Past

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Why do some people hang on to the past? Even like events in the past that were over 100 years ago?

For example:
The friend I was referring to in the other post of mine here kept going on and on about blacks and slavery. This friend is also black.

*sigh* slavery ended over 100 years ago, and I know that blacks have fought for their rights, (just like many other non-black people do) but seriously why do so many people(not just my black friend, there are other friends/people that I know in real-life) hang on to a past that they themselves werent involved in, and arent affected by?
(I know some are affected by the past, but not all of the people that Im referring to are, in fact most of the ones Im referring to have a very good life.)

Im not racist either.

Are you really sure that they aren't affected? I mean, you say they have a good life. But have you followed them 24 hours a day 7 days a week? Have you followed them since their youth? Do you know every detail of their lives, that show that they never *ever* had to face any form of racism?

I mean, I myself am part of a minority (I'm gay). I'm lucky to live in a country that has marriage equality (I'm actually happily married myself ) and in fact near complete equality before the law. I lead a very good life, with a good job (where I can be out of the closet), friends and no big worries about the future. Does that mean that I should shut up about gay rights? I mean, I've got them, right? So I should stop hanging onto the struggle we had to reach this point, right? Well, sorry, but the eggs I had to clean off my windows disagree (last thrown egg I had to clean off happened just 6 months ago), as well as the Pope calling me an abomination, or a French politician (I'm from France originally), supposedly my ally, effectively calling me subhuman. All things that most of my straight friends have no idea happened at all.

So before you complain again that people aren't affected by something you call "the past", you should ask yourself if that's really true, or if you just don't see it because it cannot affect you.

Im not complaining, its called asking/writing questions, and to answer you I already know theyre not attacked in any way shape or form, nor have the majority of the people Im referring to been.

Im dark skinned compared to most whites, as is my other friend TriGreek. Were beaten up sometimes, but we dont go around blaming peoples ancestors like the people Im referring to do.

What you call "hanging on to the Past" other people call Tradition.

NTs are very big with Traditions. Get used to it.

ruveyn

In this country, people are having a hard time getting over issues that happened 400 or even 800 years ago, let alone 100.

Some people still feel that wrongs commited against their forefathers were never corrected to the extent that it is still affecting their lot in life today. In some cases it is a valid argument. Sometimes to understand these perspectives you need to get out of your comfort zone, travel, see other countries. In America, you dont need to do that. Its clear to see that the native american population have been adversely affected by colonialism. I don't think its necessarilly an AS/NT thing. Historical events have a way of materially affecting the present.

Here is a Blast From the Past in the U.S. 200 years ago our predecessors stole the country from its aboriginal inhabitants, and we are NOT going to give it back. That is the fact.

What should we do?

ruveyn

This is where you're wrong. No one is not affected by things that happened in the past.

BTW, it's been over one hundred fifty years, not just 100, but take the whole thing in historical context.

How many lifetimes ago what that? Not that many.

I was born in 1960. There were still a few people living at the time when slavery was still being practiced in the U.S. that means there were still people alive that directly experienced it.

That was only fifty two years ago. This means there are still a lot of living people that have heard first hand stories of slavery. I've personally met people born not that long after slavery ended, and let me tell you, things did not improve much for blacks in this country for many decades afterward.

I watched MLK's speech live on television. I remember Robert Kennedy being shot to death, and the Manson murders. All of those occurrences were fallout from prejudice against blacks, and it wasn't that long ago. All of that was fallout from slavery and prejudice against people of color.

So when you dismiss it all as "in the past," what you really reveal is that you haven't thought much about the fact that a century is really not a very long period of time. It is rather brief in the context of all history.

There is still residual tension in the South leftover from the civil war. There is still residual tension in Boston and surrounding cities that is directly related to freed black slaves migrating north after the civil war. Prejudice is still rampant in that area.

The fact is, you are correct on one point, but sadly mistaken about the other.

No, they were not directly involved, but they were certainly NOT unaffected by it.

A society without a sense of its past is like a person suffering from amnesia.

ruveyn

I'm not arguing about whether white americans SHOULD 'give' the land back or not, first and foremost the native americans in the first place never put any claim of ownership on the land themselves, so its hard to class it as theft and secondly modern white americans have no legal claim over anywhere else so have nowhere else to go. However to say that native americans have in any way benefitted from the white mans involvement is obviously a gross misinterpretation of fact. Thats even before you count the various massacres that were commited by the US army.

I do think the natives got a raw deal with the reservations, and should have got a bigger land entitlement. Maybe at least one states worth that they could call their own.

100 years is nothing, Christians have been hung up on stuff that happened to this one guy for like 2000 years!

because african americans are still treated very badly as a group by default in the western world, and it will take a long time to reverse that. on an individual level they might have a great life, but overall the levels of discrimination against them are very bad. simply stopping slavery doesn't make all that go away.

i think that maybe your friends would be well served by you, if you were to learn a little bit about their current situation. it's pretty nasty for you to dismiss what happened to their own ancestors (something that probably still affects their ethnic group in myriad ways) just because YOU think it is ancient history. maybe listen to what they have to say and try to understand a few things from their perspective.

here is an interesting survey to help you understand just how much privilege you carry around compared to them on a daily basis:

http://www.nymbp.org/reference/WhitePrivilege.pdf

As a counter-claim, I invoke a heavy hitter.. Thomas Sowell.

I can highly recommend this work:
http://www.amazon.com/Affirmative-Actio ... 0300107757

i'm... not talking about affirmative action. i'm talking about being sensitive to a friend.

Ahem.

no.... i am not discussing affirmative action - that is a specific american government program that i am not familiar with in any way. funny that you think affirmative action is the only way to make a difference, by default.

EDIT: many governments do encourage hiring quotas and things like that, but they are not entitled as such. and it is not the only way to make change, by far. i am talking about spreading awareness and understanding.

I posted a reference to a work titled "Affirmative Action Around the World".

Regardless, the American concept is widely used to describe racist policies in several countries in a politically correct manner.

But I acknowledge that you may have a point (despite posting a link to an article full of unimaginable crap), so why don't you educate me on how to make a difference, then?