I have a proposal for another new holiday African Americans can celebrate. I propose a celebration by AAs that they had an ancestor brought to the USA as a slave instead of having an ancestor brought to Haiti as a slave, or Cuba, or SA, or CA, or the Arab world, etc.
Like Mohammed Ali said after visiting Zaire (Congo) for his fight with George Foreman: “Thank God my granddaddy got on that boat”.
Thanks for this reply: “Champ, what did you think of Africa?” Ali replied, “Thank God my granddaddy got on that boat.”
The unique Western attitude is captured in Abraham Lincoln’s remark, “As I would not be a slave, so I would not be a master.” Lincoln understandably didn’t want to be a slave, but interestingly, he didn’t want to be a master either. He rejected slavery altogether, and he was willing to expend a good deal of treasure and ultimately a great deal of blood to destroy the institution.
During the Civil War, hundreds of thousands of white men died to bring freedom to African Americans — a group that was not in a position to secure freedom for itself.
Considering these undisputed facts, how should we think about the issue of reparations? My own view of the subject was rather tersely expressed by Muhammad Ali. After defeating George Foreman for the heavyweight title in Zaire, Muhammad Ali returned to the United States where he was asked by a reporter, “Champ, what did you think of Africa?” Ali replied, “Thank God my granddaddy got on that boat.”
Ali’s point was that although the institution of slavery was oppressive for the slaves, paradoxically it benefited their descendants because slavery was the transmission belt that brought African-Americans into the orbit of Western freedom.
How the West grew rich excerpted:
https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2003/jun/16/20030616-093350-3933r/