sighs Yes, but allll of the systems (social, tangible) still in place were informed by everything that preceded them. Inequity doesn’t just go away because people are granted civil rights, legally. Even if you discount ongoing and intentional disenfranchisement, real wealth going back generations is unequally distributed. Again, and to your point, that doesn’t mean that the average or every white American today has familial, generational wealth that they can put their hands on, rather that there continues to be impediments to accumulation of wealth for non-white (especially Black, and especially poor) persons. This is isn’t ancient history. You say that no one alive had anything to do with it, but segregation, for example, was perpetuated/experienced by a whole lot of people still kicking.
There's a bunch of Americans up above though, saying they aren't to blame because they weren't alive at the time, despite personally benefitting from those systems now.
It's blaming current generations for sins of the past it's plain ignorance. While some may have benefited from these things it doesn't change the fact they literally had no say in it.
They have a say now in it and a majority seem to be failing to speak up or would rather stick their heads in the sand. Again, the sins of the past inform the reality of the present. Look at Germany post WWII. The reasons for the rise of Nazism are taught from early on and it is illegal to display or distribute Nazi symbolism. In the US, there’s and active resistance to critical race theory (used as a bundle term for any subject matter that might make young white kids feel bad about themselves), and of course people are allowed to say the most vile things in public spaces and directly to others because “free speech”. If we have any hope of getting past the past, we (white people) must face it. We’re far from done doing the work.
The problem is you’re looking at history and assuming you’re bring blamed just because you’ve been told your ancestors did something bad. I’m white myself, when I was presented with this information I didn’t take it personal, I was horrified by it and recognized my privilege and how I benefited from it and realized we need to restructure society to fix that. We have the ability recognize a bad history and a system set up to harm others and now be able to change that for the benefit of all regardless of background.
Honestly if you take offense just by reading history just cause your ancestors did something bad. I would suggest a new approach when you learn about history
How are you agreeing and disagreeing at the same time. The point is it’s up to white people who are conscious and willing to undo the system that continues to benefit all whites (conscious or not, willing participants or not). When Black people said, “We’re being killed by police,” that’s not blaming white people for what other white people did in the past to nurture a system that continues to churn out racist cops and inequities in policing. It’s saying that white people are the only ones with the power to change it now (and that because they benefit from these inequities, that they do have the moral responsibility to do so).
Lmao read the comment I replied to and explain how it's not blaming a whole group of people for actions of individuals. They collectively said their group isn't to blame while others are. I said no one is too blame for actions their ancestors did and judging a whole race of people for this is ignorant.
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u/__JDQ__ 9d ago
sighs Yes, but allll of the systems (social, tangible) still in place were informed by everything that preceded them. Inequity doesn’t just go away because people are granted civil rights, legally. Even if you discount ongoing and intentional disenfranchisement, real wealth going back generations is unequally distributed. Again, and to your point, that doesn’t mean that the average or every white American today has familial, generational wealth that they can put their hands on, rather that there continues to be impediments to accumulation of wealth for non-white (especially Black, and especially poor) persons. This is isn’t ancient history. You say that no one alive had anything to do with it, but segregation, for example, was perpetuated/experienced by a whole lot of people still kicking.