The positive after-effects of slavery

Forgive me for an attention-getting headline, but I wonder if you realize that slavery actually has a proud history?

When the Greeks fought a war, they would capture enemy soldiers. They had the problem that if they let the soldiers go, they might return to fight against Greece another day, which wasn't satisfactory. This left them with two options: either execute the enemy soldiers or enslave them.

Slavery then was an act of mercy.

Of course, slavery in the U.S. was sheer kidnapping for the purpose of exploitation, so our slavery is nothing to be proud of.

Even so, if you're an African-American, have you ever thought about the following facts: If not for slavery...

1) you wouldn't be living in the most prosperous country on earth, but instead you might be living in a village in an AIDS-ravaged country;

2) you probably wouldn't even exist, because your mother and father would never have met;

3) most white people are NOT descended from slave masters and many, many whites are descended from people exploited by slavemasters;

Many white people are descended from poor whites who unfortunately had to compete against unpaid slave labor, which may be behind some of the residual racism in the U.S. The blame is misplaced, just as blaming all white people for slavery is misplaced. However, if you want an explanation for anti-black racism, this is certainly part of it.