I have benefitted in some way from every job I've had, especially the unpaid ones I had while I was a kid. Everything I have ever done has taught me something, even if it was just the value of showing up on time and doing more than is asked.
Over the last few days, Biden had Kamala ride her Yellow Electric School Bus down to Florida to straighten out Ron DeSantis and the people of Florida on their fascism for including in the school curriculum a proposition that slaves actually benefitted individually from skills they learned as a slave.
Of course, the lefties in the media and on social media are claiming that Florida schools are banned from teaching about slavery, which they are not. Kamala made a threat filled speech the other day about how the right is erasing history by not teaching about slavery, by which they mean teaching the CRT position that slavery and the continuing racism of white people has kept black Americans down for a century and a half.
It seems they must have overlooked the studies that show almost every minority does better than native born blacks, including recent black African immigrants. I’m sure they just forgot.
I don't think the Florida is trying to say slavery is was a net positive, because nobody with any kind of conscience thinks that, the point they are making is just that slaves learned things they otherwise would not have that were helpful when they had to work for themselves to survive.
I made this point a year or so ago in a post called "As Compared to What Utopia":
"Since slavery is the major hammer the left uses, I know of only one way to measure what America has truly become – and that is to compare (in today’s terms) America to the countries in Africa from whence came slaves.
This is not a claim that slavery was a positive situation – but it happened and the past cannot be changed – all we can do now is to compare the progress – both social and economic – since slavery ended in America to the same elements of progress in those origin countries.
According to research, most of the slaves in America came from what are now the African countries of Senegal, Gambia, Guinea-Bissau and Mali; and west-central Africa, including what is now Angola, Congo, the Democratic Republic of Congo, as well as Ghana and the Ivory Coast.
Let us assume there had been no slave trade and no Africans were brought to the US. Now compare the economic and social conditions of those nine African countries to the conditions of slave descendants in America today.
In the period since slavery was exterminated in America, slavery in these countries continued to exist, frequent coups and war continued, corruption and poverty has reigned and tribal conflicts and genocide have continued. On top of that, China has entered the African continent as an economic colonizer with its “belt and road” initiatives, seducing poor, corrupt nations with modernization projects and financing projects with loans that could never be repaid. When the debtor nation finds itself in default, China just takes ownership of the collateral, often a port, some major infrastructure or natural resource.
Let’s also keep in mind that while we are constantly lectured about how much more enlightened Europe is than Americans, many of these African countries remained colonies of those same “enlightened” Europeans, not gaining independence from their European masters until the 1960’s and 1970’s."
Just last week, David R. Henderson of the American Institute for Economic Research made the same point, just better researched and written and quoting Walter Williams in the process:
"The late economist Walter E. Williams said that slavery was the worst thing ever to happen to his ancestors, but the best thing ever to happen to him. Why? Because instead of growing up in Guinea-Bissau, Angola, Senegal, Mali, or the Democratic Republic of Congo, he enjoyed the opportunities, wealth, health, security, and freedom of the United States.
The descendants of slaves, such as Williams, received the bounty of being born in America, where the average per capita annual income for blacks is $24,509. While the enslaved people came from a variety of African countries, the five mentioned above have an average annual income of $1,650. Over a hypothetical 40-year career, the difference is hundreds of thousands of dollars. "
Slavery was nobody’s idea of a good time. It was a horrific, evil institution, but when trying to balance the equation after 150 years just like every other equation, whether scientific, mathematical or social, one must look at both sides.
When we talk about balancing the scales of slavery, we often hear of Reparations. My thoughts then go to those who have fought and died to end slavery, the battles during the Civil War, those who were found aiding and abetting slaves on the underground railroad, and the many who were killed and had property damage during the riots of the 1960's.
Then I think back further to the founding of our country and those men who signed the Declaration of Independence and as a result were hunted down, hanged, killed by other means, had their families killed, property stolen and often burned to the ground. Where are the Reparations for those folks?
Bottom line is that we are all Americans and can have and be most anything we want by using the gifts that God has given us. And it comes down to a matter of Choice - for as what has been said before me - The Choices you make dictate the life you lead.
My 2 cents.
The supposed concern about slavery is belied by the fact that over 27 million human beings are currently enslaved on this planet, 6 million of whom are children destined for sexual abuse or to be slain for organ harvesting. If those who are screeching for reparations for past slavery are indifferent to modern slavery then their tears are no better than crocodile tears.