[Lemmy]

Thanos Thanos:

Good points. The lingering resentment in the South that still drives the Klan today can be traced right back to the disaster of the post 1864 Reconstruction. It's probably the bolloxed post-war period more than the actual loss of the War that still pisses Southerners off today. It's one of those incredible what-if? scenarios that's still fascinating to contemplate today. What if Lincoln hadn't been assassinated, won a third presidential term in 1868, and had guided Reconstruction with a firm but far fairer hand? Would Southern anger have been peacefully quelled? Would the radicalization and terrorism of the Klan after Bedford Forrest abandoned them have even occurred?

Like I said, it's fascinating to think about, considering that a well-executed "hearts and minds" strategy might have derailed the worst excesses of American racism.

Yeah, I love Civil War what-ifs. What if TJ Jackson were alive and in command of Ewell on day 1 at Gettysburg? What if Lee'd been killed and Longstrstreet were in command on the second and third days? Well, there wouldn't have BEEN as 2nd or 3rd day if Jackson were in command !

What if McPherson hadn't been killed before Atlanta? Would Sherman have gone so berzerk?

Johnson was exactly the wrong man to have governing Reconstruction.

Fun stuff!

[ASLplease]

I dont get it.

[Scape]

ridenrain ridenrain:

$1:

The man was arrested in his own home and he produced ID and was still arrested. Odd, no? His comment was fair it was the venue that wasn't.

Like in all situations, none of us were there, including Obama so we can never tell what happeded nor should we pass judgement before the facts come out. Obama has taken the word of his friend over the cops and it's not hard to believe that a black professor who has a president who is the first Black President Jusy Might Have a bigger chip on his sholder than usual.

This was stupid. Dumb stupid and any politician who gets to that level should know better than to say something dumb like that. The problem is, the more he spins it, the bigger it gets. He needs to address that he spoke before he thought and get on with bigger things.

Yep, ain't that the truth. It's a big issue for him and one I could understand being all to tempting for him to comment on but now the sheriff has dug in his heels and Obama is standing by his remarks as well.

$1:

Still, Obama stood by his initial criticism of the Cambridge police, saying in the ABC interview that he was surprised it had generated controversy. "I think it was a pretty straightforward commentary that you probably don't need to handcuff a guy, a middle-aged man who uses a cane, who's in his own home," he said.

Still, why shouldn't the arresting officer stick to his guns at this point, after all he teaches a racial profiling class and now he looks like some bigot cop! I would be amazed if he doesn't sue.

Oh well, they say you learn more from your mistakes then your successes...

[CommanderSock]

The south is still fighting an emotional civil war.

5 million slaves walking as freedmen in the south, ain't that just too bad for the "state's rights", "our southern way of life" crowd.

Serves you right for importing slave labour.

[Donny_Brasco]

ManifestDestiny ManifestDestiny:

OOOOO please your white guilt blinds you, you want me to make a list of racist black people!!!

we can start with Louis Farakhan

How about a list of "Blacks Only" golf course and country clubs?

[ShepherdsDog]

Don't know of any whites only courses either.

[GreenTiger]

Another example of why before you put your mouth in motion you put your brain in gear and know what your talking about BEFORE you talk about it.

[fifeboy]

GreenTiger GreenTiger:

Another example of why before you put your mouth in motion you put your brain in gear and know what your talking about BEFORE you talk about it.

I don't know. I travel in the Southern U.S. often enough. Although I am Anglo Saxon, and look Anglo Saxon, my last name is shared with many Jewish people. Southerners are a very friendly group, but I can't count the number of times when a seemingly friendly southerner changed his or her attitude when they learned my name. Racism and antisemitism is there in the U.S., very close to the surface.

[Scape]

Interesting roundtable

[ridenrain]

Apologists. Paul Klugman blows it with his GOP attack.

The only comment he got right was that this is all about the media acting badly.

[Lemmy]

CommanderSock CommanderSock:

The south is still fighting an emotional civil war.

5 million slaves walking as freedmen in the south, ain't that just too bad for the "state's rights", "our southern way of life" crowd.

Serves you right for importing slave labour.

Well, I agree with you, philosophically, but you have to understand the anti-bellum Southern economy. Most southerners were not slave owners. Only about 1 in 10 citizens of slave states owned a slave. The price of a slave was approximately $500 - $1000 in the 1850s, which is more than an average man's yearly salary at that time (btw, the price of a slave fell throughout the 1850s as the market began to acknowledge that the price of a slave was limiting toward $0 in anticipation of slavery's end). Southerners were dirt poor, by and large. Most southerners never owned slaves, believed it was morally wrong and knew that it was a custom that would come to an end at some point. But, as Thomas Jefferson described it 60 years earlier "Slavery is like holding a wolf by the ears: you don't like it, but you sure as hell don't want to let go of it."

The Civil War was fought by piss-poor, dumbass southerners who were rallied by propoganda. The slave owners were gentlemen planters who neither fought nor suffered greatly as a result of the abolishment of slavery.