Black Privilege

There are these things called unintended consequences.  It's when you do something, and it has the desired effect.  But then there are..."other" things that happen as well that you did not predict.  Sometimes the unintended consequences are good...sometimes not.

Let's take Slavery.  Bad, right?  No question.  A horrible stage in American history...something for which we should be deeply ashamed but at the same time glad that we rectified a terrible mistake.

But...with Slavery, like with most things, it's not that simple.

First, let us acknowledge that America did not invent Slavery.  It had been going on for centuries and for the purpose of our discussion here, its origin is not important.  But let's also admit that for the concept of Slavery to work, there had to be complicity among the African leaders of the nations which supplied the slaves.  I mean, white Americans didn't simply sail over to Africa, round up a bunch of Black people..."Hey, you wanna go for a little boat ride?  Come on, it'll be fun!"...and ship them off to the States by the millions.  No, it wasn't called the "slave trade" for nothing; slaves were purchased from their original, uhhh, owners.  

So there had to be a certain amount of cooperation by those in charge at the time...meaning: other Black people.  Let's say it out loud: Black people sold each other into Slavery.

Okay, never mind the sordid history.  We all know that Slavery was a grievous mistake.  It was corrected.  And like it or not, the United States has ultimately become one of the richest nations in the world...a democratic republic in which anybody can pursue their dreams and "make something" of themselves....the place where everyone wants to be.  In fact, to be born in America is a huge advantage over being born anywhere else.  You don't see hordes of people risking life and limb, marching down to and jumping over the fence to get into, say, Honduras.

Modern-day Blacks are still angry about Slavery.  But we must ask: Where would they be without it?  Would they be living in Africa somewhere?  Would they even have been born to begin with, and would they have survived?  And if so, why would they even come to America?  (That one's easy: To pursue the American Dream, the equivalent of which did not...and still does not...exist in most of their home countries.)  

The unintended consequence of Slavery is that modern Blacks have a life that is infinitely better than they would have if Slavery had not existed. 

I'd say...and this may sound like perverted logic...but I'd say that Black people here in the U.S. ought to be damn glad for Slavery!  It was that horrid, despicable institution that paved the way for them to be born here in the greatest country on the planet.  One might even go so far as to say that today's Black people have, well, "Black Privilege."  

But don't tell them that!  They're too busy being angry, and telling us what an awful country the U.S. is, and demanding reparations.  Hmm, come to think of it, maybe they really should be demanding those reparations from the descendants of the African kings and tribal leaders that sold their ancestors into Slavery in the first place.