It is racism because you refuse to acknowledge legacy. Look at yours, look at Africa's...
You weren't a serf because of the colour of your skin, you don't continue to suffer as a consequence.
Play the poor white card all you want, I'm sure Lienking and Stret will be along to pat you on the back for it.
I personally wasnt talking about slavery in this debate though, I was talking specifically about colonialism. To an extent we are having two different debates.
It doesn't change things significantly; I still oppose restitution to the ancestors of slaves by the ancestors of non slaves. Because I don't think such restitution is meaningful when it is financial. Other restitution IMO is owed; not being routinely shot by police and being proper equal citizens would be a start
Equally I disagree with the concept of
financial restitution for colonialism. I think that is a nonsense. Honestly, do you really believe in the concept that we could give a load of money (that we don't have) to African nations and call it even? Or just hold our heads high and say it's the right thing to do? What an utter nonsense. There is literally nothing that can be done to undo that past or to put it right for the true victims, so to attempt to do so is downright offensive.
It is also intensely myopic when we are complicit in exploitative industries NOW.
Anyone who properly studies British history with a critical eye doesn't need to go very far to find this nation committing great evils. As I said before, we did so on a grand scale against the French many times, and we did it simply because they were French. Does that matter less because it was based on nationality and not skin colour?
The debate is also how far the individual (you or me) has a right or an obligation to feel bad about the evils of empire or of our general past. Partly I suppose it depends on how wedded you feel to the nation and strongly affiliated you feel with it. Perhaps part of my feeling that the sins of the father's should not sit on the sons is because, at this time, I don't feel very wedded to or affiliated to Britain and I don't feel especially proud of being British. That is because of both our past and our present.
That's an interesting debate, but me and you cannot have that while you are flinging mud.