Ellen DeGeneres defends her Usain Bolt tweet some claimed was racist

[Buckeye_Democrat]

96. Is there a history of seeing black men

... as a whole as animals to be used for work? That's not my perception, and I hope that you don't view black men as being perceived that way by everyone else.

Please keep in mind that the American colonies were ruled by brutal people. Other white people were used as slaves in the earliest period. King James I sent thousands of homeless whites from England and Ireland to work as slaves in early America. They were shackled by the neck at the bottoms of boats with many of them dying during the long voyage.

Native Americans were also used as slaves.

Africans became the preferred choice in later years because they were more easily distinguished by their skin color (if they escaped) and they were less susceptible to disease compared to natives.

In later years, an entire boat of 57 Irish immigrants were eliminated after they were employed by a railroad company in Pennsylvania. The company claimed they all died from cholera after providing their labor, but later evidence showed that most of them were murdered.


The period was very class-based and cruel. We still have people at the top who receive unfair privilege, but it's nothing like in the past.

I'm sorry that African slave traders got involved in it.