I thought the same thing the first time I tried Turkish delight in America. But then I visited Istanbul and got to try freshly made Turkish delight, and it was ridiculously delicious. Amazing. And in so many flavors. I have never been able to find anything like it in the US.

What exactly is your point in this fixation on racism before the slave trade? Because it does seem, even though you keep saying it isn't, like it is meant to negate some of the evil of slavery. Why do you want to do that so badly? And if you don't - why is it so important to you?

Wait, hold up. Are you really saying that indigenous peoples of America, Africa, and Asia were not respected? Why? Because the only intelligent people on the planet were white Europeans - like Columbus - and they are the only ones whose respect mattered? Your quote kind of proves the obvious fallacy of that belief - he was both despicable and an idiot.

Thank you for pointing out the specifics of this historical evidence. I'm still confused by this fixation on racism related to skin color. I think the above posters have made it clear why this is a "sticking point" - and why it has dangerous implications. This thread is about the exceptional and uniquely evil institution of slavery in the Americas, and shifting that focus to skin color seems either randomly tangential or a deliberate attempt to lessen the evil inherent in American slavery. I want to assume the former.

Incredible mental gymnastics and intellectual dishonesty are required to produce this kind of work. In another century we will have people talking about how there were only a handful of Jews who were mistreated by a few bad Germans - but most of the camps were actually quite nice and kept them safe and well-fed. And Christian homeschoolers will be asked to pretend they are a Jew enjoying themselves at camp. Or maybe not since Germany has actually acknowledged their shameful history while an outrageous percentage of Southerners remain in denial.

Unbelievable. Vile does not even begin to describe this. This is a thousand times worse than that book description. Do you know if this assignment is still in there - what year was this from?

I do think there is direct evidence of racism here. Sorry Daughters of the Confederacy - you do not get to claim that the Confederate flag no longer stands for slavery! Too late. And being dishonest about the Civil War, and choosing to remember it as not about slavery is racist. You have to ignore centuries of horrific violence to be proud of the Confederates who died to preserve their right to continue that violence. You have to believe that the Southern way of life that was dependent on that horrific evil was worth it. That is white supremacy. There is literally no way of reframing the Civil War to exclude slavery without embracing white supremacy.

Germany and the US are hugely different in this regard. There are no memorials to Nazi's in Germany, but we still keep memorials to enslavers in the US. I'm sure racism lives on in Germany, but at least it is acknowledged as evil. It is still in the fabric of the US - as this thread reveals. https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2019/09/germany-has-no-nazi-memorials/597937/

Its kind of like if Sam murdered my daughter, but I also didn't like the way his breath smelled, or his rude way of talking and interrupting others, or his narcissistic personality, and one person said I didn't like Sam because he murdered my daughter. And another person said - NO, she didn't like Sam for many reasons, not just that! You would say to that second person - that is bizarre and twisted - of course the main thing wrong with Sam was that he murdered someone! When you want to say that the Civil war was primarily about "States rights" and NOT about slavery, you are absolutely minimizing the horror of slavery.

From this link: "the breaking point of the States' Rights argument was the issue of slavery" And, "Most white Southerners also feared that an end to their entire way of life was at hand. Many were desperate for one last chance to preserve the slave labor system and saw secession as the only way."

Dishonesty about history is always linked to injustice today. In this case, white supremacy is behind both.

One reason to make little of the role of slavery then is to protect the feelings of the South, to let them romanticize their past - as in that book description - to think of their past as a noble fight for their God-give rights, all with God on their side. Another reason is to make little of continued oppression and injustice today. Let's just pretend it was never a real thing.

I'm not following how this supports the conclusion that the Civil War was not primarily about the South fighting to preserve their right to own slaves. There were other reasons - sure, but the war was primarily about the right to enslave others. It does point out that Lincoln is not the wonderful savior many think he is. For more evidence of that look at how he treated the Indigenous peoples.

These companies are definitely defaming the name of Christ in their racist materials. Abeka and ACE are others. https://www.theguardian.com/education/2021/aug/12/right-wing-textbooks-teach-slavery-black-immigration

Curious if you are referring to primary source documents written AFTER the war.