I don’t inherit the sins of my father solely because of my skin color.
Correct. We inherit the responsibility to do what we can to make those wrongs right because of the advantages we are afforded by our historical background.
Because of the family I was born into, I was afforded easy access to food, shelter, and education, and easily able to find success and prosperity. This allows my children the same, and that’s, in large part, a result of history. Those coming from less advantaged socio-economic backgrounds do so because, again at least in part, my distant relatives stole from them to my benefit.
When these issues are divided by skin color, then yes, it is racist to ignore them in their entirety over the argument that we had no direct control over the actions of our forefathers, as we continue to benefit from them today. It’s really some trolley problem stuff: we are advantaged by being the ones hanging out around the lever, not tied to the tracks. When we are asked to switch the tracks, or heaven forbid stop the trolley, we should not respond, “it’s racist to tell me I should be doing something about this! I didn’t build the tracks! I don’t own the trolley!” Okay, cool. But they’re down there, on the tracks, and we’re up here, next to the lever. Call it luck, but by the nature of our birth, we have an advantage that minorities do not. It is not racist to identify that.
You want genuine people, friend, taking the time to try and discuss these perspectives to someone is about as genuine as it gets. It’s not easy to accept that, despite massive personal struggles and relative low wealth and prosperity in a world owned by billionaires, I’ve been at an advantage just because I was born European descendant Caucasian. Don’t mistake disagreement for a lack of authenticity, or being poor of character.
Correct. We inherit the responsibility to do what we can to make those wrongs right because of the advantages we are afforded by our historical background.
Because of the family I was born into, I was afforded easy access to food, shelter, and education, and easily able to find success and prosperity. This allows my children the same, and that’s, in large part, a result of history. Those coming from less advantaged socio-economic backgrounds do so because, again at least in part, my distant relatives stole from them to my benefit.
When these issues are divided by skin color, then yes, it is racist to ignore them in their entirety over the argument that we had no direct control over the actions of our forefathers, as we continue to benefit from them today. It’s really some trolley problem stuff: we are advantaged by being the ones hanging out around the lever, not tied to the tracks. When we are asked to switch the tracks, or heaven forbid stop the trolley, we should not respond, “it’s racist to tell me I should be doing something about this! I didn’t build the tracks! I don’t own the trolley!” Okay, cool. But they’re down there, on the tracks, and we’re up here, next to the lever. Call it luck, but by the nature of our birth, we have an advantage that minorities do not. It is not racist to identify that.
You want genuine people, friend, taking the time to try and discuss these perspectives to someone is about as genuine as it gets. It’s not easy to accept that, despite massive personal struggles and relative low wealth and prosperity in a world owned by billionaires, I’ve been at an advantage just because I was born European descendant Caucasian. Don’t mistake disagreement for a lack of authenticity, or being poor of character.