4th November 2003, 8:36 PM
Well then thanks for explaining what you meant, DJ!
Weltall... racism against anyone not Hawaiian in Hawaii? Yeah, I know about that and of course its bad... all racism is... and yes, black people too are often racist against whites. Of course that's also a problem... its just not a problem with nearly as many far-reaching effects as the racism of whites against blacks is.
And while these days there is certainly less racism towards non-whites than there ever has been before... trying to deny that there is a long and brutal history of it, and that some of it still exists today (against blacks, Native Americans, Hawaiians, etc...) is utter insanity. In Hawaii... we came in, took over, overthrew the government... and why? Because we wanted to exploit the islands for their strategic location and resources, of course! Business and coal-fueling stations... what better reasons are there to take over a country...
So yes they have something to complain about. Now is racism, today, acceptable? Of course not. Its not okay to transliterate old problems to today... that is, unless there is actually still someone accountable for it around... which now mostly isn't the case.
And as I said... whites have almost all the power so their racism has far greater impact on the other group than the minorities' does... that hardly makes it okay, but it does make it a bigger issue.
When we have true equality and the minorities don't have legitimate issues to complain about it'll be a bigger issue. But now? They most certainly do. Blacks definitely have all kinds of disadvantages when compared to whites... denying that is denying the facts...
As for compensation for slavery... I don't know. If there were people who had been slaves still alive, obviously yes. But now, so much later? I really don't know...
Though, of course, you can make a good arguement that until the 1950s there was something pretty close to slavery existing in the south.
Weltall... racism against anyone not Hawaiian in Hawaii? Yeah, I know about that and of course its bad... all racism is... and yes, black people too are often racist against whites. Of course that's also a problem... its just not a problem with nearly as many far-reaching effects as the racism of whites against blacks is.
And while these days there is certainly less racism towards non-whites than there ever has been before... trying to deny that there is a long and brutal history of it, and that some of it still exists today (against blacks, Native Americans, Hawaiians, etc...) is utter insanity. In Hawaii... we came in, took over, overthrew the government... and why? Because we wanted to exploit the islands for their strategic location and resources, of course! Business and coal-fueling stations... what better reasons are there to take over a country...
So yes they have something to complain about. Now is racism, today, acceptable? Of course not. Its not okay to transliterate old problems to today... that is, unless there is actually still someone accountable for it around... which now mostly isn't the case.
And as I said... whites have almost all the power so their racism has far greater impact on the other group than the minorities' does... that hardly makes it okay, but it does make it a bigger issue.
When we have true equality and the minorities don't have legitimate issues to complain about it'll be a bigger issue. But now? They most certainly do. Blacks definitely have all kinds of disadvantages when compared to whites... denying that is denying the facts...
As for compensation for slavery... I don't know. If there were people who had been slaves still alive, obviously yes. But now, so much later? I really don't know...
Though, of course, you can make a good arguement that until the 1950s there was something pretty close to slavery existing in the south.