Why is everyone obsessed with atlantic slave trade?

I mean, as if black people were the only ones enslaved in history? don't they know that slavery existed for thousands of years in different nations and different races/colours. Don't they know that at some time a lot of white people were enslaves too? I mean as a white myself, I feel bad for all the non black slaves in the history, because no one seem to care about what they went through.
Edit: I know Atlantic slave trade was based on racism and harsh but still, we should also not forget that a lot other races were enslaved through history too.

(edited 4 years ago)

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Reply 1

margiekins

I think maybe because its more recent and the affects of it are still present in modern America

Reply 2

username1799249

It's a good question. Why don't you speak to ethnic minorities in the West and you may then start to understand.

Reply 3

triton62674

The near extinction of the Native Americans was also a pretty great American atrocity

Reply 4

Lowa14

Original post by ByEeek

It's a good question. Why don't you speak to ethnic minorities in the West and you may then start to understand.

I don't think most of white people know that other races were enslaved too. A lot of people I know didn't know that. Some people literally believe only black people were enslaved.

Reply 5

epicnm

Let me tell you why:
The racism and mentality endured by black people during slavery is still very much present in modern day society, through police brutality,etc. British tax payers will still paying up until 2015 reparations that were given to slave owners to compensate after slavery for losing black slaves. The reason why the transatlantic slave movement is so crucial today is because the majority of black people will be unable to trace back their family history back so many generations because records got destroyed by Europeans invading African countries. So when a black person says they are from Kenya, for example, their family origins may originate somewhere else, but it is very close to impossible to identify where the slaves were prior to being transported to Kenya. In the current racism climate, it is remembered quite frequently as if it wasn’t, History would just repeat itself

Reply 6

epicnm

By no means do black people ‘not recognise’ that others were enslaved during history, but answer me this-Why are British people so obsessed with world war 1/2 when there were several other wars in the world?

Reply 7

username1799249

Original post by Lowa14

I don't think most of white people know that other races were enslaved too. A lot of people I know didn't know that. Some people literally believe only black people were enslaved.

I don't think the grievance is cause by the technicalities of what happened, more the fact that as a result of the slave trade, in society to this day ethnic minorities are still often treated as second class citizens.

I take it you are white. How many times have you been denied something or mistreated simply because of the colour of your skin?

Reply 8

Underscore__

Original post by epicnm

Do you have a source for the claim about paying former slave owners until 2015?

Reply 9

Lowa14

Original post by ByEeek

Never I think. I can't remember being mistreated because of my skin colour.

Reply 10

999tigger

Original post by Lowa14

You sound traumatised over your white slave past are you getting therpay? How do you know if you were slave or slaver?

Reply 11

Lowa14

Original post by 999tigger

You sound traumatised over your white slave past are you getting therpay? How do you know if you were slave or slaver?

What do you mean? :confused:

Reply 12

Lowa14

Original post by 999tigger

You sound traumatised over your white slave past are you getting therpay? How do you know if you were slave or slaver?

And no I am not traumatised

Reply 13

margiekins

Original post by Lowa14

What do you mean? :confused:

I think they mean how do you know your ancestors weren't part of the atlantic slave trade

Reply 14

Lowa14

Idk, I don't think that's important to know.

Original post by margiekins

I think they mean how do you know your ancestors weren't part of the atlantic slave trade

Original post by 999tigger

You sound traumatised over your white slave past are you getting therpay? How do you know if you were slave or slaver?

Reply 15

epicnm

Yes, I do have a source -
www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/taxpayers-still-paying-british-slave-12019829.amp
With a tweet from the British Treasury(now deleted) celebrating tax payers paying off this debt.

Original post by Underscore__

Do you have a source for the claim about paying former slave owners until 2015?

Reply 16

epicnm

Ethnic minorities face this daily, through too many things to count-whether walking into a mall being followed by a security guard, being stopped and searched by police who can give no reason for doing so, whether being denied a job because your not, a ‘cultural fit’, and so many more examples.

Original post by Lowa14

Never I think. I can't remember being mistreated because of my skin colour.

Reply 17

BlueIndigoViolet

Here we go again :rolleyes:

Reply 18

Underscore__

Original post by epicnm

That is pretty surprising, I didn’t know about that.

Reply 19

fallen_acorns

Other posters have pretty much summed it up. Recency.

in the western world, the atlantic slave trade was the last major time of slavery. Post slavery you are always going to remember the last one most of all, for 4 obvious reasons:

1, scale - given technology advances, the last one is always going to be the biggest and most technologically capable. So in terms of pure scale, the most recent slave trade is likely to be the biggest and the worst, and remembered as more because of it
2, being the last - The first world war was described as the 'great' war, until the second happened, when it was demoted to just 'the first world war' by most. Do you think we would remember the first world war more if the second had never happened? Or if there was a third nucelar war, would we still talk so much about the second? etc. The last thing something always sticks in the cultural mind far stronger because nothing comes after it that erases or gets in the way of its memory
3, Those who were freed can tell the story/remember it.
4, technology and recordings, obviously the more recent and technological, the more evidence we have. It makes it all seem far more real then ancient slave trades that we know little about.

3, is a really important one. Imagine hundreds and hundreds of years of slavery, no one talks about it as if its anything but the norm, because its the norm everywhere.. most slaves die, most children born into slavery die in slavery etc.. there is no one to fight for slaves or tell the story of slaves, bar a few religious examples. There is no break in the chain, where slaves can rise to the level of their owners, and then make their case and tell their side of the story.. its just a trap, a repeating cycle. Its only when the cycle is broken that the generations after can actually tell theirs story and reflect on what happened and have the freedom to take action on it.

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My thoughts on slavery are that its perfectly normal to focus more on the atlantic slave trade then all the ones before..

we should also remember though, that the western world, notably british empire, were amoung the first major civilizations to outlaw slavery. In terms of history that is a massive huge step in the right dirrection for the world, that shouldn't be understated. The fact is that slavery was the norm across the world, across amost all civilizations prior to it being ended by western nations. It still exists as a problem today in parts of the world, but in western nations its remained pretty much eradicated. Its a huge leap forward, that is not discredited by the existance of slavery in western nations before it.

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What we do now is harder... I am in favour of the general principle of reperations, that there is an inequality that can still be felt today. I do think there is truth in that. But specific white to black reperations are a practical impossibility and make no sense at all. To start with, what the hell happens to mixed race people(which is most black people in the USA)? A huge number of black people have some white European ancestors, what point is the cut off? How black do you have to be to get repreations? A person who is 1/8th black looks bassically white and would be treated as such.. do they get anything? what about 1/4 black? or 1/2 black.. does your family have to go back to slavery in america, what about the black people who have come since? what about the white families who never owned slaves, or who came since from countries that weren't involved etc.

I would support a general goverment fund to try and help black communities.. fund black-focused charities, and try and fix some of the structural problems inside the communities (schools, lack of fathers, drugs/guns etc), and you could do that in the name of reperations and that would be fine.. but to specifically find some way of taxing white people and giving it to black people? Its absolutly nonsensical.