Just now on CNN: Conversations with Black America, an point was made

[berni_mccoy]

A caller made a point (paraphrasing): If Jews should not be asked to forget about the Holocaust, why should Black Americans be asked to forget about Slavery in America?

This was in context of African Americans being told by white Americans to move on, forget this issue, slavery was in the past and shouldn't concern them.

I'm interested to hear what my fellow DUers think about this.

[annabanana]

1. a fair point, IMHO. . . . . . . . . . . . . . n/t

[LisaM]

2. Many cultures have endured atrocities, and I think we should remember them

Armenians, the Irish, Native Americans........the question is, how can we remember and learn from these atrocities in a way that allows us to proceed constructively? For that matter, we have just witnessed 500 girls and women held in virtual slavery in Texas (and there are other communities like this in the country).

America is not the only country that has held legalized slavery. Unfortunately and to our shame, we were one of the last. Do these questions persist in other cultures, too?

I don't know the answer to the question, but it's such a complex issue.

[40ozDonkey]

3. Fine, but the idiots who think "why won't they move on" probably...

...wouldn't give a shit about why the Jews still haven't forgotten the Holocaust. They'd probably ask Jews the same thing.

[LisaM]

4. Actually, who specifically said that they should "move on"?

I've never said or thought this. Who had been asking them to do this?

[BunkerHill24]

5. Good question, indeed

I have asked the same question to some of my friends before but never gotten satisfactory answer.

[coriolis]

6. Who has requested that either of them should be forgotten?

I haven't heard that. I have some German ancestors who probably had a hand in abetting the Nazis and possibly the holocaust but I wasn't there, I certainly don't approve...but other than expressing sincere regret, what else am I expected to do about it? I guess the other extreme from the "get over it" position is "let's keep it on the front burner forever." Even if that were possible, it would be idiotic.

[MuseRider]

7. Moving on implies

forgetting about it. We are soooo good at that, at least when it comes to repeating our atrocities over and over. Nobody should ever be told to move on when they or their people have been treated like that. We will never learn, even those who remember still seem to forget when it would benefit them to replay it all over again.

[Karenina]

8. When do we STOP apologizing for slavery?

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x3136579

To "apologize" first one has to ADMIT to the harm done to another.
America has yet to do so. White supremacists still reign.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=102x3263790

[coriolis]

11. Hey karenina, how do we do it? I mean, what would constitute a proper

admission of that harm? I think most white people are willing to make whatever amends are actually feasible (unless you get into that bag of worms - reparations - which is completely impossible) but there has to be -some- end point to it. Somebody has to figure out how to accomplish it once and for all...don't you think so?

[Karenina]

12. It's a process, coriolis.

It's enlightening to research how the German's have dealt with (and contuinue to deal with) the atrocities committed during the Third Reich. Education is KEY. South Africa's "Truth and Reconciliation Commission" is also worth study.

America remains in denial about so many of her transgressions, while trumpeting her "superiority." The DENIAL is the first link that needs to be broken.

[baldguy]

9. Indigenous Americans suffered a genocide too.

Who remembers that?

[nadinbrzezinski]

10. As a daughter of the holocaust I have been told POINT BLANK to get over it

so this is one of those places were two MINORITIES have far more in common than both think any longer

[KharmaTrain]

13. So The Corporate Media Wants Us To Forget About Slavery?

I'm Jewish and while I see discrimination as a problem blacks and Jews have long shared in this country, you can't equate one evil with another one. Both were very wrong and the experience was very different.

Fortunately, it wasn't the US that participated in the Holocoust, but this country sure did when it came to slavery. Slavery was a part of the holocoust while inhuman as it was, slavery was not used as a means to systemtically eliminate people...only to exploit them. Again, neither was right and neither can or should be forgotten.

I get tired of the "lilly white" corporate media attempting to play "honest broker" about issues of race or religion and then are the first to use one or both as a wedge to polarize this country.

[malaise]

15. I rarely disagree with you

but millions of Africans were eliminated in the slavery business.

[KharmaTrain]

16. Both Were Wrong...

Maybe my point got lost...but I don't see how you can equate one evil with another. Or how you can dismiss one as being worse than another. That was what I was trying to get at.

Yes, millions did die from both atrocities and I saw this line of questioning to try to wedge one side against the other...as to whose holocoust was worse. It was so cavaliere in how it was tossed around...a pet peeve of the corporate media.

Hope that's a little clearer...not that my head is today.

:hi:

[malaise]

17. Much clearer

Good morning :hi:

[B Calm]

18. Good point

[malaise]

14. It's a valid point

I use it all the time.

[flashl]

19. K&R