I'm going to take this one even though a few people have already commented on it; I'll try not to make my post too redundant.

No one is jumping on you because you like the south. You're proud of where you come from, there's nothing wrong with that. But what IS wrong is the way you refuse to acknowledge the horror that slavery was. Not being apolagetic for it is one thing, but refusing to even acknowledge it is entirely different. In my humble opinion, yes, you ARE ignorant and backwards in your views on this issue. Tough words, but so is saying that slavery was merely an economic neccesity or a social class system.

Yes the south gets a bad wrap for it, and I believe that the main reason for this is that racism is to this day a more prominent issue in the southern states than it is in other areas of the US. The reason that the south continually gets a "bad wrap" for slavery is that there are still people there, like you apparently, who don't seem to understand why a widespread subjugation and trafficking of a single race is such a black mark in history.

This is not to say that the US is alone in this issue. Obviously there are MANY other civilizations and nations that have had similar histories, but as the topic of conversation is pre-war south, and it was you who first initiated it, this is the one that's up for debate.

I can honestly say that it's just as bad where I live, in the middle of the Rust Belt. No, the racism isn't outspoken; there are rarely instances of derogatory epithets fired over racial borders. But in and around a fairly large metropolis, there is a phenomenal disparity in the demographic representation of whites and minorities. And no one seems to care.

look,...i conceded that its wrong,....and even that it was ahorrible period in our history,......but it happened,....i didnt do it,.....lets move on

This is the most trivial and absurd conversation I have ever seen on here. Does anyone really think Savannah does not think Slavery was a horrible thing?

How dare someone suggest it was money and not just skin color that motivated the slave owners in the American South and world wide.

Clearly the people of that time were evil and not just ignorant and obviously everyone was a racist, no one was opposed to slavery.

It's factual accurate to say that there were white slaves, native American Indian slaves, Mexican\Latin American slaves etc.

Of course the Black culture is the greatest victim of American slavery, no one denied that.

I love how people get on a moral pedestal and jump to accuse anyone who doesn't pity another culture as much as they do. Like anyone alive today has any concept of the potential horrors and atrocities of slavery. It's arrogant and pompous and those who do it know who they are.

Also enough with this America is a racist society BS. This (America) is by far the least racist country on earth. 90% of what we call racism in this country is BS, money is always the true motivator. Racial lines are drawn by individuals not collectives. If you think otherwise your far more bigoted and prejudice then you'd like to accuse others of being.

Also just out of curiosity why would anyone consistently post degrading statements about a person they never have and never will meet? What motivates that?

If this board had a rep system, I would give you all mine for a month for that.

What does that mean?

Really? Not fifty years ago was legislation enacted to prevent others from being denied the pursuit of happiness on account of race. True enough, as a whole, America is indeed a far less racist country than China, South Africa, or a derth of other backwards nations. But she is far from pure. What I call racism is the absence of equality, the dichotomous society in which we live. What I call racism is the fact that African-Americans account for less than 15% of the gross population but more than 50% of the prison population. What I call racism is the fact that crack cocaine and heroin possession charges are given more stringent sentences than those of cocaine (thus discriminating against the poorer addicts). And if you think that the huge economic disparity between white and nonwhite is BS, then perhaps you should question yourself where your own prejudices lie. As for me, I am sick of playing the devil's advocate, but I leave you this:

Racism is still a very real problem in America.

Some forums have a reputation system. The way most work is that when you read a post, you have the option of leaving feedback. You can either agree or not agree with what is said. Agreeing adds reputation, disagreeing takes away reputation. Most of the time, you are limited on the amount of rep you can give. I was saying that I would have given every reputation point I had to you for making a post that seemed to have some brains behind it.

I guess it would have been easier to just say;

^^I Agree^^

Assuming a distinction in prison population and\or financial inequality suggests racism is a huge leap. You'll find a much higher correlation in terms of the financial background of those incarcerated then you will in terms of race.

50 years is two generations, it's also the vast majority of my lifetime. When my family first started coming to America at the turn of the century they experienced intolerance for their Irish heritage, forced to live in squalor and work the same jobs for less wages. The world my parents and I grew up in 50-60 years later was very very different. African-Americans and other Black Americans still do deal with discrimination as do, all races on occasion when dealing with ignorant or bigoted people. There are more interracial married couples per capita in the US then any other nation. Almost all of the most diverse Cities and Universities of the World are in the United States.

White people make up the vast majority of the wealthiest and poorest segments of America.

People who are incarcerated or stuck in a low pay dead end job\unemployed are also extremely more likely to come from single parent homes or to have less then a high school education.

The drop out rate and the rate of children born out of wedlock in the African American and Latino communities is dramatically higher then in Asian-American or Anglo-American populations.

It's easy to assume we are a racist country because there is no shortage of people who want it to be a racist country. There are, as I previously conceded still issues of racial inequality and prejudice in the US and likely always will be. However it's indisputable that all the evidence suggests we're moving in the right direction and have been since the 1960's.

Above all else I use m own life experiences as an example. Growing up in Detroit, mostly post riots during white flight albeit, but even then at the most hateful and tense time between blacks\whites I've and anyone born after 1980 in the US has ever experienced the majority of both races were cordial to each other. It was a small percentage of both blacks and whites who insisted on being violent and divisive.

Still Detroit today is a perfect example of how a few divisive racist can destroy a community, it's not a cultural thing it's much more an independent prejudices thing. But because both communities (now city\suburbs) are made to believe the other dislikes them neither will do what's necessary to strengthen both. This is perhaps racism but even at it's worst it's passive and spiteful more then hateful. There are plenty of blacks in the suburbs (apx 22%) and there is no division at all.

I don't know one person who I believe is a racist and I taught in a mixed ethnicity community for several years meeting a lot of people young and old. I know a lot of harmless ignorant people, and a few stubborn a-holes for lack of better term but they don't differentiate in how poorly they treat based on skin color, they are insufferable human beings all the time.

All my blathering aside, the greater is point is that I believe a lot of the still present division that exists between races\cultures in the US stems from the constant accusations or racism in our media. How often do you experience racism in your life?, I guarantee not daily, yet there are multiple allegations of it in the newspaper and on TV everyday. Reminding us it exists.

People like Al Sharpton, Jesse Jackson etc. cry racism anytime an incident involving a black victim of injustice occurs. They draw a line in the sand and tell people if you don't agree with them you are racist. They exploit and undermine their victims for their own personal benefit. That's real racism and it never gets labeled as such.

The fact that she doesn’t believe it should be “demonized,” in her words, as well as her several attempts to defend it because it wasn’t “really racist” shows that she doesn’t understand the full extent of slavery or its after effects in the South.

Of course money was what motivated slave owners, but it was the belief that whites were somehow “superior” that kept black people oppressed for 100 years after. It’s easy to say that slaves were only used for plantation owners to make money (which is horrible enough, no matter what race), but it’s not easy to ignore what happened afterwards. Whether or not white Southerners were racist to begin with, you can’t deny that they certainly turned out that way.

So slavery and racism are ok, because Southerners didn’t really mean it, they were just ignorant? So of I murder someone because I didn’t know it was against the law, I suddenly don’t have to go to jail?

As for whether or not they were opposed to slavery, it certainly doesn’t seem that they were, given the amount of laws that were passed leading up to, during, and after the civil war. Or did you not notice when the states, and those with the highest amount of slaves did first, seceded from the Union?

That is factually accurate. However, it’s factually inaccurate to claim that somehow there were as many white, Native American, or Latino slaves. Or that the white servants used were on the same level as black ones.

God forbid people have morals!

Thanks, this was a really hilarious statement to wake up to this morning. Racism is very much alive in America, as it is all over the world. How on earth do you think that America is somehow the “least racist country on earth”? Nice turnaround with the claim that America isn’t racist, but if I think it is then I am!

America is very racist. Just look at immigration today, or at any other period in American history. Having lived in LA these past few years, I can assure you that the majority of the hostility towards Mexicans and other Hispanic immigrants is based solely on racism. They’re “different” from us and they’re coming here with their own cultures and customs to “steal” all of our jobs!

http://imgs.xkcd.com/comics/duty_calls.png

And you’ll also find a high correlation between financial background and race. Funny how that works.

When my family came here they found they weren’t allowed to go the same schools as white children or sit at the front of the bus, but I see how the two stories are similar.

Maybe that’s because white people make up the vast majority of America. The vast majority of minorities in America, however, are still stuck in the poorest segments, and are the ones stuck in lower class neighborhoods with a worse education, less of an opportunity to make something out of their lives, and more of an opportunity to turn to a life of crime.

You can read off statistics all day, but they aren’t going to make a difference if you fail to understand the climate that breeds such situations.

Moving in the right direction doesn’t mean we’re already at the right place. Racism is still very much alive in America. Just look at Obama. For every few hundred people who’ll say they’ll vote for him, you can still find a handful who say they won’t because he’s black.

So just because they’re “harmless” and “ignorant” they aren’t racist? Once again, I’m sure the majority of pre-war white Southerners were just ignorant, but that doesn’t make them any less racist.

All the time. Maybe you should come to LA, racism is still alive and kicking here.

Also, people blaming the media is probably just a minor pet peeve of mine, but did it ever occur to you that maybe the media writes about it because it’s still happening? Just because newspapers write about stories you don’t want to hear doesn’t mean there isn’t some truth behind them. Racism won’t just go away if you ignore it.

Al Sharpton and Jesse Jackson are annoying, sure, but just because a pair of nutjobs talk about racism all the time it’s suddenly safe to just ignore it? The Anti-Defamation League does the same thing all the time for the same reasons, does that mean that Anti-Semitism doesn’t still exist?