the conditions that caused them to commit a crime!? What a joke! People have free will and brains! Or most have brains! Still an excuse! Oh poor baby didn't have a pacifier when he was born so he became a killer! OMG Tired old same old crap! I am sure his mother taught him right from wrong! Most of the time people commit a crime because they are looking for the fast buck! And if you think people look at you because your black and expect you to commit a crime, I suggest yo look in the mirror and fix what it is they are looking at! People don't expects you to commit a crime just because your black! That's called Paranoia! Try walking into a store with your white mother and everyone knows your father is red! Whites don't want you there because your father is red! Red don't want you because your mother is white! And Most of the Indians are drunks right? Wrong my father never drank and if he did it was at party he was invited to once maybe twice a year! I don't either! But I do know people commit crimes because they think they will get away with something! Hell my mothers home didn't have a wooden floor until 1998 and only then because my brother's and I came up with the money to put it into my mothers home. I lived in the ghetto! I still live in the projects! But am getting out of here withing this month! So don't give me that BS that poor guy had to commit a crime! He was a Thug! He was a thief! He committed a crime! He could have said no and got off his lazy Butt and got a job and respected people and their possessions! No he would rather steal and lie and have people give him their hard earned things than do what is right! It people making excuses for actions like that! that keep the problem alive. I don't care what color a mans skin is! There is no reason, NO REASON to force someone to commit a crime! And if your educated as you say you are which I am happy you have the chance to get educated you will know if people look at you like your going to commit a crime its because you look like what society thinks is a criminal, You will know what I mean! If you look professional people will take you that way! If you look like a banger people will take you as a banger! I am done with this! No matter what I say It wont change anything! Wish you luck and happiness the rest of your life and wish your family all my best wishes! from me and my family! May God bless and keep you!
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It was around for more than 150 years so I suspect it will take at least that long to deal with.
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PO1 William "Chip" Nagel
Strange Fruit, Series 17, Soul Music - BBC Radio 4
Soul Music examines the harrowing stories behind the song made famous by Billie Holiday.
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Slavery is not dead. Most Muslim nations still practice slavery and most of them are black. They also make eunuchs of them and have been far more brutal than the western world ever was and enslaved millions more. This fact seems to be lost on our current POTUS. ISIS is a big fan of slavery and have made slaves of everyone they didn't kill. Sexual slaves are made of women and children.
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Add to SSG Warren Swan excellent commentary the issue of genetics and how ancestral genetic markers predisposing us to certain attitudes can be passed down through generations (not knowing what you don't know and don't even know that you don't know it) further complicates the process of transcending one's history to create your own.
"Geneticists who study behavior and personality have known for 30 years that genes play a large role in people's instinctive emotional responses to certain issues, their social temperament. It is not that opinions on specific issues are written into a person's DNA. Rather, genes prime people to respond cautiously or openly to the mores of a social group. Only recently have researchers begun to examine how these predispositions, in combination with childhood and later life experiences, shape political behavior. Dr. Lindon J. Eaves, a professor of human genetics and psychiatry at Virginia Commonwealth University, said the new research did not add much to this. Dr. Eaves was not involved in the study but allowed the researchers to analyze data from a study of twins that he is leading.
Still, he said the findings were plausible, "and the real significance here is that this paper brings genetics to the attention to a whole new field and gives it a new way of thinking about social, cultural and political questions."
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/06/21/science/some-politics-may-be-etched-in-the-genes.html
"Geneticists who study behavior and personality have known for 30 years that genes play a large role in people's instinctive emotional responses to certain issues, their social temperament. It is not that opinions on specific issues are written into a person's DNA. Rather, genes prime people to respond cautiously or openly to the mores of a social group. Only recently have researchers begun to examine how these predispositions, in combination with childhood and later life experiences, shape political behavior. Dr. Lindon J. Eaves, a professor of human genetics and psychiatry at Virginia Commonwealth University, said the new research did not add much to this. Dr. Eaves was not involved in the study but allowed the researchers to analyze data from a study of twins that he is leading.
Still, he said the findings were plausible, "and the real significance here is that this paper brings genetics to the attention to a whole new field and gives it a new way of thinking about social, cultural and political questions."
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/06/21/science/some-politics-may-be-etched-in-the-genes.html
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SPC Andrew Griffin
Awesome brother! Very rich rich rich Post! Thank you for the link! Reading it now!
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CPO Andy Carrillo, MS
SPC Andrew Griffin - In my practice I help people work through ancestral, generational, and even gestational neural programming (behavioral epigenetics). A Native American client remarked, "Our culture believes one's actions ripple through 7 generations." His eyes lit up when I asked of the 7 generations that preceded him to partially explain his present life's choices (parolee).
http://discovermagazine.com/2013/may/13-grandmas-experiences-leave-epigenetic-mark-on-your-genes
http://discovermagazine.com/2013/may/13-grandmas-experiences-leave-epigenetic-mark-on-your-genes
Grandma's Experiences Leave Epigenetic Mark on Your Genes | DiscoverMagazine.com
Your ancestors' lousy childhoods or excellent adventures might change your personality, bequeathing anxiety or resilience by altering the epigenetic expressions of genes in the brain.
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It was definitely a setback, BUT it ended 152 years ago now. There are many successful African Americans including many on RallyPoint. As far as reparations go, they don't need them...there is a lot of help available in many areas to African Americans that are not available to others....NAACP, Black Scholarship Foundations, etc.
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Don't know- 3000 black men owned slaves before the Civil War. How many African would have come to America and found a life after slavery? Don't get me wrong Slavery is wrong-period, but every group, every nation since history was recorded has had slaves, often the people they defeated. My ancestors Scots & Irish were slaves in this New World before black slaves showed up. When you look at it- look at the progress of Black Americans compared to say blacks in Africa where they are still slaughtering each other because of what tribe they are in.
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We all like to blame others for our own bad choices. It did have a set back on people but it continues to hold those who believe it is a problem. You need to work on your belief system because if you believe that slavery is holding you back, then it will. If you believe you have more opportunity than any of your ancestors did, then you do. Move forward if you believe you can't make you will not. if you believe you have failed then you will. Start thinking about what you can do. Rosa Parks believed she did not have to give up her seat and she didn't All change starts with one person and is then carried by others. Change is best made by looking to the future. When Edison was inventing the light bulb he tired over 10,000 different ways I bet he never went back and used one he knew did not work.
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Probably the greatest lingering effect of slavery we still see today is the persistance of the social construct of racism in our culture. Although I believe the idea of reparations is a little past it's time. The best reparations we can provide now is learning from our history so that we can have a better future.
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