07-06-2023, 12:44 PM
(07-06-2023, 12:25 PM)hollodero Wrote: I get the last sentence, I'm not coming down on the opposite side of the argument. As for the rest, I think this is a distorted picture, as in the US actually needs not care about other nations in the world and how they deal with historic wrongdoing. This is not a global trial where one could claim to be punished more severely than other countries for the same wrongdoing and that this were unfair. We wouldn't be quite so accepting if say China claims what they did (and do) to the Uyghurs should not be redeemed or even mentioned much since other countries did even worse things to their minorities and got away with it. Doesn't make it right or excusable.
Not to mention that again, it is not a global trial, it's not the world demanding from the US to hold themselves to task, it's coming from within your own society. Who cares if 48 others somewhere on the globe don't see things quite the same way. Still can't shake the feeling that this is global whataboutism.
And what I do not get is the point with the US and other countries being a top destination for immigrants. Sure it's true and wealth, opportunities, freedom and the relative absence of racism play a big part in that, but that again is just an indicator that these countries are better than some dire places in the world, not that they are actually good enough and need to be seen as absolved for all historical sin. And one could probably argue that especially the wealth was in part created on the backs of slavery or in Europe's case, colonization, which adds a bit of a sour note to the argument.
I don't think absolution is on anyone's wish list. Regardless, it's simply not possible. What I think most people want, and can't seem to get is a focus on the present and future and not, to paraphrase Murray, a constant picking at old wounds. Why are race relations worse today then that've been in decades? It's certainly not that there's more racism now. Racism is never going away, but there's no way it's not at historic lows in the US, and yet the race issue is more raw and enflamed than it has been for some time. These contradictory truths really rankle with many.
