Bradleigh wrote:
Nades wrote:
But you are aware that even then it was only the absolute upper crust that benefited from slavery? The vast majority of whites never did benefit from slavery and also had a dogs life themselves. The area that I live in for example had entire towns built for housing white people who were "paid" very poorly with tokens and not money that could only be spent in the price gouged shops owned by their employers.
Their jobs? Working from dusk till dawn in dangerous coal mines and often starting work as a 12 or 13 year old child. Just 15 mins away 400+ white people died instantly in a coal mine explosion. All the houses that I currently own were once housing exploited white people. To this day the area has never recovered.
This is why a lot of people have a big issue with "white guilt debt". A lot of white people had it equally as bad.
The specifics are about even after becoming "free" people they were still treated as lesser to the lower white people, who could benefit more from the economy built by people who made their wealth through slavery.
If a rich person made money from slaves, then used their money to provide better jobs or payment of services to low class white people, are the low class people not benefiting from the fruits of slavery? But regardless, it is not about punishing specific people who might have in some way be connected to benefiting from slavery, it is about providing equal opportunities regardless of race and that a system that was built on the exploitation or discrimination of people should help lift the people that were left disadvantaged because of that.
People in general can benefit if there is a class of people that was placed bellow them, so even if they were treated like s**t, they were not treated as subhuman. The actual damage done has never been truly addressed, and just creates more victims.
In a nutshell no, they didn't benefit from slavery even when conditions improved. Only a tiny minority benefited from slavery and to this day the areas that were hit hardest by exploitation are still poor (and among the whitest in the UK ironically)
Everyone was treated like s**t back in the day. I can't think of a single Welsh miner that benefited from slavery directly or indirectly even after their working conditions improved considerably.
I don't really know what you mean by lifting up to. A lot of black people in London have it much better than a lot of white people in former industrial towns.
Statistically white working class boys are the worst off in the UK and face the most unfavourable life prospects.
I guess applying North American social constructs of Black and White does not fit well realities of Old World. Americans can be quite egocentric about it.
01 Feb 2021, 8:31 am
