Slavery Apologies

[irc]

Blah, blah, blah. Glasgow City is the latest organisation to apologise for slavery a few hundred years ago. Something which the current residents of the city had nothing to do with.

I wait with bated breath to receieve an apology from Italy for the enslavement of Britons during the Roman occupation and for the current Danes, Swedes, and Norwegians to say sorry for the nasty behaviour of the Vikings towards my ancestors a few hundred years later.


https://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/news/scottish-news/l...

[nick30]

irc said:

Blah, blah, blah. Glasgow City is the latest organisation to apologise for slavery a few hundred years ago. Something which the current residents of the city had nothing to do with.

I wait with bated breath to receieve an apology from Italy for the enslavement of Britons during the Roman occupation and for the current Danes, Swedes, and Norwegians to say sorry for the nasty behaviour of the Vikings towards my ancestors a few hundred years later.


https://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/news/scottish-news/l...

It’s all become a bit ridiculous lately. I heard a radio show the other day saying a statue was being brought down because a white man worked a century or so ago for a cotton mill who sourced cotton from slaves he was a child labourer himself!

Crazy madness is totally unavoidable now.

[Geffg]

I don’t see why anyone has to apologise for things that happened 100-300 yrs ago or however long ago things went on. All those involved are now dead so why do we apologise for things we didn’t do.
Just read that whoopi Goldberg wants the royal family to apologise for slavery. These things went on many years ago and yes it was wrong but that’s what went on. Slavery still exists to an extent in certain cultures.
Blacks where slaves and it’s widely apologised for but no one ever mentions white people being enslaved too.

[alabbasi]

Geffg said:

I don’t see why anyone has to apologise for things that happened 100-300 yrs ago

It was pretty f*cked up though. Not sure if we we should forget and pretend it never happened either. History has a habit of repeating itself.

[ZedLeg]

A huge amount of the wealth of modern Britain is built on slavery and resource theft from colonised countries. An apology is the least we can offer imo.

[nick30]

ZedLeg said:

A huge amount of the wealth of modern Britain is built on slavery and resource theft from colonised countries. An apology is the least we can offer imo.

Hang on does that mean the queen should apologise? I’m not sure about that.

[Randy Winkman]

ZedLeg said:

A huge amount of the wealth of modern Britain is built on slavery and resource theft from colonised countries. An apology is the least we can offer imo.

And I don't see what harm it does. I guess that everything offends someone though.

[ZedLeg]

We can add it to the list of things the royal family should apologise for before the monarchy is abolished

[Abdul Abulbul Amir]

ZedLeg said:

A huge amount of the wealth of modern Britain is built on slavery and resource theft from colonised countries. An apology is the least we can offer imo.

You could say that about many countries.

[mattyprice4004]

alabbasi said:

It was pretty f*cked up though. Not sure if we we should forget and pretend it never happened either. History has a habit of repeating itself.

So are lots of things; it's the way of the world.

No point going around apologising for everything to appease the whinging PC brigade - the best thing we can do is work towards a truly equal present and future.
Apologies mean nothing, but there's plenty we could do to promote equality in the here and now.

[7mike]

alabbasi said:

Geffg said:

I don’t see why anyone has to apologise for things that happened 100-300 yrs ago

It was pretty f*cked up though. Not sure if we we should forget and pretend it never happened either. History has a habit of repeating itself.

Who said anything about forgetting and pretending it never happened? Incidentally, if you're genuinely concerned about history repeating itself try looking up 'modern slavery'

[Portofino]

What a load of shiite.

Unless you were lucky to be rich we were all slaves at some point.

[ZedLeg]

Abdul Abulbul Amir said:

ZedLeg said:

A huge amount of the wealth of modern Britain is built on slavery and resource theft from colonised countries. An apology is the least we can offer imo.

You could say that about many countries.

You could and they should all be held accountable.

[slightlyoldgit]

Randy Winkman said:

ZedLeg said:

A huge amount of the wealth of modern Britain is built on slavery and resource theft from colonised countries. An apology is the least we can offer imo.

And I don't see what harm it does. I guess that everything offends someone though.

It isn't offensive - it is absurd and ridiculous.

I am responsible for my actions, not the actions of my father, mother, uncles, aunts or brother or sister. I will accept responsibility for the actions of my children and any other action I am directly complicit in of course.

I am certainly not complicit in and therefore accountable and certainly not required to apologise for the actions of my grandparents, great grandparents or simply the society and country I happen to have been born in a couple of centuries post a given set of terrible choices and positions of a society at that time.

It is absurd & ridiculous.

Edited by slightlyoldgit on Thursday 31st March 21:27

[Portofino]

ZedLeg said:

Abdul Abulbul Amir said:

ZedLeg said:

A huge amount of the wealth of modern Britain is built on slavery and resource theft from colonised countries. An apology is the least we can offer imo.

You could say that about many countries.

You could and they should all be held accountable.

Politely, surely a joke Zed?

You know, in the real world.

[ZedLeg]

anonymous said:

[redacted]

This is probably the most asinine argument in these discussions.

The slavery we’re talking about didn’t happen thousands of years ago. It was relatively recent history and many institutions in our society directly benefited from it.

[ZedLeg]

Portofino said:

ZedLeg said:

Abdul Abulbul Amir said:

ZedLeg said:

A huge amount of the wealth of modern Britain is built on slavery and resource theft from colonised countries. An apology is the least we can offer imo.

You could say that about many countries.

You could and they should all be held accountable.

Politely, surely a joke Zed?

You know, in the real world.

Saying something should happen doesn’t mean it will happen.

We all know that too many of the people who’ve inherited wealth and influence from our terrible history are in positions of power for us to ever really reckon with it.

[faa77]

ZedLeg said:

Abdul Abulbul Amir said:

ZedLeg said:

A huge amount of the wealth of modern Britain is built on slavery and resource theft from colonised countries. An apology is the least we can offer imo.

You could say that about many countries.

You could and they should all be held accountable.

All of them going back 10,000 years?

[slightlyoldgit]

ZedLeg said:

anonymous said:

[redacted]

This is probably the most asinine argument in these discussions.

The slavery we’re talking about didn’t happen thousands of years ago. It was relatively recent history and many institutions in our society directly benefited from it.

Will you be pursuing the families of the mill owners of the 19th century based on their use of now illegal child labour?

Will you be pursuing the families of the exploiters of what would now be child prostitutes in the 18th & 19th centuries for historical sex crimes?

Will you be pursuing the families of those that denied women the vote prior to 1928 based on gender discrimination?

Will you be pursuing the families of drivers that broke the 70mph speed limit prior to 1965?

I could go on and on and on...

It........ is.........absurd.

[irc]

ZedLeg said:

A huge amount of the wealth of modern Britain is built on slavery and resource theft from colonised countries. An apology is the least we can offer imo.

I would dispute that. Britain abolished slavery in 1807. We were not then a wealthy country by todays standards. Out current wealth is due largely to the industrial revolution and scientific advancement which have nothing to do with slavery or resource theft. The industrial revolution was fueled by UK water and coal power.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Industrial_Revolutio...

We forget how recent our current high living standards are. My grandfather was born at the end of the 19th century in a Scottish crofting community. He lived in a black house. A one room building with a fire in the middle of the floor and the people at one end and the cow at the other. Should he have apologised for benefitting from slavery?