Why are black people racist towards other black people?

While I was participating in the thread about white and black gun crime statistics (http://www.thestudentroom.co.uk/showthread.php?t=3494213), another member posted a video in response a conversation we were having:

[video="youtube;h_hx30zOi9I"]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h_hx30zOi9I[/video]

I watched the video and what really piqued my interest were some of the comments:

You're right! Blacks plight in America is absolutely caused by systemic racism! If only they had been allowed to exist in a society without white oppression! Oh wait, they were! In their own country, created by freed slaves. Liberia was a colony established by freed slaves sent back to Africa. Upon arriving there, the first thing they did was enslave the local populace, and create slave based plantations. The American blacks declared themselves as superior to the African blacks.

Today, Liberia is most well known for it's violent civil wars, and rampant cannibalism.

Now tell me, how was that white people's fault?

Quite interestingly it's also followed up by this:

Not to mention the fact that whites rarely/never enslaved blacks. They bought black slaves that other blacks were selling.

An unfortunate truth. Mostly, warring tribes would sell each other into slavery. There are more black slaves today in Africa than there ever were in America.

I've verified most of what has been stated in these comments, but is the latter point really true?

This also led me to question why there are so many pejoratives flung by black people towards other black people in popular culture, in particular reference to the utilisation of the word n****r.

Is this what feminists would refer to as 'internalised racism'? Is this perceived of as the responsibility of white people, is it perceived that white people have manufactured this internalised racism? Is it perceived it's white people's fault that black people enslaved other black people and then sold them to European colonisers?

I'm genuinely interested as it's incredibly surprising to me considering what is often taught on the subject of slavery and 'systemic racism' that black people are overwhelmingly responsible for enslaving other black people, and then selling them.

(edited 8 years ago)

Reply 1

niceguy95

14

You're too obsessed with black people, its 12:47, go and sleep bro

Reply 2

TheCitizenAct

OP

2

Original post by niceguy95

You're too obsessed with black people, its 12:47, go and sleep bro

Pot kettle on that point. But I'm genuinely just curious, the history of Liberia isn't something I've ever looked into (nor do I imagine most people have), nor have I looked a great deal at the history of the African continent.

So you can perhaps imagine why such a statement, black people systemically enslaving other black people (and long before European colonisers), came so out of left field, particularly in consideration of what I've been taught about the slave trade (during all that time, its never been mentioned).

It seems like quite a large omission.

(edited 8 years ago)

Reply 3

cost

5

Original post by TheCitizenAct

Pot kettle on that point. But I'm genuinely just curious, the history of Liberia isn't something I've ever looked into (nor do I imagine most people have), nor have I looked a great deal at the history of the African continent.

So you can perhaps imagine why such a statement, black people systemically enslaving other black people (and long before European colonisers), came so out of left field, particularly in consideration of what I've been taught about the slave trade (during all that time, its never been mentioned).

It seems like quite a large omission.

I can tell you're not a student of history(not an insult btw)

Slavery between Africans was DID exist, but not on the industrial scale used by white nations for trade and economic growth. When an African was a slave to another African, they were treated as an extension of the family and was treated very well also they were allowed to keep their cultural identity (religion, language and traditions)

The black people who colonized Liberia were not African, they were African-Americans. A people who have had their African identity systematically destroyed through the slavery, to expect them to integrate with a foreign land was highly impractical.

You seem to me someone who feels defensively guilty(for whatever reason) and is attacking black people as a defensive mechanism. Any other questions feel free to ask

Reply 4

flamboy

3

look who I drew on MSpaint guys

you guessed it

Reply 5

TheCitizenAct

OP

2

Original post by cost

I can tell you're not a student of history(not an insult btw)

Slavery between Africans was DID exist, but not on the industrial scale used by white nations for trade and economic growth. When an African was a slave to another African, they were treated as an extension of the family and was treated very well also they were allowed to keep their cultural identity (religion, language and traditions)

The black people who colonized Liberia were not African, they were African-Americans. A people who have had their African identity systematically destroyed through the slavery, to expect them to integrate with a foreign land was highly impractical.

You seem to me someone who feels defensively guilty(for whatever reason) and is attacking black people as a defensive mechanism. Any other questions feel free to ask

In gist then what you've stated is that everything I've stated is true, you've just added your own interpretation on top of it.

Well, not after you've accused me of feeling 'defensively guilty' (what am I supposed to feel guilty about? I haven't enslaved anyone) for merely asking questions. I find it hard to trust people's accounts when they feel the need to make accusations, which to me implies a degree of bias.

Every single thing I've stated are implications or statements made in the other thread. All I've done is reiterated them.

No, I'm not a student of history, hence why I posted the comments and the questions. However, I imagine there are also many 'students of history' who will know next to nothing about this particular facet of history, largely because it doesn't seem to be widely spoken of - 'history' is obviously a rather broad topic.

(edited 8 years ago)

Reply 6

Moonstruck16

5

What is it with all thread titles being sweeping generalisations? Why can't people include words like some/most etc.
Titles like these are just pait for the 14 year old keyboard warriors that prowl this forum.

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