[jimjamuser]

Originally Posted by miharris

- Our early economy was not based on "free slave labor" Slave labor was used almost exclusively in the south for cash crops - primarily cotton and tobacco. In terms of the overall economy of the US, the south was miniscule compared to the industrialized northern states. In fact, the cause of the civil war was not primarily slavery, it was the fact that the south was being increasingly marginalized by the northern states, who favored high import and export tariffs, which kept agricultural prices low (fewer export markets) and the price of manufactured goods high (difficult to import from other industrialized countries). There is no question that slavery was and is abhorrent, but it is true that it existed for thousands of years in hundreds of cultures.


- Segregation was in fact true, and an unfortunate part of US history, but our current system provides abundant opportunities for people of color in education and employment. In fact, the most successful 'race' in the US currently is Asian, not white.

- The Tulsa race riots were a travesty, true, but they happened in 1921 for gods sake. Are you seriously implying that the country where that happened is the same country that elected a Black man president? Twice??

My biggest issue is that the current extreme left wing movement, including things like CRT, is to the push to equality of outcome, as oppose to equality of opportunity. That is not what made this county the envy of the world. And before you object to that phrase, tell me why our boarder is being over-run by people from central and south America? Why aren't they flocking to Venezuela? Mexico? Brazil? North Korea?

US economy "NOT based on slave labor"? I remember reading that from colonial days onward, cotton cheaply raised by slave labor, created GREAT early wealth that stayed with the US even till today.