General Discussion
In reply to the discussion: Scary comments from Rep. Clyburn to WaPo [View all]Lonestarblue
(9,981 posts)We Americans have never reckoned with two major stains on our history: the genocide of Native Americans and slavery. And given where are are as a country filled with hate, perhaps we never willto the detriment of future generations. White supremacy started long before the US was settled, but it has always been an enormous part of our white culture. If one understands the history of the creation of the British Empire, one understands part of the origin of white supremacy. That said, it has been perpetuated by right-wing Christians, by our government, and by the notion that white people had the right to take native lands and to enslave dark-skinned people for their own wealth.
After WWII when the extent of Hitlers extermination of the Jews, the Romany, and others who were not perfect white specimens became known, the German people declared Never again and proceeded to teach their true history as a means of reckoning with the horrors of Hitlers reign and their complicity in those horrors. After the Civil War, rather than acknowledge the horrors of slavery, white people in the South glorified the war and made heroes of the enslavers by building monuments and teaching that slavery was good for black people and that they were fortunate because they were fed and clothed.
That glorification of the Confederacy continues today, and it is why we have never reckoned with white supremacybecause the white supremacists refuse to admit any wrongdoing and now they are fighting to teach their warped version of historyperhaps a losing battle, but one creating enormous harm and dishonesty in the US. Its long past time for us to acknowledge that systemic racism does exist here and to accept that we have always been a multi-ethnic, multi-racial country and we have become a world leader through the efforts of all our people. The hatred and racism will not end because Fox and the Republican Party will keep it alive through their lies.