Who ever said white people invented slavery? And I’m pretty sure that the millions of Jews and Christians around the world never forgot bondage in Egypt, let alone a little something called: “Exodus”?
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· 6 years ago
But there's no actual proof that the Hebrews were ever enslaved, let alone the Exodus. You ask any Egyptologist and they'll tell you that although they did indeed have slaves they were usually from places they'd conquered or below lower Egypt into the rest Africa.
Upvote for a valid statement, however I must say that it is irrelevant to the point. The question wasn’t about who owned or invented slavery- but about the proposition of a person or group saying another did. So whether Exodus is a myth or not, those groups certainly wouldn’t claim that “white people” invented slavery, and wether Hebrews were kept as slaves or not, it’s a fact of record that there was slavery in ancient Egypt. I can also say that in my view there isn’t enough evidence to declare the events in exodus as true, false, or partially both historically. There are reasonable arguments to either, but neither has much proof, only speculation and insubstantial evidence. There are also “middle ground” theories which support some but not all claims, or that the tale of exodus is multiple tales rolled into a single narrative, with some events time shifted as fits. But regardless, fact or myth, Egyptian slave trade is a romanticized and well known fact predating “white” slavery.
The only thing that white people ever did with slavery was admit that it was wrong on an institutional level and apologize for it. All other cultures who practice slavery still do to this day.
1. Sorry. The first historical mention of institutionalized slavery on record is in the code of Hammurabi
2. The “only thing white propel ever did” was not to admit slavery was wrong. That is called revisionist history. The parts before that were the ones where there was slavery. The parts after are a system of institutionalized racism and a world shaped by what may be the farthest spanning mass slave trade in human times. It’s also important to realize that “slavery” has many forms, and many factors about the white slave trade were relatively novel and pervasive compared to other types of slavery.
Perhaps that is what guest is trying to say, but sadly, that is not what guest said. Moreover, white people were not the first by far to say institutional slavery was wrong. In fact many practices and cultural ideas of the Atlantic Slave Trade would have been illegal or abhorrent to earlier societies holding institutional slaves- and who left institutional slavery behind ages ago (Greece, Rome, China...) In the modern world slavery is in essence dujour illegal. Slavery does exist in the modern world. The extent to which it is enabled or confined by various cultures can be argued, but so can the definition of “modern slavery” and by a broad definition even America and many majority “white” countries still have slavery as well in many forms, and enable or condone it to varying degrees. So it’s still an invalid point. But it offends many people who don’t like the idea of admitting that everyone’s shit stinks.
Well, I'm sick of people only telling me how stinky my shit is without considering how stinky their shit is, and I think this entire sentiment is just a push back against the idea that white people are the only ones whose shit stinks, instead of just being an apologist or something.
While I underatand where you’re coming from in that it’s geberally annoying when people look down on others, especially when people don’t have their own house in order- apologies have already been made. We live in a wold, and America is a country, specifically shaped by the Atlantic slave trade. It’s ripples through segregation and racism, and those effects have shaped the lives and circumstances of us all. We all benefit or suffer based on those things. It can’t be undone, and no living person did anything wrong back then. Most people don’t want apologies, they want acknowledgment and change. They want to point out that we don’t all just get to call the whole thing done because someone said “sorry.” It will probably be at least another 100 years of struggle to get to a point where the after effects of the events are anywhere near erased from the daily lives of most people. Those who benefit from past wrongs can’t also ignore past wrongs even if it makes people feel bad.
2. The “only thing white propel ever did” was not to admit slavery was wrong. That is called revisionist history. The parts before that were the ones where there was slavery. The parts after are a system of institutionalized racism and a world shaped by what may be the farthest spanning mass slave trade in human times. It’s also important to realize that “slavery” has many forms, and many factors about the white slave trade were relatively novel and pervasive compared to other types of slavery.