Topic: Solomon Northup's harrowing tale

[whimsicalmamapig]

A new film depicting the contents of Solomon northrups 12 years a slave, is going to re-ignite racial tension in this country like never before. You will have al Sharpton and morgan freeman elaborating on the awful treatment of their black ancestors etc etc etc.

as a student of history some 45 years I cannot deny the horrors of American slavery as documented but....

if you know history, you understand that almost all of mankind has been held in violent slavery by most every culture and racial group since the beginning of time. even blacks in Africa held black slaves from other tribes.

it is time for the American black community to get off the grievance train and get in line with the Irish, the French, the euasian, the Indonesians etc who have all had slavery in their past and are not constantly asking for special dispensations because of it.

the black community is making itself look less than capable when contrasted with other cultures who have endured slavery in their past.
As a person with Irish ancestry should I petition Italy for reparations because my Irish ancestors were sold into slavery by romans occupying Britain?

when someone would complain that they were owed money from congress because they were black I would mention that my heritage also involved being held slaves but I don't need special assistance to get on with my life. Does anyone remember the "Irish need not apply" signs all over America at one time, yet the irish picked themselves up and became prosperous members of the American culture by not asking for help but helping themselves

[Pandora]

As an aside:

Irish Catholics in America have a vibrant memory of humiliating job discrimination, which featured omnipresent signs proclaiming "Help Wanted--No Irish Need Apply!" No one has ever seen one of these NINA signs because they were extremely rare or nonexistent. The market for female household workers occasionally specified religion or nationality. Newspaper ads for women sometimes did include NINA, but Irish women nevertheless dominated the market for domestics because they provided a reliable supply of an essential service. Newspaper ads for men with NINA were exceedingly rare. The slogan was commonplace in upper class London by 1820; in 1862 in London there was a song, "No Irish Need Apply," purportedly by a maid looking for work. The song reached America and was modified to depict a man recently arrived in America who sees a NINA ad and confronts and beats up the culprit. The song was an immediate hit, and is the source of the myth. Evidence from the job market shows no significant discrimination against the Irish--on the contrary, employers eagerly sought them out. Some Americans feared the Irish because of their religion, their use of violence, and their threat to democratic elections. By the Civil War these fears had subsided and there were no efforts to exclude Irish immigrants. The Irish worked in gangs in job sites they could control by force. The NINA slogan told them they had to stick together against the Protestant Enemy, in terms of jobs and politics. The NINA myth justified physical assaults, and persisted because it aided ethnic solidarity. After 1940 the solidarity faded away, yet NINA remained as a powerful memory.

As for "A new film depicting the contents of Solomon northrups 12 years a slave, is going to re-ignite racial tension in this country like never before. You will have al Sharpton and morgan freeman elaborating on the awful treatment of their black ancestors etc etc etc." ....

http://solomonnorthup.com/ .....

... SNAFUBAR.

[whimsicalmamapig]

while I appreciate your interpretation of the NINA, the point was that whatever discrimination any group, Italian, Jew, Polish etc did encounter, they worked to successfully overcome it and enter into the society and make their own way.

granted skin color cannot be changed as easily as a last name and there assimilation was easier for white European immigrants, the fact that many black have become successful and profitable in America demonstrates the same, if you strive to lift yourself up, it is possible in this environment. I believe that the hatred that black leftists feel towards the likes of congressman west or herman cain is that they are living illustrations of the farce of their own reparation quest; some one, by their success, could possibly put their quest for more largesse from big government in jeopardy