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Originally Posted by Thales  The reverberations of the past generations are clearly still felt today. The story of Eli is, I'm sure, one of millions of slaves and their descendants.
But it was not you who owned Eli; what he did benefited you and your family, but you didn't buy him or sell him. He didn't work for you for nothing - he worked for your great-great grandfather.
I reject the idea of generational guilt - I believe that we did not commit the crimes of the past, and I don't believe we should feel personally guilty for them either. Yes, there were wrongs. Slavery and discrimination are a part of our country's history and for many, family history. But I don't feel shame for what happened before my birth any more than a German should avert his eyes from the face of a passing Jew.
We are where we are - here and now. This generation. Our history is our history and we can't deny that it happened. But it we didn't own slaves; we didn't lynch black men for looking at white women.
We don't need to give people an unfair advantage or handicap others for things beyond their control. The wrongs we seek to correct should be todays wrongs; poverty, crime, education. These are the reverberations of the past we should fight, not helping the right percentage of races get into college. And in doing so, we can seek to heal the wounds of history. Not feel guilt for them. |
Interesting post, and I agree with alot of it. I am not going to be ashamed or embarrassed by things I had no hand in, that happened before I was born. I don't believe Affirmative Action is done out of those motives though.
I believe the reason we have to help black people attain equity is because people should have an equal chance at success in life. Right now, this is not the case, the urban poor, who are far and away mostly black, simply do not have the opportunities that white people have. That is what AA attempts to rectify, not the problems of the past, but the problems in the now, that result from the past. Whether AA is the best solution or not, I do not know(I suspect not), but it is an attempt to ensure that black people have some of the same opportunity that white people have.