Billy the Great Khan
Uwaa OmO
They don't sugar coat things at my university. And my HIST prof is as liberal as they come.
American historians are now asking a shocking question: Was Lincoln racist?
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They don't sugar coat things at my university. And my HIST prof is as liberal as they come.
Liberty
Libertarian Minded
Has your prof talked about Lincoln corresponding with Marx?
Billy the Great Khan
Uwaa OmO
No, though he is a socialist.
Lowaicue
英語在香港
Of course he was a racist. He was a Republican
All men reflect the time in which they live. In years to come people will ask, 'Did America really elect a Born Again Christian as President'. And people who do not understand will jump to the defence of george w bush and the general idea that some imaginary figure can affect man's thoughts. (Yes yes, I know BELIEF in a fairy can affect).
As human beings we all 'judge' our fellows. We judge them on the 'patterns' they exhibit. Black people, brown people, tall people, short people, fat people, female people, male people, thin people. How often have you heard, or even said of a short man, he has 'short man's syndrome' or something similar, or heard that guy is so fat I would not employ him or that woman is so ugly that I would not have her in my house.
So we judge.
It is the responsibility of the judged to present an acceptable face and of the judge to consider that to be unnecessary. The racism in America is of its own making. Drugs, crime gangs, poverty. The racism in the UK is more tribal, although drugs and poverty play a large part.
Most people need to feel superior to some one. Men have always felt superior to women. Women were, in a way, lucky when you brought in slaves - it let them off the hook. Men and women could join forces and feel superior over the black man. In the UK West Indians have, to a large extent, assimilated and join with the original population in their disdain for new immigrants.
We need commonalities. But we often look in the wrong places. There is more in common with the poor white and the poor black and the poor Chinese than ever there will be between the poor white and the rich white. Trouble is many of the poor are too ignorant* to see their true allies.
*By ignorant I do not mean stupid, I mean that they have not had and do not have the opportunities for knowledge acquisition that the more well off have.
cancel2 2022
Canceled
Although Lincoln believed in the destruction of slavery," concludes black historian Charles Wesley (in an article in The Journal of Negro History), "he desired the complete separation of the whites and blacks. Throughout his political career, Lincoln persisted in believing in the colonization of the Negro.
So how should history judge Abraham Lincoln? In the words of Frederick Douglass, the escaped slave who became the leading black abolitionist of the period, Lincoln was "the first American president who . . . rose above the prejudice of his times." On the other hand, Douglass also said, "In his interest, in his association, in his habits of thought, and in his prejudices, [Lincoln] was a white man. He was preeminently the white man's President, entirely devoted to the welfare of the white man. He was ready and willing at any time during the first years of his administration to deny, postpone, and sacrifice the rights of humanity in the colored people, to promote the welfare of the white people of this country."
There are also Lincoln's own words:
"I am not, nor ever have been, in favor of bringing about in any way the social and political equality of the white and black races, that I am not nor ever have been in favor of making voters or jurors of negroes, nor of qualifying them to hold office, nor to intermarry with white people ... I as much as any other man am in favor of having the superior position assigned to the white race. I say upon this occasion I do not perceive that because the white man is to have the superior position the negro should be denied everything. I do not understand that because I do not want a negro woman for a slave I must necessarily want her for a wife. My understanding is that I can just let her alone."
"The authors of the Declaration of Independence never intended to include all men, but they did not mean to declare all men equal in all respects. They did not mean to say all men were equal in color, size, intellect, moral development or social capacity. They defined with tolerable distinctness in what they did consider all men created equal - equal in certain inalienable rights, among which are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness ... They meant to set up a standard maxim for free society which should be familiar to all: constantly looked to, constantly labored for, and even, though never perfectly attained, constantly approximated, and thereby constantly spreading and deepening its influence and augmenting the happiness and value of life to all people, of all colors, every where."
So how should history judge Abraham Lincoln? In the words of Frederick Douglass, the escaped slave who became the leading black abolitionist of the period, Lincoln was "the first American president who . . . rose above the prejudice of his times." On the other hand, Douglass also said, "In his interest, in his association, in his habits of thought, and in his prejudices, [Lincoln] was a white man. He was preeminently the white man's President, entirely devoted to the welfare of the white man. He was ready and willing at any time during the first years of his administration to deny, postpone, and sacrifice the rights of humanity in the colored people, to promote the welfare of the white people of this country."
There are also Lincoln's own words:
"I am not, nor ever have been, in favor of bringing about in any way the social and political equality of the white and black races, that I am not nor ever have been in favor of making voters or jurors of negroes, nor of qualifying them to hold office, nor to intermarry with white people ... I as much as any other man am in favor of having the superior position assigned to the white race. I say upon this occasion I do not perceive that because the white man is to have the superior position the negro should be denied everything. I do not understand that because I do not want a negro woman for a slave I must necessarily want her for a wife. My understanding is that I can just let her alone."
"The authors of the Declaration of Independence never intended to include all men, but they did not mean to declare all men equal in all respects. They did not mean to say all men were equal in color, size, intellect, moral development or social capacity. They defined with tolerable distinctness in what they did consider all men created equal - equal in certain inalienable rights, among which are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness ... They meant to set up a standard maxim for free society which should be familiar to all: constantly looked to, constantly labored for, and even, though never perfectly attained, constantly approximated, and thereby constantly spreading and deepening its influence and augmenting the happiness and value of life to all people, of all colors, every where."
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