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Originally Posted by Mach  Be fair, most nations do not historically exhibit this either, including the U.S, and that's because we're talking about the same animals, humans. |
I was. In time of trouble, America usually responds favorably. Instead of evicting former slaves, they were left to society's prescriptions. During great civil disruption, civil rights were championed. America always eventually addresses trouble with wisdom and to the benefit of the society. This is not the case for Europe. While critics love that early Americans killed native Americans in their quest to pioneer west, Europe is the continent that perfected genocide and ethnic cleansing. And I am not talking about anchient history. The twentieth century was a saga of ethnic relocation even without the issue of the holocaust. As late as the 1990s we saw America troops cross the ocean to deal with yet another bout of genocide and ethnic cleansing on the continent that fancies themselves our superior. And we have no reason to think it's over.
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Originally Posted by Mach We had the same issues in the U.S. We ethnically cleansed the dirty natives from our god given land so we could spread freedom. We then kept Africans as slaves and segregated them, then fought a war against ourslelves to integrate them. We left the natives segregated and they didn't fare so well did they. Jews we left segregated and they remain the most powerful minority, probably ever. Segreation, integration, ethnic cleansing, all just tools, everyone uses them or has historically. |
The difference is that we deal with those issues "correctly." There are countless laws that provide the native American benefits the average American does not get even now. Former slaves, are Presidential hopefuls and military generals and have been the subject of laws that would hand them jobs no matter the qualification just to even the playing field. There was no genocide and ethnic unrest in America in the twentieth century other than the civil rights marches. And once again...America dealt with the issue favorably.
The quest here is not to exonerate or pretend issues didn't exist. The quest should be to define how we have dealt with those issues. You will find that we sit aside from Europe in this regard.
I believe that it
may be largely too late for Europe to impliment the mass immigration programs that will deal with the current and exponentially growing problems. We work not only because of our never ending immigrant programs, but because we are immigrants taking care of immigrants. In other words, we aren't trying to cling to a culture that is a thousand years old and getting by with the bare minimum for any outsider that thinks he can ruin it. Our American culture is such that it absorbs the new comer. But given their track record in times of trouble, Europe has not behaved in accordance to its current pacifist themes. I might add that every time Europe fancied themselves to be above such behavior, the world has witnessed exactly what history has displayed.