Why is ante bellum racist?
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Anonymous
Got it. Thanks for clarifying. Completely agree. |
Anonymous
+1 Blacks literally sued to live in the same places as white people. |
Anonymous
Well, racism is when you use race as an artificial means to systemically segregate and differentiate a group of people. So the only way white slavery would be racism would be if the majority in the society were non-white and the society, government of system was designed to favor the non-whites over the whites. If you are talking about white slaves in a white society, then no, that would only be slavery and would be horrific, immoral and ignorant but would not be racist. But the American society has a long racist past. Although the black slavery was the more horrific, the mistreatment of Asians through the late 20th century was also racist. Until the early-20th century, the majority of Asians were indentured servants brought over to work on the railway system. Until the mid-20th century Asians were not allowed to own real estate in many jurisdictions in the US. Asians were not allowed to marry non-Asians until Loving. In the 1930's and 1940's, the Chinese Exclusion Act barred Asians from legally emigrating to the US. And then there was the Internment Camp. As an American-born Chinese, I can say that despite law changes it the 1960's, it took a long time for the systemic issues in the government to truly get modified. It didn't matter that we were natural-born citizens as opposed to naturalized citizens, the racism inherent in the system still deprived us of many basic rights and services. White Americans have a history of building white privilege into the system and society and trying to glamorize any part of that is just offensive and disgusting. You can do what you want and fantasize about the plantations and the clothing and the privileged white society of the period, but don't complain when it is called racism. Because that is what it is. |
Anonymous
Ante means before, regardless. Like antecedent. I'm actually sort of curious about how, say "belle" and "bellum" could be connected, although belle comes from bella (beautiful) and Bellum is from the Greek God of war. Then there's bell as in what makes sound, which seems to have a connection with the roots for war (clamor, roar, etc) so indo-european root would be what? OP, you could always do Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette, but make sure you bring carts as well! And sure, a German party in the earlier days of the Third Reich, some Roman orgies as well. All kinds of pretty dresses! |
Anonymous
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Anonymous
It's interesting that Germany doesn't have any monuments honoring the Nazis or the Wehrmacht. None. Yet, in this country, we have a bunch of monuments to avowed traitors and many in places that had nothing to do with the Civil War (like Arizona). |
Anonymous
Yes and don't complain and cry a river of victim's tears when a picture of you in your pretty gown and your DH in his confederate cosplay circulates outside of your friend group and one or the both of you end of as at best a meme to be ridiculed or worse gets one or both of your cancelled. The internet lives forever and one day the things you do might come back to haunt you. Play stupid racist dress up games win stupid prizes. |
Anonymous
It's profound because of how its tentacles stayed alive even when the legal institution ended, and only in recent years have those tentacles grown smaller--but not dead yet. As Faulkner said, the past is not dead, it's not even past. |
Anonymous
As a previous poster explained, antebellum South was not the first point in history where there was slavery. Yet you do not seem to share the vitriol for those periods -- Greek and Roman coming to mind. And Egyptian - we all know slaves built the Sphyinx and pyramids, but I bet you'd love to go visit them. Those, arguably, shaped the entire course of history since, including wealth collection and the use of humans to do that. The remains of those societies are held preciously preserved in publicly funded museums. Why THIS period and THESE costumes? |
Anonymous
You're not a very good student of history. There is an entire holiday called Passover that commemorates the Jewish slaves fleeing from slavery in Egypt. There is an entire region of the world that is still fighting the battles when those slaves of Egypt fled to an area that was lost and reclaimed in the 1940's by the Jews. There is condemnation of the slavery in Egypt. You can acknowledge what was built during a period of slavery as long as you respect and acknowledge the travesties of slavery. It is fine to acknowledge the success of the plantations in the deep South as long as you acknowledge it was built on the backs and sweat of the slaves. It's lauding and glorifying the beauty and trappings of the antebellum South while ignoring the slavery that was a part of it that is racist. |
Anonymous
DP. There's plenty of reasons to differentiate ancient slavery with the slavery of the South. Ancient slavery has essentially no impact on modern American life, but the legacy of American slavery lasted at least through the Civil Rights movement which is well within the lifetime of people who are still alive. There's no vaguely influential contemporary movement to downplay the horrors of ancient slavery, like the Lost Cause era Southern historians did. Different things get treated different quelle surprise. I mostly want to ask why y'all always talk about the pyramids? They weren't built by slaves. We've excavated the places where the pyramids workers lived and were buried, we can tell what they ate, how they lived, etc. and they weren't slaves. Find another talking point which has a better historical basis than Cecil B. DeMille. |
Anonymous
This will be called trolling, but I'm trying to add to the conversation here. I grew up in CA and remember driving past the former internment camps in the 80s and wondering why they were ever "necessary" because I didn't see how the Asians around me could be harmful. They were (and continue to be) high achieving and hard working despite this history. What is it about Black culture still wears slavery as a mark of worthiness and value? That history only has relevance to an individual if they allow it to have relevance to who they are as a human today. It is a terrible period in history, but why does it continue to define individuals today in a way that Asians (or Irish, or Jewish or Egyptian or Greek...) don't? |
Anonymous
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Anonymous
Vast majority of Americans who identify as Asian-American today are not descended from those who were interned at the camps during WW2. Their ancestors came after the war. Also, the internment camps largely only affected those of Japanese descent. The large Chinese and Korean populations the West Coast did not end up in the camps. In contrast, the vast majority African-Americans today are descended from slaves. Asians were not redlined, excluded from the GI Bill, Social Security, home loans, business loans, overly policed and jailed. Jim Crow was not applied to Asians in the United States. It's just a way different experience for African-Americans. They did NOT have the "immigrant experience." |
Anonymous
+1 Here’s a NOVA episode about it: https://www.pbs.org/video/decoding-the-great-pyramid-4eeiz9/ |