An American Dilemma : Was Slavery a racist institution ?
Slavery <<<
Although slavery ended in the United States more than a century ago, its legacy continues to be disputed among scholars and to underlie contemporary debates about public policies. The reason for this controversy is that slavery is considered the classic expression of American racism, and its effects are still viewed as central to the problems faced by blacks in the US today. The effect of slavery, African American scholar Michael Eric Dyson writes, "continues to exert its brutal influence in the untold sufferings of millions of everyday folk." He also expressed that residues of racism would continue to exist even at the close of the 20th century.
For Dyson, slavery is responsible for the high levels of black residential separation from whites today. Stephen Steinberg writes in the The Ethnic Myth that "ghettos are nothing less than the shameful residue of slavery.". Many other African American scholars also assert that slavery is responsible for many of the social pathologies in the black community such as chronic homelessness, single-parent households and youth violence. They also argue that slavery has undermined contemporary black identity, causing many African Americans to internalise racist stereotypes invented by slave-owners, that slavery has produced in African Americans "an airborne people" still consumed with self-contempt, self-hatred, self-affliction, and self-flagellation. Adopting a more extreme stand, they claim that "Slavery is a constant reminder of what whites in America might do."
Thousands of black activists are now resolutely pressing for Congress or the courts to direct whites to pay African Americans reparations to place them in the financial position they would occupy if slavery never occurred. Although many whites claim they are already repaying in the form of affirmative action, welfare and other transfer payments, black economist David Swinton insists more money is needed to "restore lost capital and repair the damage that was done to our wealth and business ownership by years of discrimination and slavery".
Slavery is also routinely blamed for having stolen from American blacks their culture, yet as a result of slavery, American blacks lost their ancestral tribal affiliations but gained a culture. The cumulative social effect of slavery was to uproot Africans from their original home, to foster the development of a unique new culture under the strains of oppression. Thus like other ethnic groups, blacks have recognised group traits. The camaraderie generated by this common culture is suggested by African Americans who call each other "brother" or "sister" even when they are not related. Like all cultures, Afro-American culture under slavery developed unique strengths and weaknesses, some of which may have endured long after slavery was abolished, perhaps even to the present day.
Reparations? <<<
So if America as a nation owes blacks as a group reparations for slavery, what do blacks as a group owe America for the abolition of slavery? This question is not frivolous. After all, slavery was not distinctively a American practice but the campaign to end slavery was distinctively American. Still, slavery is undeniably a moral crime. People should not own other people. It is understandable that American blacks, on discovering the circumstances in which their ancestors were brought to this country, would feel at best a qualified patriotism. However upon reflection, this ambivalence may be unwarranted. Africans were not uniquely unfortunate to be taken as slaves; their descendants were uniquely fortunate to be born in the only civilisation in the world to abolish slavery on their own initiative, without slaves being in a position to revolt and gain their own independence. Booker T. Washington was born a slave but went on to become the most powerful black statesman and educator in the United States :
"Think about it : we went into slavery pagans; we came out Christians. We went into slavery pieces of property; we came out American citizens. We went into slavery with chains clanking about our waists; we came out with the American ballot in our hands…Not withstanding the cruelty and moral wrong of slavery, we are in a stronger and more hopeful condition, materially, intellectually, morally, and religiously, than is true of an equal number of black people in any other portion of the globe."
Conclusion <<<
So what do Americans owe blacks because of slavery? The answer is probably nothing. If there is a social debt, it is to the slave, and the slaves are dead. It makes little sense to say that the United States has an obligation to pace African Americans in the economic and social position they occupy "if not for" slavery because "if not for" they would have been worse off in Africa. African Americans, indeed all Americans, should learn about the tragic crime of slavery. An understanding of the complexity of this history should prove the futility of drawing up ancestral balance sheets or selling indulgences that appeal to misplaced white guilt. A rich country like American should seek to help its most disadvantageous members, not because of what their ancestors endured, but because they deserve a chance to reach their full potential here and now. Although slavery remains an inextricable part of American history, excessive national self-flagellation carries moral dangers :
"In the memory of oppression, oppression perpetuates itself. The scar does the work of the wound. That is the real tragedy : that injustice retains the power to distort long after it ceased to be real. It is a posthumous victory for the oppressors, when pain becomes a tradition. This is the unfairly difficult dilemma of the newly emancipated and the newly franchised : an honourable life is not possible if they remember too little, and normal life is not possible if they remember too much."
