Senate "Race" Relations (was "U.S. Society and Black Men")

One of my mentors was born and raised in Richmond. He told me more than once that some southerners will lie right to your face, but do it in the nicest sounding way possible.

 

True that. Everyone's actions back then were reprehensible from the slave traders to the native Africans that sold their own people into slavery, but that's not the point. Their bad actions don't make ours less bad or somehow good. I feel I have to keep bringing that up to my white brethren that are too stupid to get that.

I wouldn't be too hard on tour guides that get antsy from bringing up slavery or racism or how people lived on plantations, mostly because I doubt it's their fault. You have white people saying, "Guh! Slavery again?! Would you get over that? Let's talk about the plantation owners as it was their property." Then you have black people that while maaaybe not hostile might start objecting if they feel you're being too easy on the plantation owners and such. I'm not saying it happens, but it's likely a fear. So in the interest of offending no one they offend everyone. That's why you do plantation tours with signs that you can push that'd tell you the real history without any white person speaking authentic frontier gibberish.

 

ShaneP, It's called 'Twilight at Monticello' and it's all about his retirement from public life following the presidency. They go a lot into his dealing with his slaves. There's a letter written in response to a group that wanted him to take up the abolitionist cause that is very interesting.

So the Klan is holding a pro-Confederate flag rally at the South Carolina statehouse grounds

You know what I'm glad about that they are. It'll be the perfect point in arguing that the flag is racist.

 

African history student here, just want to say that the Africans who sold slaves to the Europeans did not sell their own people they sold people from other kingdoms, regions and tribes.

It is similar to how the Vikings sold Slavs as slaves, both were white but that did not make them of the same people.

 

Yeah, they were usually from rival tribes. It wasn't like a bunch of svagaes just individually running around and every person for themselves. They had tribes, villages, customs and societies. They also had rivals and enemies too. They took advantage of the trash-Atlantic slave trade.

 

Thank you for the clarification.

 

I'm curious. What's the Westborough Baptist Church doing about all this?

 

Are they even really relavant anymore after Fred Phelps' death?

 

The daughter is just as nuts. They excommunicated Fred right before he died for being soft in his old age

 

Rumor is they excommunicated her as well.

 

They do know gay marriage is legal there right?

 

Were they ever huge racists in particular though? Probably but I never saw that in particular...

Canada ha! The bastion of hope for conservatives despite the fact that they have had same sex marriage nationwide since 2005...

They'd probably be a lot happier in Iran...

 

Maybe fading into obscurity? One can dream.

 

They were mostly protesting because of gays,(and Fred Phelps was a Civil Rights attorney way back when) but IIRC, Shirely allegedly spouted some racist stuff a time or two.

 

Let's hope so. I read that Fred Phelps originally was an attorney who defended African Americans. His son, Nathan Phelps, interpreted his father's radicalization and protests to have originated not only due to his beliefs but due to his exclusion from the legal profession. Of course, any guy who admires Jonathan Edwards and wants to be the modern equivalent of such a man will be a problem. Anyhow, there were some racist things said by his daughter and others in the cult. I mean, even the KKK thought Westboro was too extreme for them. Lol.

The Westboro Baptist Church not only offended gay people but lots of other people. I've never seen any folks more proud of their hatred than them. Disturbing, indeed.

 

Well ignoring them in the hopes that they go away has clearly not done anything. They're still a prominent threat.

 

Fred Phelps was pretty liberal in his day as a lawyer, he would take black clients and defend them despite the animosity it caused. Soo...not really racist, or at least he wasn't. Just very, very anti-gay.

To quote the wiki page on him:

 

Exactly. Just goes to show that a person lacking in one prejudice can be addicted to another prejudice. Fire_Ice_Death? Damn. What a name!

"Live in such a way that Westboro Baptist Church wants to protest at your funeral." Yes, Anakinfan. Good times!

 

It was made to symbolize the cycle of life back in err...1999? Damn.

 

I was thinking Fire_Ice_Death was connected to a Game of Thrones.

 

You would think that, but no. I learned about A Song of Ice And Fire way after I made my name. Anywhoo...back on topic.

I'm more concerned about the KKK now. Not so much that they have the power to hold huge rallies or influence politics, but they just strike me as a cornered animal these days. Or as the brochure that attempted to recruit me called them: an invisible empire. But as Al-Qaeda and the nutters that shoot up places have shown: a highly motivated minority in this country can cause a whole lot of damage on their way out.

 

Not a chance. They know how to get a reaction. The problem is that if they hadn't done the troop funerals you'd have been seeing Fred as a regular contributor on Fox News...

 

Maybe if we make a movie about how bad they are?