McCain's Last Ditch Effort

[DanaC]

Over a hundred years ago, Merc? When do you think the last racially motivated lynching was? It isn't even a century since blacks were not considerd full citizens.


[eta] I am not suggesting btw that you are racist. I think your desire for a wiping clean of the account (generationally speaking) and a shared abhorrence of all discrimination in this regard, is laudable; however, you cannot just snap your fingers and say the past holds no currency in our cultural understanding of the world. The oppression of non-whites in America is not ancient history. It is far too recent to expect it not to still hold resonance for people.

[TheMercenary]

Originally Posted by DanaC

Over a hundred years ago, Merc? When do you think the last racially motivated lynching was? It isn't even a century since blacks were not considerd full citizens.


[eta] I am not suggesting btw that you are racist. I think your desire for a wiping clean of the account (generationally speaking) and a shared abhorrence of all discrimination in this regard, is laudable; however, you cannot just snap your fingers and say the past holds no currency in our cultural understanding of the world. The oppression of non-whites in America is not ancient history. It is far too recent to expect it not to still hold resonance for people.

I understand your point. The hundred year comment was about slavery in the US as santioned. I am old enough to remember the race riots of the 60's. I understand the historical significance of it all. I do not, however, believe that I or my family should somehow carry around some bag of guilt for past deeds done by others. We also have a movement to revise history, not the history that has not been told, i.e. history books that omitted bad deeds, those should be revised and the record should be set straigt. But the removal of large conferate statues and memorials to the dead. Now I am not a Southerner by upbringing, but it still bothers me that somehow it is ok to erase evidence of Southern History. I am not talking about the Confederate flag as a component of Southern states flags, because many of those changes ocurred during the 50's at a time of segregation. But to revise history to remove factual historical elements that you disapprove of only to replace them with elements intended to invoke guilt is just wrong. Let us add those elements to balance the picture, not remove one to eliminate the other.