I Would Like to Talk (Civilly) About the Generalization of "White People"

[Bengalbug]

(09-26-2016, 10:04 AM)BmorePat87 Wrote: There's certainly a difference between saying "you white people are to blame" and saying "It is more beneficial in our society to be white, this is what you can do to help". The problem is you're referencing some idiot who needs a safe space on a college campus. You're not getting the most intellectually honest person. One side should concede that life is different for minorities. The other should concede that not all white people make up this group that has been discriminating for centuries. 

One thing I am going to say as a history teacher, though, is that most people didn't fight the Civil War to end slavery. While slavery is certainly the cause for the South to concede (revisionists, yes it is.), the primary cause for putting down this rebellion was to bring American territory back into the union. The North didn't want slavery to spread, but most soldiers in the Union army weren't fighting to free black people. Their complete disinterest in the lives of black people is what allowed reconstruction to end and Jim Crow to thrive for decades. 

"My paramount object in this struggle is to save the Union, and is not either to save or to destroy slavery. If I could save the Union without freeing any slave I would do it, and if I could save it by freeing all the slaves I would do it; and if I could save it by freeing some and leaving others alone I would also do that." Abraham Lincoln excerpt from a letter to Horace Greeley