Trump is a symptom of a 400 year old disease.

[guillaumeb]

The orange moron is out of power. And for most of the 330 million Americans, the country is ready, past ready, except for those living in a past that never really existed.

These white supremacist Trumpers mourn for a non-existent America that only existed for rich white people. What Trumpers see as history is actually the real cancel culture of white historians who created a myth of strong, white, male heroes.

And this true cancel culture ignores that brutal fact that the United States was founded on slavery and genocide, and these white, male, Founding Fathers, (never mothers), accepted the slavery and genocide, while pretending to believe that "all men are created equal".

Until we know the true history, until we know and admit to the fact of white supremacy, we cannot heal. The infection of white supremacy is still raging. We can see it in every murder by police of a black person. We can see it in every effort to prevent non-whites from voting. We can see it in the disparities of wealth, of life expectancy, and in job opportunities.

The question for us all is, can we admit to the problem, and do we have the courage to solve the problem?

[alwaysinasnit]

1. K&R Excellent post.

[guillaumeb]

4. Thank you.

I posted it on FB this morning, but wanted to share it here as well.

What is needed is a national truth and reconciliation commission. Otherwise, the US civil war will never really end.

[alwaysinasnit]

6. +1000

[Hortensis]

2. It's far older than that and across humanity. Europe didn't import slaves

for the simple reason that throughout the feudal period most people in Europe were slaves who came with the land, importation of more not needed or they would have been. Same for China. Chattel slavery was normal almost everywhere else.

Until the modern era, the various forms of enslaving humans, including the various forms of female bondage, were deeply woven into almost all societies.

Our nation is different from most, and from all in the history of humanity to that point, in that our founding fathers formed a nation based on equality of all men, though some of its new states had been slave colonies for centuries by then with large populations of slaves. Our new nation couldn't have survived if the slave colonies weren't part of it, though everyone was intensely aware of the enormous problem for continuity.

Btw, the agreement that made it possible was that importation of slaves could not be made illegal for 30 years. Almost to the day 30 years later, congress made importation illegal. Formal abolition of slavery took another 47 years, though making it stick took longer. Took another 143 years before we elected our first black president.

[guillaumeb]

5. Very well said.

My point was specific to the US, and to the myth-story that substitutes for actual history.

[Solly Mack]

3. K&R

[KentuckyWoman]

7. He is the new face on an ongoing problem

He is everything weak and terrible about America. It is part of who we are. I hope the bright light ultimately helps to root those flaws out of our institutions.

[guillaumeb]

8. Agreed.

[sheshe2]

9. and slavery never ended in 1863

It just continued: Slavery By Another Name until WWI. Yet the white supremacy continues.

[guillaumeb]

10. Prison replaced the plantation.

And the GOP still tries to prevent non-whites from voting.

[sheshe2]

11. Yes.