Dear Editor,
Many of our historians continue to advance very funny and strange arguments in their quest to have Britain and other European powers pay slavery reparations. One of the most hilarious beckons of these historians is the comparison between the Jewish Holocaust and African slavery.
According to this beckon, the Europeans should pay up their "black" debt to us Africans, just as the Germans paid the Jews theirs. However, those of us who understand history will know that this is an apple and egg comparison.
As bad as Hitler may have been, he did not start anti-Semitism. Long before him, Jews were seen by many Europeans as less than human. However, while discrimination against Jews was accepted by many, the extermination of Jews was a very different matter.
Hitler was no fool. He knew that his final solution would not be accepted by Germans. That was why he established his extermination facilities in remote areas, which were unknown to most Germans. Talk of Jewish death camps were dismissed by the Nazis as British propaganda designed to discredit the German government.
Indeed, after the war, when the full details of what the Nazis were doing to the Jews came to light, most Germans were shocked.
This was nothing like African slavery. Africans were openly bought by the Europeans and sold by the Africans in arrangements that were not only legal, but acceptable to both sides. No one was shocked at slavery.
The point being made here is that reparations for Jews were justified because, irrespective of what the rest of the world thought, the German people, for the most part, were ashamed of what happened. How can any reparations for us blacks be justified if our own people were freely selling us out, without any shame?
I would urge those historians who continue to make hilarious beckons to take some time to fully understand what they are calling for. Right now, they are not making much sense.
Michael A Dingwall.
Kingston
michael_a_dingwall@hotmail.com
The hilarious beckons of historians
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Many of our historians continue to advance very funny and strange arguments in their quest to have Britain and other European powers pay slavery reparations. One of the most hilarious beckons of these historians is the comparison between the Jewish Holocaust and African slavery.
According to this beckon, the Europeans should pay up their "black" debt to us Africans, just as the Germans paid the Jews theirs. However, those of us who understand history will know that this is an apple and egg comparison.
As bad as Hitler may have been, he did not start anti-Semitism. Long before him, Jews were seen by many Europeans as less than human. However, while discrimination against Jews was accepted by many, the extermination of Jews was a very different matter.
Hitler was no fool. He knew that his final solution would not be accepted by Germans. That was why he established his extermination facilities in remote areas, which were unknown to most Germans. Talk of Jewish death camps were dismissed by the Nazis as British propaganda designed to discredit the German government.
Indeed, after the war, when the full details of what the Nazis were doing to the Jews came to light, most Germans were shocked.
This was nothing like African slavery. Africans were openly bought by the Europeans and sold by the Africans in arrangements that were not only legal, but acceptable to both sides. No one was shocked at slavery.
The point being made here is that reparations for Jews were justified because, irrespective of what the rest of the world thought, the German people, for the most part, were ashamed of what happened. How can any reparations for us blacks be justified if our own people were freely selling us out, without any shame?
I would urge those historians who continue to make hilarious beckons to take some time to fully understand what they are calling for. Right now, they are not making much sense.
Michael A Dingwall.
Kingston
michael_a_dingwall@hotmail.com
The hilarious beckons of historians
-->