Originally posted by Mataj
Are confederates considered to be rasists or sth? or not? (just curious)
Now that the Confederate Flag issue is straightened out, on to the bigger problem at hand. In order to properly understand the views that exist in the south today, you must travel back several hundred years and look at history. Start in Europe. You are familiar that blacks used to be called Moors. The warring tribes of Africa have always/ always did take slaves. They kept their own people as slaves. That is the first thing you must understand. That slavery started out as a trade by Africans OF Africans. NOT white Americans kidnapping Africans and selling them into slavery. This may have occured later, but it all began amongst the Africans. Slavery is nothing new. It has always existed and still does today. Existed among the Greeks some, Romans more. All ancient civilaziations kept slaves. Whether it be POWs or others, they had them. Africans were not alone in this practice. That being said, Moors have always been viewed as an exotic race. A strange people many feared, whether it be for their skin color or their fighting nature. Fear is the basis of hatred. Hatred breeds feelings of superiority and inferiority. You can see where I'm going, no? It was nothing new that whites thought themselves better than blacks. It was a predisposition that had existed for generations, taught carefully to each new child, or most for that matter. There are exceptions to every rule. So you come to the time where blacks are sold into captivity by other blacks, put on crowded, terrible, unsanitary slave ships for a voyage to the new world. When they got there, they were treated like cattle, which most people thought they were. This goes on for decades, the process only becoming more refined. The United States is formed, States are created, wars are fought. All with the help of slave labor. This goes on to the 1860's. Then the problems arise.