- Also Known As:
- Against Human Dignity
- Year:
- 2005
- Country:
- Predominant Genre:
- Non-fiction
- Author:
- Best Performances:
- None
- Premiss:
- Articles from leading experts in the field of slavery studies.
- Themes:
- Compassion
- Political Correctness
- White culture
- White guilt
- White supremacy
- Similar (in Plot, Theme or Style) to:
- Unknown
- Review Format:
- Book
Although permeated with White guilt & shame and Black anger, this is an excellent primer on the racial slavery existing from 1500 to 1870 across the North Atlantic that is all the more user-friendly because it can be read at a sitting.
The White authors here adopt an econometric view of the kidnapping of Blacks from Africa by referring to it as a slave trade in a way that such historians never do with regard to naval press gangs, the Jewish holocaust or forced marriages, for example - despite all of these practices involving trade, having been or remaining legal in many countries and none of the participants being willing - as would be the case with true trade. The lack of any discussion of whether or not it is possible to turn people into tradable property is never really explored – nor is White guilt; demonstrating the difficulty Whites have with the very idea; hence, their continuing belief that turning people into commodities is possible - through the use of the term Slave Trade
- while verbally-denouncing the practice.
The uniquely euphemistic approach of Whites to their own historical record is highly-indicative of a White culture still at odds with its own conscience about the source of its present-day wealth, privilege and power. Similar to common usages such as collateral damage
or friendly fire
; showing that Whites have also been deeply and psychologically-scarred by the legacy of racial slavery.
The Black authors see things far more clearly and focus on the psychological and cultural affects of government-sponsored kidnapping for profit; providing the reader with a more human and humane look at history that White hagiographies usually lack. Blacks here also express somewhat more pride in their own cultural achievements - especially the ending of racial slavery in the West.
Although outside the remit of this work, there is no explanation as to why Whites believe that anyone should ever be enslaved nor why White culture continues to be Institutionally-Racist. The answer to that question is only to be found in the writings of Blacks like James Baldwin and W E B Du Bois. That the two ethnic groups contributing to this work should see the world so differently is acknowledged in the book’s conclusion; proving the continuing legacy of an exploitive activity that Whites continue to claim does not exist, by pretending that the past has no effect on the present. A book that tacitly explains the culturelessness of much of White culture with its curious blend of vain pride and self-disgust.
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