Yes, and even accounting for those, wealthy countries that took slaves still hold an enormous amount of responsibility for they did
Comment on How are slavery reparations fair?
Dave@lemmy.nz 1 year agoHave you considered that other factors led to the countries being wealthy or impoverished, and this allowed the wealthy to take the impoverished as slaves?
protist@mander.xyz 1 year ago
Dave@lemmy.nz 1 year ago
The original OP argument is that those captors or slaves don’t exist anymore. Even the countries barely exist. Is this a matter of descendants being responsible for their ancestors crimes?
I think there’s a strong feedback loop argument here but I’m not sure that’s the point you’re making.
protist@mander.xyz 1 year ago
Do descendants have the same responsibility as their ancestors who actually owned slaves? No. But do they bear some ongoing responsibility as a benefactor of a system that was built around their ancestors owning slaves? Yeah they do.
All of this is incredibly messy, but approaching it at a governmental level is definitely something I support, because slavery was sanctioned and even encouraged by the government we’re talking about, which has existed continuously
Maturin@sh.itjust.works 1 year ago
Watch a video tour of the tourist sites if London. Or look what is in the imperial museum. Or the Victoria and Albert museum. The looted wealth of of their genocidal empire is still celebrated as a national treasure. India still has not recovered from British occupation, which only officially ended 75 years ago. And that’s like 20% of the entire current human population.
Dave@lemmy.nz 1 year ago
My comment is not about the validity of reparations. It was a direct reply to the one above it, which seemed to imply that reparations are because of the actions of past people, when in my view it’s about the proceeds of the crimes rather than the crimes themselves.
Natanael@slrpnk.net 1 year ago
Guns?
Dave@lemmy.nz 1 year ago
Yes, definitely. But why they had guns is also another question. I recommend the book “Gun, germs, and steel” as a great look into how and why different populations formed as they did.
lando55@lemmy.world 1 year ago
Germs.
charonn0@startrek.website 1 year ago
For example?
Dave@lemmy.nz 1 year ago
I recommend the book “Guns, germs, and steel” if you’re interested. I’m not sure it covers this specifically, but it does cover in depth the reasons for different areas of the world being more of less wealthy (it has nothing to do with the people and everything to do with the area, natural resources inclusive flora and fauna, and proximity to other populations).
It’s an interesting read, even if a bit heavy.
Baahb@lemmy.world 1 year ago
www.reddit.com/r/…/historians_views/#wiki_histori…
Dave@lemmy.nz 1 year ago
This is great to know, thanks!
charonn0@startrek.website 1 year ago
I read it 10+ years ago. As I recall, its main point had to do with differences between Old World and New World populations.
Since Africa falls into the Old World along with Europe, I don’t think the book actually supports any conclusions about this topic.
Apollo@sh.itjust.works 1 year ago
The industrial revolution for one.