Thoughts on the Underclass

The race or ethnically-based underclass is probably one of the most intractable of social evils.

Category:

People & Blogs

Tags:

• black
• crime
• african
• american
• underclass
• race
• slavery
• addiction
• self-esteem

[aednil]

when the europeans arrived in africa, a society and structures for enslaving people had long been established; without the cooperation of other africans and arabs, the enslvement of blacks in particular would have been much harder if not impossible. i think the reason why black people became the slaves of the europeans, is the fact that they were the "easiest availible" people rather than that they would be on average as tall as europeans.

[Anekantavad]

@aednil In North and South America, there were plenty of natives that could have been enslaved. They couldn't handle plantation life and had an annoying habit of dying.

[dewinthemorning]

I agree, the slaves were probably treated like you say. But after so many generations you don't have the same people, who were 'broken', or destroyed...

The present situation is due to still existing racist attitudes, so the African Americans develop the 'minority complex', loathing for themselves, considering themselves inferior.

[Anekantavad]

@dewinthemorning I agree, and I meant that today's problems are a combination of both. A close study of slavery (modern & ancient) reveals it to have been far worse (and far more 'scientific' in a Nazi-like way) than our most horrifying portrayals of it. In some ways, it was worse than the worst excesses of the 20thC, in that the deliberate aim was to destroy the 'soul' while leaving the body as strong and healthy as possible.

[tattooskin72]

Actually that's exactly what happened with "native" Taino when the Spaniards arrived... more than anything it was a complete culture shock. I have read that the Taino men would allow Spanish men to have sex with the Taino women. I hate using the word "allow". They practiced polygamy, even women were able to marry multiple men and the society was matrilineal. cont

[Anekantavad]

@tattooskin72 It's rather unfortunate that some cultures end up damaging or destroying others by their mere proximity.

[aednil]

@Anekantavad i didn´t know that.

well, the reason why the african slaves didn´t die that much on the plantations, could also be that 90% of the slaves that were put on the ships in africa, didn´t survive the trip to amerika.

[CousinoMacul]

The Europeans were the aliens in the Americas. Their early attempts to enslave the native peoples failed miserably because they were either met with resistance from the locals, or more often, their "slaves" just walked away and joined their bretheren. This was why the Europeans had to import another alien population as a slave force. That's also why the racism towards Native Americans is so different than that towards African Americans.