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Originally Posted by Russ
This could be down to my own perception, I accept that's a possibility but recently it has felt as if I (and other whites) ought to feel some sort of shame or embarrassment etc due to the racist attitudes and actions of some of my forefathers who may (or may not, I don't know much about them) have been racist, kept slaves etc. All of which would be abhorrent behaviour but is not something I feel I ought to apologise for, or display shame etc.
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It isn't about feeling personal shame but rather a recognition it happened. The main argument activists have isn't that white people should feel guilty but to have a greater understanding that it happened, that is was really bad and that consequences of racism linger.
Even over this statue debate there is a lot of 'he did some good things, he did some bad things' but that seems to underplay just how bad those things where. It does still seem like we're resistant to properly confront that part of British history, handwaving it away.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Russ
It wasn't me, and had I been around in those days I cannot imagine myself treating another human so disgustingly purely based on their race.
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You probably would. As I probably would. As most people would have and did. You are conditioned by the society that you grew up in. Few people are ever actively railing against what is considered normal at any one time in history. Even in the last 100-150 years there was a time when it was only a small minority who argued women should have the vote, or that homosexuality should be legal and within our lifetime it was a majority opinion that gay marriage should be illegal.
The interesting thing with that thought is what do we consider acceptable now that we won't in 50, 100, 200 years?