That's why I am not too quick to hurl turds at "the South".

another. That's why black people should get reparations.

as a certain (British) playwright once wrote.

Their economies remained dependent on it. Southern cotton, grown with slave labor, provided the raw materials that fed the manufacturing that formed the basis for industrialization. Slavery fueled industrialization not only in the US, but in England and Europe as well. The economy of the West was built on slavery.

This idea that Northerners have--and I was raised on it--that racism is unique to the South is pure delusion.

but +1

accept that racism is unique to the south as well as perpetuating the myth that all republicans are fundamentalist xtian bigots. I think our progress in reaching racial reconciliation is hampered by the former belief, and our opportunities to turn red states purple or blue are crippled by the latter.

The Chinese and Irish paid a huge toll in life building the great railways. We crushed the Native Americans Nations and restricted them to areas of land only to be taken away again. Inflicted them with bio-weapons and drugs.

We could go on and on about how bad humans are to each other. At some people most realize that a person either retains history, refuses to believe the parts they don't like or just rewrites it altogether.

So it stands to reason anyone with the thoughts of romanticizing the South or believing destroying a nation is an honorable thing to protect a 'heritage', would tend to forget all past facts about history or worse, not care the least bit and repeat the horrors that humans can inflict on each other.

We're very primitive still, our trinkets like to fool us into thinking evolved means the latest iPhone upgrade.

You seem to be a voice of reason on all matters.

We are the best known species to retain memory as far as I know (someone will come along and correct me, probably an elephant). The fact that other more primative mammals can show more evovled socal skills means we should too be able to evolve far past the need to kill/enslave/rape each other. We are there, at that threshold of either letting the poor of the world starve or feed everyone. It is hard to argue that most war and strife is not born out of poverty and intolerance.

I guess I just get impatient, because we have huge potential. I love topics here about alien life and all the reasons we haven't had any pull up in a spaceship and the one reason we like to forget the most - we're just not that interesting yet.

Its not all on the South.

I live in South Texas and take the bashing the same way the POTUS takes the GOP.


Just brush it off. Nobody here wants to own slaves, the ones that glorify the Rebel Flag do so because they watched the Dukes of Hazzard growing up. I doubt they even know what it means, they are too busy getting ready to fight the USA so Texas can be Texasland again.

You know, Obama and all that Jadehelm nuttery. General Abbott is getting ready for grand nuttery.

it sorta fucks with my outlook.

The Atlantic slave trade facilitated capitalism

Thing is, some of the more capitalist countries had no or few slaves. Germany, for example.

And some of the least capitalist countries had extensive slavery--serfs, slaves, not a huge difference in practice, esp. in late Russian serfdom--and abolished it so they could move to more capitalism. Russia, for example.

"What you see is all there is"?

I think technology was also a major factor but Atlantic slavery sure benefited from developments in ship building.

We owe all the descendants of Slaves a big thank you for their ancestors plight and most of all all the respect we can muster. Simple as that. There's no changing the past but at the very least we can show respect where respect is needed. I served with guys and gals from many nationalities and they were as much patriots as I ever was. My Brothers and Sisters all of them. Bled just like I did.


After all the African Americans community gave us one of our very best Presidents and for that I'll be going to my grave showing them my respect.

evil/hypocritical.

Just do the math, it is a lot cheaper to have part time minimum wage workers than it is to owning a slave. You can always lay off workers but a slave has to be cared for regardless of working conditions.

Randy points out the hypocrisy in this song