Racism.

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The problem would be that if we both agree that nobody alive today is to blame for Slavery, then we must also agree that nobody deserves thanks for ending it.

True, true, though the occasional mention of our role wouldnt go amiss. Just for politeness sakes really.

well, i don't think i implicitly suggested anything like this. however, to respond generally to the point you are trying to make, since the abolition of slavery, blacks in america have generally suffered from racism in some way or another until the present day. so you cannot therefore compare the racism of say for instance, white supremacist types with that of black people. the reasons for it are profoundly different. and bear in mind i am speaking generally here, although i think my case could be extended to most instances that you might consider.

I've been discriminated against before because I am white. I used to work in a liquor store where many of our customers were black. At one point when I was working it seemed that every day black people would come in and cause a scene. They would never fail to interpret something I said or did in a way that was racist. So they would constantly erroneously be accusing me of racism, even when I did nothing to warrant such accusations. The blacks in that area were overly ready to pull out the race card, and they seemed to enjoy making a racial matter out of absolutely nothing. It was really hard for me to believe the ways they would twist facts to make and show the point that they are black and I am white and that I somehow owe them something.

Whew! I'm glad no one hates Jews anymore.

I have been harassed due to race in several places (and was nearly beaten up by some black kids in the US in an incident that quite possibly was racially motivated - they were not trying to steal anything from me, i did not know them, they were all black and i am not - definitely at least in the North blacks are more racist than whites). The most verbal abuse, in proportion to the time spent there, was in Paris (I was mistaken for an Algerian). Fairly recently in England I was verbally abused due to being mistaken for a Muslim (they knew nothing about me other than how i look, so it was sort of a racial thing). i suffered verbal abuse in scotland once, which isn't that much given the time i spent there.

from what i've seen and experienced, the two most racist countries I've been to are France and Mexico.

A little anti-semitism never hurt anyone.

For once, I agree with your sarcasm.

Hey! I said the list goes on.....

i always do. it doesn't help them, though...and many of their "leaders" should be smart enough to know better and to act accordingly. but maybe i'm holding them too high? my favorite black leaders so far have been huey newton and bill cosby.....they seem/ed to actually have it somewhat together.

Racism is based on assumptions, none of which can be true for all members of the race in question.

In the case of feuding nationalities, there are some legitimate grievances. But hating people because of something their fellow nationals did will only lead to more grief. It's a really stupid way to live.

I've been called lots of rude names by Mexican people, but they do it to everyone who they think doesn't understand what they're saying. It sucks.

Let me clarify your statement. Are you saying that racism enacted by white supremacists is in some way worse than racism enacted by american blacks? (I specify american here, as the greater part of our black immigrants were exactly that.. immigrants, not slaves or slave descendants, which I assume would put a different spin on things.) Or are you saying that racism from blacks is more justified than racism from whites?

And apologies if you were not intending to imply anything etc, but the phrasing did give that impression.

all i was really trying to say is that the situation is not equal on both sides. i am not trying to justify racism on either side, merely pointing out that since black people in america have pretty much put up with ingrained and institutional racism to various extremes and in one form or another since the first africans were taken there until now, and by and large at the hands of white americans, that it's not hard to see how much of that community might bear umbrage against the white community.

I have so much sympathy for all those people in the world who being the successful and privileged decedents of successful colonists who stole land and enslaved people, it must be really tough when someone calls you nasty names...

I think the important difference is that in parts of the US discrimination was actually law up until the 50s or 60s, with segregation. This term "institutional racism" is just something left-leaning politicians have invented as a political tool. It doesn't exist. It's not something enshrined in law in the UK, like segregation was in the US, and it really is quite disproportionate for liberals to bleat on about it as if it's equivalent to the real suffering and humiliation legally inflicted on US blacks by a majority-white population that even then was waxing lyrical on the joys of freedom and democracy.

Macbeth also makes another good point that's often overlooked: most blacks here are recent immigrants and their ancestors were not brought here (UK) by the slave trade.