[tvbound]

Originally Posted by Laker14

The idea that the United States was EVER a politically and ethically united country is a total myth. From the time the first explorers and settlers came to this continent, they came from different countries, and for different reasons, and they brought with them most of their ethical, moral and political beliefs. They often conflicted with each other over borders, politics and religion. In addition to trying to shove those beliefs on each other, they shoved them down the throats of the aboriginal population.
Slavery is just one of the many issues upon which various powerful factions disagreed. From the time of the original founding of the USA, all the way to the Emancipation Proclamation, it was a point of contention between Northern and Southern states, but more for the reason of political and financial power, than for any feeling of empathy for the plight of the slaves themselves.
When the Civil War (or "War of Northern Aggression" as the Confederate States referred to the conflict) was over, and slaves were "freed", they were not given any status of citizenship. They were not conferred any status of equality with white people. They were denied education, denied land except in a very few instances, and they were denied the right to vote. So while they may have been ceremonially "free", they still needed to eat, and to have a roof over their heads, and the only way to do that was essentially to live the same life they had always lived, and their progenitors had lived, and that was working the land they didn't own, for whatever the owners would give back to them.
I come from Sicilian immigrants who were, when they arrived, discriminated against. They worked their butts off, but nobody would sell them the land that they needed to build their own lives on. For a while. Eventually someone sold them land, and in 15 years they owned their own home, free and clear. The next generation went to war, and to college, although many of them were the first Italian-Americans to be admitted and eventually graduate from their respective schools. They were also discriminated against, but not to the extent that the previous generation had been. The next generation, my father's, also went to war and to college. My father said he never experienced any racism or bigotry attached to his Italian heritage. I was born in 1953, grew up in Ohio, and I never experienced any either.
When I walk down the street nobody looks at me and says "there is a descendant of Sicillian immigrants". Nobody knows, nobody cares, and THAT, folks, is because I'm "white".
It is completely different for an African-American. He or she wears their heritage on their skin. If you are a white person in this country you have NO FREEKING IDEA whatsoever what it is like to be a black person in this country. None, whatsoever.

If you think it's OK to honor rich, white slave owners who fought in an effort to preserve the institution of human slavery, and you can't see why the descendants of those slaves find it offensive and inappropriate and even threatening to do so on public land, then you do not understand, or you do not care about the generations of human suffering and oppression that those monuments honor.

"If you are a white person in this country you have NO FREEKING IDEA whatsoever what it is like to be a black person in this country. None, whatsoever."

Excellent post! If only more people understood the truth/facts - and felt like yourself. Not to mention, that almost none of those who downplay being born black, ever even think that they wished they had been born with black skin in this country.