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A son of a slave reflects on his American story

6 Comments
By Issam AHMED

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I bet Dan Smith is really happy the Republicans freed the slaves.

-6 ( +2 / -8 )

I bet Dan Smith is really happy the Republicans freed the slaves.

Your constant partisanship and sowing of division is a disease. Freeing the slaves was a mass Union effort mostly on the part of individual soldiers who signed up for the purpose. Political leaders of the Union such as Lincoln did not care about the slaves so much. Lincoln himself wrote he would free no slave if that would preserve the Union.

the first black president, Barack Obama.

False. And this same lie is being pedaled with Kamala Harris. Both are only half black. In fact, it is their mixed race status that should be touted, in the interest of a color blind society.

5 ( +7 / -2 )

The stories of Slavery and other injustices should always be brought to light, and made well known to the world public.

0 ( +0 / -0 )

I bet Dan Smith is really happy the Republicans freed the slaves.

I agree.

Lincoln himself wrote he would free no slave if that would preserve the Union

Wrong again, in the beginning that was to an extent true, but later in the war and after he completely changed and felt it was the absolute right thing to do. People can change.

Interestingly, I read that more Africans were taken as slaves to the Caribbean and South America, such as Brazil. However, in my entire life I never recall reading any analysis of how they are faring. It is kind of nearsighted to focus entirely on the history of slavery in the US. I mean how can anyone say that freed slaves fared badly in the US when there is no comparison as to how they fared in Brazil for example. Anyways, it would be interesting to have some context.

To answer your questions most Africans or rather their descendants are doing well, but as within most countries Latin America is rife with racism, Brazil is an extremely racist country if you go to Rio, that’s where all the poor and usually the African looking or mixed race people as well as extremely poor live, if you go to São Paulo you will see mostly white people and people of European stock French, Spanish, German, Portuguese, richer and well industrialized and more prosperous, the entire power structure of the people in Brazil are white.

Another example is that in Haiti and in the Dominican Republic , the Haitians speak French and the country is the poorest in the western hemisphere and they embrace wholeheartedly their African ancestry, now go across the border to the Dominican Republic who speak Spanish and it’s very different the people there especially of African extraction do not want to be considered black, it’s almost an insult referring to them as black. They have been indoctrinated by society and by the former masters that the only culture that matters is the Latin roots and they have been teaching the people for a very long time that they are of European extraction regardless of what color they are and that puts them at arts cross the border with their Haitian neighbors. So this fairytale notion that Latin America everyone at all stripes and colors of the long is a complete ruse.

-3 ( +0 / -3 )

False. And this same lie is being pedaled with Kamala Harris. Both are only half black. In fact, it is their mixed race status that should be touted, in the interest of a color blind society.

But sadly we are not a color blind society, the world will not see both of these people as biracial, they will see them both as black.

-3 ( +1 / -4 )

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