i didnt write this but it makes some relevant points
Did Blacks benefit from slavery?
Picture this:
You and I are to run a 5 mile race. We both start at the same time only, I have on a 50 lb vest, ankle weights and a ball-and-chain around my foot. About half way through the race, the time keeper tells me I can take all the excess weight off and run the rest of the race like you. Am I really gonna catch up to you in time to beat you at this race?
You're thinking seems very shallow. You forgot to mention that AFTER slavery the quality of life for blacks was worse. Jim Crow, remember? We couldn't vote for a very long time, remember? White people look at slavery and the years after slavery as "the past" It's not just the past, It was the time when we were forcibly held down and held back.
Right now many of us are trying to "play catch up" kinda like the analogy at the top. You're reading this and you probably wonder, "All some blacks do is sit on their asses all day, or they would rather be on welfare, or they are lazy or whatever else you may be thinking. I'm here to tell you that some of the negative things in the black community are the result of the chain effect of slavery. Many blacks settled for less because that may have been a survival mechanism. That's one of the attitudes that can be passed down from generation to generation and it creates a vicious cycle. Catching up ain't easy, White bread.
Yes, many black americans have better lives than other blacks around the world, but it's not good enough. And PLEASE don't allow yourself to believe that you had anything to do with it. And what's so bad about being left alone in Africa? If Whitey never sailed his a*s over there, we'd be just fine.
And while you say blacks would "otherwise be living in Ghana, Senegal, Ivory Coast, Nigeria, etc." you should otherwise be living in Europe, don't you think? Native American Indians are supposed to be roaming this land, not you and me. Instead, Europeans did what they do best: Kill off people, claim the stolen land as theirs and then complain about it years later. If white people would have just accepted the world the way it was in the first place, you wouldn't even be asking this question.
You'd still be in your cave.
A QUICK RESPONSE TO YOUR ADDITIONAL COMMENTS:
Directly after slavery was indeed worse for many blacks because many blacks were dependent of being fed, clothed and housed by the slavemasters. Picture someone who has not had the life experience to go out and make a life for themselves and then halfway through their lives you tell them, "Ok. You're free to go." It's just not a smooth transition. Now granted that slave conditions were not luxury in any sense, it was better than nothing. Freed slaves were generally homeless, hungry and obviously poor. In fact, many of them asked to go back to the plantation because the quality of life was at least a little better. Countless others got trapped in the mal-intent cycle of indentured servitude, in which they could never pay off their debts. I do think that is indeed worse off, at least initally afterward. Not to mention the "black codes" that were drafted to keep blacks in the "inferior" postition.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_Codes…
