[Vigilanteman]

Comedian Chris Rock, followed by actors Don Cheadle and Zach Braff, brought the unsaid racial tensions of the country to the front burner by reminding his followers that slavery continued for many years after the Declaration of Independence was signed.

Yep. And they also conveniently forget the alternative. Their ancestors wouldn't have been brought to America. They would have either been sold by Obama's ancestors into other slave markets or, more likely, simply been exterminated in tribal warfare.

Even boxing great Mohammad Ali understood that much when he returned from the famous "rumble in the jungle" (boxing match in Congo) back in the 1970's.

Reporters asked him what he thought about Africa, and the first words out of his mouth were "Thank God my great-great granddaddy boarded that slave ship!"

[Ohioan]

They would have either been sold by Obama's ancestors

You may well be correct about that. I believe that his father's tribe speak the language that the Arab slave traders developed to communicate with their fellow participants in the slave trade. That strongly urges for your point.

Of course, no people need to apologize for their historic values. "Slavery," as a popular term for a system that employs labor for which no pay is provided, only subsistance on the lands of another, has existed in one form or another, at some time or another, virtually everywhere on earth. Before the substantial development of circulating currency systems, it was the rule, rather than the exception in early agricultural development. The idea that the descendants of those, once so employed, should hate those who maintained such systems, is not a key to better understanding between peoples and/or subsets of a particular population, but rather an obvious precipitant to social chaos.

But then, Egalitarianism, in virtually any of its manifestations, leads almost inevitably to The Greatest Mischief Ever Wrought.

Those who actually care about mutually beneficial race relations in America, as well as good will in general, would do well to heed the wisdom of Booker T. Washington, rather than the mean spirited "humor" of Chris Rock.

William Flax

[rarestia]

And they also conveniently forget the alternative. Their ancestors wouldn't have been brought to America. They would have either been sold by Obama's ancestors into other slave markets or, more likely, simply been exterminated in tribal warfare.

THANK YOU!

This needs to shouted to the Heavens. It's not racist at all to point out this very obvious contradiction in black history. They all complain about a hundred plus years of "oppression," yet the oppression they experienced in the US is NOTHING compared to what they would've been subjected if they'd stayed in Africa. Hell, an overwhelming majority of blacks in the US today would likely not exist if not for slave owners impregnating the black women they owned. Why do you think there are so many black Jeffersons, Jacksons, etc.?

Listen, I'm not trying to play down the brutality of some slave owners or the living conditions, but compared to what they would've lived through in sub-Saharan Africa, America was the Ritz!

[SuziQ]

And they also conveniently forget the alternative. Their ancestors wouldn't have been brought to America. They would have either been sold by Obama's ancestors into other slave markets or, more likely, simply been exterminated in tribal warfare.

A real "Inconvenient Truth".