Why is ante bellum racist?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:
But the fallout is so profound because the slaves were of different color. If they came from a different continent, we wouldn’t have all the racial tensions that exist today, right? So maybe you are ascribing slavery a much bigger impact and the reality is that people of different ethnicities don’t really want to live next to each other and would much rather live in homogeneous communities?

They did come from a different continent, or are you forgetting the whole kidnapped/sold thing

[Anonymous]

I mean, what could posssssiiiibbbbllly be racist about this?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I understand that asking this question invites all kinds of criticism. I am asking sincerely. Help me understand why wearing pretty dresses to a party is racist?

Thank you.

Because we (Americans) are still living with the fallout from that era. Your neighbors, your kids friends’ parents, your coworker you have coffee with - all these people’s lives (and yours) have been shaped by the “ideals” of that time. You cannot separate the pretty dresses and the parties from what the plantation was all about. It is not just a historical artifact. It affects the wounds in our country today.

If you wanted to romanticize medieval Europe or the Japanese empire or the Scottish-English wars, have at. Those periods shaped history (like all periods do) but not as viscerally for your fellow countrymen and women as the antebellum south does. To fetishize that period is to say that you ignore or don’t care about it’s effects on people around you today. Which makes you seem clueless and racist.

But the fallout is so profound because the slaves were of different color. If they came from a different continent, we wouldn’t have all the racial tensions that exist today, right? So maybe you are ascribing slavery a much bigger impact and the reality is that people of different ethnicities don’t really want to live next to each other and would much rather live in homogeneous communities?

You sound like a true 1950s segregationist, insisting that the Negroes of Mississippi were happy with the way things are. They were most definitely not happy!!

White people spent an awful lot of time creating laws to keep black people out of white neighborhoods. That means that white people didn't want to live among black people, but black people wanted to live among whites.

[Anonymous]

It isn't.

[Anonymous]

Kappa Alpha banned Antebellum balls in 2016. This is the fraternity founded by Robert E. Lee. If frat boys know it's wrong, then it's wrong.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:It sounds like the people on here that are offended by the word antebellum only refer to it in the context of parties and plantations. Fine. These are “bad”.

But I’m still going to refer to my parents house as antebellum because it predates the civil war, and refer to certain pieces of art and literature as antebellum. Sorry the word itself is NOT offensive. It simply means pre-war. If you see that word to mean 1860s crinoline dresses and plantation culture you are either woefully uneducated or willfully ignorant. Or both.

You’re having an argument that no one else is.

You like the antebellum parties and you don’t understand why it’s offensive.

Also “antebellum” one of the dumbest ever ways to refer to a house. That’s not an architectural style or otherwise indicative of anything. You just really, really love the Old South.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:People who romanticize that time period (myself included) do it because we enjoy the ambiance and aesthetics of it. The fate of slaves is usually the last thing on my mind. Actually, it’s not on my mind at all.
I just wish i was born back then into a wealthy family.

And this is what makes this attitude racist, ignorant and callous.

You are glamorizing the ambiance and aesthetics of a period of time that included great cruelty and horrific abuse. You are appreciating the style and culture of those who inflicted great injustice and abuses on a large population and you callously ignore the effect that your reverence has on those around you. You realize that dressing up in antebellum clothes makes those who are descended from slaves feel horrible and yet you don't even care. When pointed out, you are not apologetic, you just keep reiterating how indifferent you are to how your actions and romanticizing the period incense and aggravate others.

That's racist. The fact that you don't care about the effect on others and how you don't think at all about the slaves and how wearing those clothes affects those around you, is racist. And you perfectly echo the people you are dressing up as. They also didn't care about the slaves. In fact, they didn't even consider them people, they considered them property, and were as indifferent to their feelings as they were to the feelings of cows or sheep.

If the slaves were white, would it still be racist or just ignorant?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:People who romanticize that time period (myself included) do it because we enjoy the ambiance and aesthetics of it. The fate of slaves is usually the last thing on my mind. Actually, it’s not on my mind at all.
I just wish i was born back then into a wealthy family.

And this is what makes this attitude racist, ignorant and callous.

You are glamorizing the ambiance and aesthetics of a period of time that included great cruelty and horrific abuse. You are appreciating the style and culture of those who inflicted great injustice and abuses on a large population and you callously ignore the effect that your reverence has on those around you. You realize that dressing up in antebellum clothes makes those who are descended from slaves feel horrible and yet you don't even care. When pointed out, you are not apologetic, you just keep reiterating how indifferent you are to how your actions and romanticizing the period incense and aggravate others.

That's racist. The fact that you don't care about the effect on others and how you don't think at all about the slaves and how wearing those clothes affects those around you, is racist. And you perfectly echo the people you are dressing up as. They also didn't care about the slaves. In fact, they didn't even consider them people, they considered them property, and were as indifferent to their feelings as they were to the feelings of cows or sheep.

If the slaves were white, would it still be racist or just ignorant?

Deplorable. But at least the descendants of former slaves can't be visually identified in order to humiliate.

[Anonymous]

I don’t know what the big deal is. Maybe people should stop complaining and make great prosperity in this country.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:People who romanticize that time period (myself included) do it because we enjoy the ambiance and aesthetics of it. The fate of slaves is usually the last thing on my mind. Actually, it’s not on my mind at all.
I just wish i was born back then into a wealthy family.

And this is what makes this attitude racist, ignorant and callous.

You are glamorizing the ambiance and aesthetics of a period of time that included great cruelty and horrific abuse. You are appreciating the style and culture of those who inflicted great injustice and abuses on a large population and you callously ignore the effect that your reverence has on those around you. You realize that dressing up in antebellum clothes makes those who are descended from slaves feel horrible and yet you don't even care. When pointed out, you are not apologetic, you just keep reiterating how indifferent you are to how your actions and romanticizing the period incense and aggravate others.

That's racist. The fact that you don't care about the effect on others and how you don't think at all about the slaves and how wearing those clothes affects those around you, is racist. And you perfectly echo the people you are dressing up as. They also didn't care about the slaves. In fact, they didn't even consider them people, they considered them property, and were as indifferent to their feelings as they were to the feelings of cows or sheep.

If the slaves were white, would it still be racist or just ignorant?

Deplorable. But at least the descendants of former slaves can't be visually identified in order to humiliate.

More like the descendants would know or care that their predecessors were slaves.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:People who romanticize that time period (myself included) do it because we enjoy the ambiance and aesthetics of it. The fate of slaves is usually the last thing on my mind. Actually, it’s not on my mind at all.
I just wish i was born back then into a wealthy family.

And this is what makes this attitude racist, ignorant and callous.

You are glamorizing the ambiance and aesthetics of a period of time that included great cruelty and horrific abuse. You are appreciating the style and culture of those who inflicted great injustice and abuses on a large population and you callously ignore the effect that your reverence has on those around you. You realize that dressing up in antebellum clothes makes those who are descended from slaves feel horrible and yet you don't even care. When pointed out, you are not apologetic, you just keep reiterating how indifferent you are to how your actions and romanticizing the period incense and aggravate others.

That's racist. The fact that you don't care about the effect on others and how you don't think at all about the slaves and how wearing those clothes affects those around you, is racist. And you perfectly echo the people you are dressing up as. They also didn't care about the slaves. In fact, they didn't even consider them people, they considered them property, and were as indifferent to their feelings as they were to the feelings of cows or sheep.

If the slaves were white, would it still be racist or just ignorant?

If white people had been the slaves of people of color in this country, you might feel very differently about people celebrating an era of enslavement for your family.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:People who romanticize that time period (myself included) do it because we enjoy the ambiance and aesthetics of it. The fate of slaves is usually the last thing on my mind. Actually, it’s not on my mind at all.
I just wish i was born back then into a wealthy family.

And this is what makes this attitude racist, ignorant and callous.

You are glamorizing the ambiance and aesthetics of a period of time that included great cruelty and horrific abuse. You are appreciating the style and culture of those who inflicted great injustice and abuses on a large population and you callously ignore the effect that your reverence has on those around you. You realize that dressing up in antebellum clothes makes those who are descended from slaves feel horrible and yet you don't even care. When pointed out, you are not apologetic, you just keep reiterating how indifferent you are to how your actions and romanticizing the period incense and aggravate others.

That's racist. The fact that you don't care about the effect on others and how you don't think at all about the slaves and how wearing those clothes affects those around you, is racist. And you perfectly echo the people you are dressing up as. They also didn't care about the slaves. In fact, they didn't even consider them people, they considered them property, and were as indifferent to their feelings as they were to the feelings of cows or sheep.

If the slaves were white, would it still be racist or just ignorant?

If white people had been the slaves of people of color in this country, you might feel very differently about people celebrating an era of enslavement for your family.

In the countries where the slaves and the slave owners were of the same ethnicity, nobody looks down on costumes and celebrations because there is no visual marker; and at this point nobody remembers or really cares.

[Anonymous]

It’s simply a period of American history, nothing more and nothing less. Unless people want to rewrite history books there is nothing inherently wrong with it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:It’s simply a period of American history, nothing more and nothing less. Unless people want to rewrite history books there is nothing inherently wrong with it.

Sure, and as someone else wrote, you could make the same argument for the Nazis being a "period of German history, nothing more and nothing less." Do you see any problem throwing "Hitler Youth Rally" parties or the like? This is a silly and stupid line of reasoning. Yes, it's history, but it's not something that we should be celebrating.

[Anonymous]

People are free to throw antebellum parties if they want. Other people are also free to think that they are in bad taste. Nobody is proposing a ban on it.