The Student Room Group

Why do people think they share the pain of their ancestors

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(edited 5 years ago)

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Reply 1
I believe it's more like they are upset that it happened to their ancestors.
If something bad happened to your parents, you would probably feel upset, right?
Original post by Rbaby
Iā€™m a black person but I donā€™t feel any way about slavery. It sucks, my ancestors were enslaved but I wasnā€™t a slave so I donā€™t feel their pain. However, a lot of minorities whose ancestors were once prosecuted act as if they themselves were prosecuted. I donā€™t get it lol? You werenā€™t there, how can you possibly fathom what they went through?

For example, in America, native Americans claim the land is their because they were their first and blah blah blah blah and Iā€™ve even seen some of them cry because of what Christopher Columbus did when he reached America. I mean yeah itā€™s sad but why are you crying? You werenā€™t there. Everyone who was there is now dead. Youā€™re not one of them?

I donā€™t think they should get over what happened because history canā€™t be undone but Iā€™ve actually met black people who act like they themselves are slaves??? Youā€™re not a slave lol what are you doing


People just want any reason to complain and when they don't have any, they try to search and BS for one so they end up pretending they felt the pain and suffering their ancestors did in the past.
+1

Some people find any excuse to feel oppressed, instead of appreciating how much society has advanced in just 50 or so years.
I think it's just Black Americans and some 'American influenced' black people here.

I've been brought up in an area with mostly minorities. I've not heard single black friend say anything about them feeling someway about slavery.

Also I don't know any other group of people other than Black Americans, who feel anything about what their ancestors went through.
Reply 5
Original post by Rbaby
I understand that but thereā€˜s a big difference between your parents and ancestors that died centuries ago.


I think it was much less than a century ago
Original post by I'm God
I believe it's more like they are upset that it happened to their ancestors.
If something bad happened to your parents, you would probably feel upset, right?


Well obviously cos you knew them personally and most likely loved them
Original post by Rbaby
I donā€™t want to come across as heartless but I find it weird that people are crying because of people that have been dead for hundreds of years.


If people want to mourn/remember by themselves then that's their business and it's fine if they keep to themselves about it. But when they start acting all butthurt about it, acting like they're suffering too, and spreading hate because of it (e.g if black groups started hate towards white people because of slavery) then it's just stupid.
Reply 8
Original post by CoolCavy
Well obviously cos you knew them personally and most likely loved them


Not necessarily. Some people feel that when your relatives die, since you will die in a few decades anyway, what's the point of being upset?
Also, this happened quite recently...roughly 60 years, so they may have known the people it happened to
Original post by Rbaby
Lol what?? Slaveryā€™s been abolished for hundreds of years now


People arenā€™t necessarily protesting slavery, itā€™s race inequality which is barely 50 years in many places in the US and other places in the world.

Even worse is when the law says thereā€™s law inequality but systematic discrimination is still widespread.
Original post by Rbaby
Lol what?? Slaveryā€™s been abolished for hundreds of years now


Definitely not hundreds of years.
Besides, there are still cases of slavery
Youā€™re not black allow it and if you are then im seriously seeing a pattern with stupid black boys on this site. Insecure black boysšŸ¤®
Original post by Rbaby
Slavery was abolished in 1865. I know that wasnā€™t 60 years ago.

The cases of slavery today are irrelevant to my point, though.


Yes, my apologies for that. I read it as 1965.
Reply 13
Itā€™s being empathetic toward their ancestors. Knowing what they went through, and suffered, will obviously cause pain and make them angry. You give the example of black slavery, the idea of being enslaved and literally being killed and discriminated because of your skin colour, because they werenā€™t ā€œprecious whiteā€ it is disgusting. They talk about it, they fight about it, they raise issues about it, because even though itā€™s not as extreme as it was then, itā€™s still happening now. The repurcussions of those times are still having an effect now. People just turn a blind eye to it, because itā€™s the 2018, it canā€™t happen in this day and age.
Partly because it DOES still hurt them. While White Americans for instance owner land, slaves, and investments, many Black Americans were enslaved and had no right to own property. The descendants of said White Americans are, as a direct result, often wealthier and more powerful in the present day due to that historical injustice.
Original post by Rbaby
Iā€™m not stupid nor am I insecure. So Iā€™m stupid because I donā€™t want to play victim and act like Iā€™m a slave? Good to know.


SO youā€™re really simply basically saying ā€œget over slaveryā€
same goes for jews then I guess when they say they were displaced all throughout history
Original post by Rbaby


lot of minorities whose ancestors were once prosecuted act as if they themselves were prosecuted. I donā€™t get it lol?


I'm not aware of anybody in my family tree who was convicted of a criminal offence.

I believe you are looking for a different word.
Reply 18
Original post by _gcx
+1

Some people find any excuse to feel oppressed, instead of appreciating how much society has advanced in just 50 or so years.


Advanced in what way? Slavery is now illegal, yes, but discrimination is still happening as we speak and black people are still being oppressed, but you know what, it doesnā€™t matter because itā€™s not as bad as it was 50 years ago, right, we should be grateful we didnā€™t live in those times where it was much worse... :/
(edited 5 years ago)
Original post by Saoirse:3
Partly because it DOES still hurt them. While White Americans for instance owner land, slaves, and investments, many Black Americans were enslaved and had no right to own property. The descendants of said White Americans are, as a direct result, often wealthier and more powerful in the present day due to that historical injustice.


Jews in Europe seem to have recovered pretty quickly from having our homes and possessions stolen, I sometimes feel as if some members of the black community in the UK and the USA use this as a convenient excuse for personal failure.

Indians were brought here in the 50's to work the textile mills on poverty wages and have become hugely successful as a community, creating many many millionaires and even billionaires and a multi-billion pound per annum curry industry.

Did you know that the China towns in the UK and US were founded by stranded dock workers, who had no money to get home to China? Again, they seem to have done well for themselves!

I mean, does their great great great grandfather being a slave mean that they need to drop out of their free education at 13 and join a gang instead of staying in school and becoming employable?

Would they have that free high quality education available to them if their ancestors hadn't been transported across the world? Would they be better off in Ghana or Nigeria?

I'm talking about some individuals here, of course, there are many bright and successful black British people... but I think people get the jist.
(edited 5 years ago)

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