Today is the 150th anniversary of the end of slavery. How much of an impact does slavery still have on African Americans today?

2015-12-09T13:05:36-05:00

Today marks the 150 Anniversary of the ending of Slavery. Earlier today the President gave a Speech to address it. Many People are still looking for Slave Reparations. It is still painful in a lot of ways and stands a Dark Place in our History. Slavery ended. But how much of a setback did it have on African-Americans?

Response by LTC Stephen F. made Dec 9 at 2015 1:06 PM

2015-12-09T13:06:41-05:00

In this nation it is the 150th anniversary SPC Andrew Griffin to the official end of slavery.
The practise pf shipping slaves from Africa ended in Britain decades earlier.
American indigenous people were treated horribly in many cases into the early 20th century.
Black slaves are still traded in Muslim dominated countries of north Africa notably Sudan.
The sexual slave trade thrives and includes women, girls and boys of all colors unfortunately.
The country has come a long way in terms of how individuals are treated. From a legal perspective the law is generally colorblind in intent although practical application varies from area to area.
Our hope is in Christ alone. Martin Luther King recognized this as do all Christians. I hope that one day all people will be treated with respect and dignity since we are each created in the image of God.

Response by TSgt Kenneth Ellis made Dec 9 at 2015 1:18 PM

2015-12-09T13:18:05-05:00

When will it end. Affirmative action and if you are a contractor you get preferable I've non minority buisnesses. And you will be given a loan to buy a house even if you cannot afford it. And should these people have to show that there desendant was a slave. The Democratic Party has h
Done s good job of keeping blacks down. Woodrow Wilson thought that they were not smart enough. I've know Vietnamese boat people that had nothing and worked, sent there kids to school and started buisnesses.

Response by Capt Seid Waddell made Dec 9 at 2015 1:27 PM

2015-12-09T13:27:24-05:00

African American culture in the U.S. has had more of a setback over the past four or five decades than it had in the previous century. The family structure has been destroyed by the culture of government dependency.

Response by PO3 Private RallyPoint Member made Dec 9 at 2015 1:30 PM

2015-12-09T13:30:16-05:00

Slavery is still around nice and healthy ... the war is still not won yet. ...sigh ...

Black slaves are still traded in many parts of Africa, not to mention the sex slaves network that ISIS/ISIL got there. ... sigh

Response by TSgt Kenneth Ellis made Dec 9 at 2015 1:56 PM

2015-12-09T13:56:49-05:00

I was trying to read the it here comments. It never ended Obama party has done more to keep black people down. Forcing them into failing schools. To making banks loan them money for a house they cannot afford. And screwing up there credit. And with affirmative action we have let them attend schools that they are not academically prepared for. And this happens to white people too. When I hear his spokes people calling for the killing of White people I'm scared for my family safety.

Response by SSG Warren Swan made Dec 9 at 2015 2:21 PM

2015-12-09T14:21:52-05:00

I'm going to be told again to "get over it". "it happened, and blacks were complicit in it". "Move on". "What would you do with 40 acres and a mule". "Other races were slaves too". "Indians fought the government to keep their slaves after the emancipation". What's changed....a lot has changed, and while a lot of it has been good, a lot of it has been bad. When your skin color has laws made that directly affect it, when your skin color justifies profiling, when your skin color can land you a more severe prison sentence, when your skin color can get every ill known to man, yet you cannot get a home loan, when your skin color is used as a recruiting tool or is used for promotion, when your skin color finds itself able to call another a derogatory name, and get upset when someone else uses it, when your skin color glorifies the ghetto and ignorance in it, and considers those that make it out and become successful sellouts, when your skin color uses a great form of music that was intended to inform and tell stories as a means to call women bitches and Hoes, celebrate drug use, killing of our own, and demean and hurt it's own, when your skin color looks at another of the same and can call them jigabo's and wanna be's, I could go on and on, but slavery is still in FULL EFFECT to this day. To this time...to this moment. It's not so much the "white man" holding me back vs. the simple fact that many of my black peers are holding themselves back. Slavery of the mind is one of the last barriers left from actual slavery from the 1800's. It's what the struggle really is. There's nothing no one who wants something cannot get with hard work, but when you use fall back stereotypes as a means for success, we're failing and we're still slaves. This does not say there isn't discrimination still. Three strikes was intended for people of color or the poorer class, and those that were affected by it were those of color and the poorer class. If it was applied fairly, a LOT of celebrities would be looking at LONG time in prison. The crack vs. cocaine laws were made to affect to hit those of color and the poorer class of Americans. Had cocaine/heroin been on equal terms as crack a lot more celebs would be doing LONG time. The struggle is REAL. It's NEVER going anywhere, but what folks need to know is that the struggle that the black people have cried over, isn't a black problem. It hits everyone regardless of skin color. Having money helps, but doesn't solve everything. Being middle class is one paycheck away from being in the projects or a trailer park. Upper middle class is only two away. Slavery is still here. And the master is the dollar.

Response by LTC Private RallyPoint Member made Dec 9 at 2015 4:09 PM

2015-12-09T16:09:22-05:00

It has as much impact as you allow it to.... What many people fail to remember is that not everyone in the south was a wealthy slave owner. There were plenty of poor white "share-croppers" and tenant farmers who had just as little access to education and opportunity as did the slaves. IMHO, the creation of the welfare state had a much bigger impact and was a bigger setback for African americans than slavery.

Response by Capt Mark Strobl made Dec 9 at 2015 6:22 PM

2015-12-09T18:22:41-05:00

SPC Andrew Griffin - Great question. I'd guess there are many doctoral thesis on this issue. There is no reasonable way to valuate the impact of slavery --and the ensuing political, social, and economic impact is has upon our American fabric.

As I read SSG Warren Swan's commentary, I realize that racism is still foreign to me. I don't say this to be arrogant. Rather, I mention this because I am ignorant: My skin color has shielded me. To belabor this point would only be patronizing to those who have endured this life experience... and resulting perspective.

Response by CPT Pedro Meza made Dec 9 at 2015 8:39 PM

2015-12-09T20:39:06-05:00

The set back that slavery continuous to have on African-Americans can be seen from a Tribal perspective which is demonstrated by Black on Black violence; it follows tribal/gang boundaries. Think of the potential if there was cooperation.

Response by SSgt Terry P. made Dec 9 at 2015 8:48 PM

2015-12-09T20:48:18-05:00

SPC Andrew Griffin I am a little late here,but looks as though SSG Warren Swan says it all.

Response by MAJ Jim Steven made Dec 9 at 2015 9:40 PM

2015-12-09T21:40:45-05:00

interesting question,...what if slavery had never happened? What would have brought blacks here? When? Where would the American economy be with out slave labor on farms?
I wont comment on the race issue as I probably don't have anything significant to contribute, but will share this...I was in a bookstore and came across a book, "Please stop helping us" or something similar...and it had a picture of a young, black man on the front. Didn't buy it, but was curious.
I wonder if our efforts at elevating the black community through economic incentives such as United Negro College Fund, NAACP, Affirmative Action need to be re-looked - is that type of help still needed, or...do they send a message that a black man cant make it in America unless given a whole lot of help???

Response by SGT Jose Perdelia-Torres made Dec 9 at 2015 10:01 PM

2015-12-09T22:01:46-05:00

Having been discriminated and literally beat up for my skin pigmentation, namesake, and looks; i feel that I can connect with African Americans. I also feel that while we can't forget the past, we must work to move past the issues from way back when.
African American's need to stop with the nigga word, it's obvious it is the same as nigger. Just quit using it, period. You touched on that a bit in your opening post. We need to come together as a Nation and publicly condemn the music of today that uses perverse language and calls all women out of their names. We need to quit with the sexing up of everything. We need to come together as all people, since we are in fact one species. race is all b.s., we just have varying pigmentation.

We need to be careful when we are trying to bring light to issues. Black lives matter is completely wrong, should be all lives matter. I could write volumes...

Back to the original question: It has a huge impact. African Americans can't forget, and they shouldn't be expected to. But African American's need to realize that a few bad apples are getting you stirred up. We love you, and we got to live in harmony as Mankind. We can't let ourselves be caught up in the propaganda. Denounce these charlatans such as Reverend Al Sharpton- he is a hate monger.

Response by CPO Andy Carrillo, MS made Dec 10 at 2015 1:36 AM

2015-12-10T01:36:26-05:00

Add to SSG Warren Swan excellent commentary the issue of genetics and how ancestral genetic markers predisposing us to certain attitudes can be passed down through generations (not knowing what you don't know and don't even know that you don't know it) further complicates the process of transcending one's history to create your own.
"Geneticists who study behavior and personality have known for 30 years that genes play a large role in people's instinctive emotional responses to certain issues, their social temperament. It is not that opinions on specific issues are written into a person's DNA. Rather, genes prime people to respond cautiously or openly to the mores of a social group. Only recently have researchers begun to examine how these predispositions, in combination with childhood and later life experiences, shape political behavior. Dr. Lindon J. Eaves, a professor of human genetics and psychiatry at Virginia Commonwealth University, said the new research did not add much to this. Dr. Eaves was not involved in the study but allowed the researchers to analyze data from a study of twins that he is leading.

Still, he said the findings were plausible, "and the real significance here is that this paper brings genetics to the attention to a whole new field and gives it a new way of thinking about social, cultural and political questions."
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/06/21/science/some-politics-may-be-etched-in-the-genes.html

Some Politics May Be Etched in the Genes

Response by Cpl Benjamin Long made Dec 10 at 2015 6:42 AM

2015-12-10T06:42:35-05:00

It has no impact... The issue died 150 years ago and special interest groups keep its ghost alive by haunting the present with its memories....

Response by SPC Nathan Freeman made Dec 10 at 2015 6:53 AM

2015-12-10T06:53:36-05:00

Slavery is not dead. Most Muslim nations still practice slavery and most of them are black. They also make eunuchs of them and have been far more brutal than the western world ever was and enslaved millions more. This fact seems to be lost on our current POTUS. ISIS is a big fan of slavery and have made slaves of everyone they didn't kill. Sexual slaves are made of women and children.

Response by SFC Private RallyPoint Member made Dec 10 at 2015 3:57 PM

2015-12-10T15:57:12-05:00

none

Response by 1SG Private RallyPoint Member made Dec 11 at 2015 9:45 AM

2015-12-11T09:45:52-05:00

How come nobody marks when the Hebrews were set free from Egypt? Or when the Irish quit being slaves? Every race and creed has been slaves to somebody at sometime. You know what's keeping the discussion going? People keep talking about it. Stop talking about it. If you are going to talk about slavery let's talk about how to end the slavery still going on around the world and how we are going to end that.

Response by MSgt Darren VanDerwilt made Dec 11 at 2015 5:18 PM

2015-12-11T17:18:01-05:00

Ill post an article from Walter Williams that I feel puts this discussion in perspective.

The True Black Tragedy
Walter E. Williams | May 20, 2015
Hustlers and people with little understanding want us to believe that today's black problems are the continuing result of a legacy of slavery, poverty and racial discrimination. The fact is that most of the social pathology seen in poor black neighborhoods is entirely new in black history. Let's look at some of it.
Today the overwhelming majority of black children are raised in single female-headed families. As early as the 1880s, three-quarters of black families were two-parent. In 1925 New York City, 85 percent of black families were two-parent. One study of 19th-century slave families found that in up to three-fourths of the families, all the children had the same mother and father.
Today's black illegitimacy rate of nearly 75 percent is also entirely new. In 1940, black illegitimacy stood at 14 percent. It had risen to 25 percent by 1965, when Daniel Patrick Moynihan wrote "The Negro Family: The Case for National Action" and was widely condemned as a racist. By 1980, the black illegitimacy rate had more than doubled, to 56 percent, and it has been growing since. Both during slavery and as late as 1920, a teenage girl raising a child without a man present was rare among blacks.
Much of today's pathology seen among many blacks is an outgrowth of the welfare state that has made self-destructive behavior less costly for the individual. Having children without the benefit of marriage is less burdensome if the mother receives housing subsidies, welfare payments and food stamps. Plus, the social stigma associated with unwed motherhood has vanished. Female-headed households, whether black or white, are a ticket for dependency and all of its associated problems. Ignored in all discussions is the fact that the poverty rate among black married couples has been in single digits since 1994.
Black youth unemployment in some cities is over 50 percent. But high black youth unemployment is also new. In 1948, the unemployment rate for black teens was slightly less than that of their white counterparts -- 9.4 percent compared with 10.2. During that same period, black youths were either just as active in the labor force or more so than white youths. Since the 1960s, both the labor force participation rate and the employment rate of black youths have fallen to what they are today. Why? Are employers more racially discriminatory today than yesteryear? Were black youths of yesteryear more skilled than whites of yesteryear? The answer to both questions is a big fat no.
The minimum wage law and other labor regulations have cut off the bottom rungs of the economic ladder. Put yourself in the place of an employer, and ask: If I must pay $7.25 an hour -- plus mandated fringes, such as Social Security and workers' compensation -- would it pay me to hire a worker who is so unfortunate as to possess skills that enable him to produce only $5 worth of value per hour? Most employers view that as a losing economic proposition. Thus, the minimum wage law discriminates against the employment of low-skilled workers, who are most often youths -- particularly black youths.
The little bit of money a teenager can earn through after-school, weekend and summer employment is not nearly so important as the other things he gains from early work experiences. He acquires skills and develops good work habits, such as being prompt, following orders and respecting supervisors. In addition, there are the self-respect and pride that a youngster gains from being financially semi-independent. All of these gains from early work experiences are important for any teen but are even more important for black teens. If black teens are going to learn anything that will make them a more valuable employee in the future, they aren't going to learn it from their rotten schools, their dysfunctional families or their crime-ridden neighborhoods. They must learn it on the job.
The bulk of today's problems for many blacks are a result of politicians and civil rights organizations using government in the name of helping blacks when in fact they are serving the purposes of powerful interest groups.

Response by MSgt Michelle Mondia made Dec 12 at 2015 2:26 AM

2015-12-12T02:26:06-05:00

Apparently it didn't set back Ben Carson. He's pretty pleased with how it worked out. Maya Angelo said "history dispite it's wrenching pain cannot be relived but if faced with courage need not be lived again..." There are people who have not faced what history has revealed to us. It's not something to get over it get past we must face it together and never forget because history always has an uncanny way of reapeating itself.

Response by PO1 William "Chip" Nagel made Dec 12 at 2015 3:37 AM

2015-12-12T03:37:02-05:00

It was around for more than 150 years so I suspect it will take at least that long to deal with.

Response by SFC Private RallyPoint Member made Dec 12 at 2015 7:20 PM

2015-12-12T19:20:43-05:00

Slavery ended? Are you sure about that? If slavery ended why do we have the highest court in the country saying that we would benefit from lower education? Why are we still on modern day plantation (the projects)? How is that a black man is consistently gunned down by law enforcement for walking down the street. Why is the black baby the number one aborted child in the US? Why is that mandatory prison sentences have been shown to target black men? For example the furniture used by most department of defense offices are produced by Unicor federal prison industries. Unicor pays inmates 5 cent an hour to produce a desk that they sell for well over $2,000. When you catch a black man with lets say a sizeable amount of Marijuana he gets sentenced to jail for a minimum of 3 years. Now you have a slave/prisoner to work for peanuts. So I would slavery has not ended, it just gave the illusion that it has been abolished.

Response by SrA Marc Haynes made Dec 13 at 2015 5:44 AM

2015-12-13T05:44:17-05:00

Does anyone realize that the Native Americans were the 1st slaves in this country?

Response by PO3 Brad Phlipot made Dec 14 at 2015 6:15 AM

2015-12-14T06:15:39-05:00

Far from it actually but Ok. http://bigstory.ap.org/article/8f64fb25931242a985bc30e3f5a9a0b2/ap-global-supermarkets-selling-shrimp-peeled-slaves

Response by COL John Power made Dec 17 at 2015 12:05 PM

2015-12-17T12:05:36-05:00

The question posed is almost impossible to answer. There probably would be very few African-Americans were it not for slavery, so it is quite difficult to have a point of comparison. I think it is fair to say however, that the general perception of some inferiority of black Americans held by a large segment of the population comes directly from the history of slavery. If the only black people in the US were regular immigrants from Africa then the perceptions might be quite different. The attitudes of the black citizenry might also be quite different. Those not coming from slave roots seem to have a different perspective. Rather than trash government policies intended to better the lot of a significant segment of the population, perhaps we should focus on what we can do differently. For those interested in economic history, there were thriving black business communities in many northern cities in the early 1920's. Former slaves and their children had moved north, found jobs in growing economy, and started their own businesses. The Great Depression killed that and the downhill slide of the society has continued. Genetics? I hope not. What we see in the inner cities is not pretty and we haven't been able to help that. I wish I knew the answers, but we collectively aren't getting the job done.

Response by SPC Private RallyPoint Member made Dec 22 at 2015 4:31 PM

2015-12-22T16:31:10-05:00

I have lived in many different places in America, the place that taught me the most was South Central Los Angeles. My knowledge of people grew and the only question I could never get answered is how do you decide who receives Reparations? How does congress trace each individual blood line to each deserving family?

Response by 1LT Aaron Barr made Jan 15 at 2016 10:38 AM

2016-01-15T10:38:54-05:00

Probably not a popular answer but not much more than they allow it to have on themselves. Probably less so for white people, though.

Response by SSG Jeremy Kohlwes made Apr 14 at 2016 11:16 PM

2016-04-14T23:16:28-04:00

Probably the greatest lingering effect of slavery we still see today is the persistance of the social construct of racism in our culture. Although I believe the idea of reparations is a little past it's time. The best reparations we can provide now is learning from our history so that we can have a better future.

Response by SFC Russell Shaw made Aug 23 at 2016 8:00 PM

2016-08-23T20:00:40-04:00

We all like to blame others for our own bad choices. It did have a set back on people but it continues to hold those who believe it is a problem. You need to work on your belief system because if you believe that slavery is holding you back, then it will. If you believe you have more opportunity than any of your ancestors did, then you do. Move forward if you believe you can't make you will not. if you believe you have failed then you will. Start thinking about what you can do. Rosa Parks believed she did not have to give up her seat and she didn't All change starts with one person and is then carried by others. Change is best made by looking to the future. When Edison was inventing the light bulb he tired over 10,000 different ways I bet he never went back and used one he knew did not work.

Response by SGM Bill Frazer made May 9 at 2018 9:26 PM

2018-05-09T21:26:53-04:00

Don't know- 3000 black men owned slaves before the Civil War. How many African would have come to America and found a life after slavery? Don't get me wrong Slavery is wrong-period, but every group, every nation since history was recorded has had slaves, often the people they defeated. My ancestors Scots & Irish were slaves in this New World before black slaves showed up. When you look at it- look at the progress of Black Americans compared to say blacks in Africa where they are still slaughtering each other because of what tribe they are in.

Response by SSG(P) Private RallyPoint Member made May 16 at 2018 12:43 AM

2018-05-16T00:43:49-04:00

It was definitely a setback, BUT it ended 152 years ago now. There are many successful African Americans including many on RallyPoint. As far as reparations go, they don't need them...there is a lot of help available in many areas to African Americans that are not available to others....NAACP, Black Scholarship Foundations, etc.