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<blockquote data-quote="refineryworker05" data-source="post: 3014653" data-attributes="member: 66082">This is fairly silly.&nbsp; Human slavery is a reality.&nbsp; It happened everywhere.What is different about the transatlantic slave trade, is that it lead to the creation of racial identity.A belief that skin color and race is determinative of a person&#039;s intellect, honesty, character, etc and that Africans were genetically inferior and barely human and thus born to be slaves.Before the transatlantic slave trade this idea of a shared identity based on skin color or race and racial inferiority and superiority didn&#039;t exist in the world.Identity was based on language, customs, religious beliefs, the place you were born, not on skin color or race.This belief in racial identity that was created by European racists to justify slavery is a distortion that has been forced upon everyone and we don&#039;t know how to get rid of it.So this idea that Africans sold &quot;their&quot; people into slavery only makes sense by ignoring that those Africans had no concept of &quot;race&quot; and didn&#039;t see those they sold into to slavery as &quot;their&quot; people.&nbsp; The same as Europeans who had &quot; European slaves&quot; didn&#039;t see those slaves as &quot;their&quot; people.But the reason for the critic of American slavery, is that there is no America without the American slave trade.&nbsp; Who is doing the work. The Enslaved population at the time of the civil War were the largest asset in America by far.&nbsp; In fact, take every other asset in America beside land... combined and the Enslaved were worth more.&nbsp; The south was the richest part of the nation, the banks in the north and businesses in the north made huge money from the enslaved.&nbsp; American universities made money from slaves.American capitalism thrived on having an uncompensated workforce and then once slavery ended, America had a workforce that America relegated to second class citizens that was exploited further to make this nation rich.This is why many black Americans are critical of American slavery and not critical of Africans who sold their ancestors into slavery because this nation doesn&#039;t exist, isn&#039;t as wealthy without slavery.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="refineryworker05, post: 3014653, member: 66082"] This is fairly silly. Human slavery is a reality. It happened everywhere. What is different about the transatlantic slave trade, is that it lead to the creation of racial identity. A belief that skin color and race is determinative of a person's intellect, honesty, character, etc and that Africans were genetically inferior and barely human and thus born to be slaves. Before the transatlantic slave trade this idea of a shared identity based on skin color or race and racial inferiority and superiority didn't exist in the world. Identity was based on language, customs, religious beliefs, the place you were born, not on skin color or race. This belief in racial identity that was created by European racists to justify slavery is a distortion that has been forced upon everyone and we don't know how to get rid of it. So this idea that Africans sold "their" people into slavery only makes sense by ignoring that those Africans had no concept of "race" and didn't see those they sold into to slavery as "their" people. The same as Europeans who had " European slaves" didn't see those slaves as "their" people. But the reason for the critic of American slavery, is that there is no America without the American slave trade. Who is doing the work. The Enslaved population at the time of the civil War were the largest asset in America by far. In fact, take every other asset in America beside land... combined and the Enslaved were worth more. The south was the richest part of the nation, the banks in the north and businesses in the north made huge money from the enslaved. American universities made money from slaves. American capitalism thrived on having an uncompensated workforce and then once slavery ended, America had a workforce that America relegated to second class citizens that was exploited further to make this nation rich. This is why many black Americans are critical of American slavery and not critical of Africans who sold their ancestors into slavery because this nation doesn't exist, isn't as wealthy without slavery. [/QUOTE]

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