Patriotism and racism: mutually exclusive?

Simply put, I believe the Declaration of Independence, Article 1, and the Equal Protection Clause to the Constitution very clearly makes the terms in direct opposition to each other. You can't believe in what America stands for and hate fellow Americans of a different race/ethnicity/culture, etc....

Also, in today's world the nation-state is the principle actor, not races. There are plenty of white, black, brown people who subscribe to a belief or a cause that is clearly detrimental to the security of the US (from ISIS to Russia and China) To think you share a common bond based on race is ridiculous...

Does anybody agree with me?

 

You do know that the Declaration of Independence was written by a slave owner, right? Not that I think racism is right, I'm just saying that this nation has a long history of racism.

 

I do, and it was also passed by a Congress whose many members were against slavery. It was always a contentious issue and the courts have subsequently interpreted that you have the right to be treated as an individual, same as all Americans.

 

Race is a social invention used as a means to enforce superiority over others, it has no meaning or context in today's world.

 

I know Race is not a scientic concept.. we can speak about culture: etnicity.. but I think one can be racist and patriot as can be racist and likes collecting stamps... why not?

 

A person can be what ever they want to be, the line for me comes when they attempt to demean others purely based on that opinion - which more often than not is incorrect.

 

Cause collecting stamps is compatible with what America believes, racism is not.

 

Unfortunately, when the Founding Fathers wrote "all men are created equal", they probably didn't count African slaves or other non-Europeans as fully human. At most, maybe 3/5th human.

Let's face it, the brutal conquest of Native Americans and the subordination of Africans (along with other non-European peoples of course) are some of the most important recurring themes throughout our country's history. The bloodiest war in our history was fought over slavery, even if Northern opposition to slavery wasn't always associated with anti-racist sentiment (in many cases, they thought slavery threatened the jobs of free white laborers, and then many Northern cities had segregated communities just like Jim Crow). And even after that conquest and slavery, non-white citizens were still forced into sub-par economic conditions such as those found in ghettos or reservations. Even some non-Anglo Europeans like the Irish and Italians experienced this, yet the mainstream culture eventually let them assimilate before it extended that same courtesy to non-Europeans.

You can credit the "all humanity is equal" sentiment with inspiring civil rights movements and political egalitarianism, but only because the oppressed classes were using their masters' rhetoric against them.

 

Slavery was motivated by economics, not racism.

 

Is that why all the slaves were from Africa?

 

The slaves were from Africa, because the Africans were the ones meeting a growing demand.

Its not like some good ol' redneck boys went to Africa, specifically to capture slaves, to keep da black man down.

In fact, it was a Dutch slave ship that brought slaves to Massachusetts to sell their slave cargo, for lack of any other option and the Massachusettsens said, "um, sure...why not?"

 

Then why go all the way to Africa to get slaves when we had an indigenous population here we could exploit?

 

+ 1 I add the line is in disrespect conduct or violence. To be racist is not evil, bad or good...what´s evil? the violence or the disrespect conduct... but to be racist is not good or bad..

 

Americans didn't go to Africa. The slave ships came here. The slave trade had long been established, by the time North America was colonized. The African slave trade was three centuries old by the time Columbus arrived in the Western Hemisphere.

 

excuse you!
that is what happened, your good ole' redneck buddies did exactly that, it was an order by the pope if you want to get technical. In fact the order before the order was by some jumped up pretty boy in his skinny pants and was precisely to take captive west afrikans. i'll leave you to figure out why that particular order was so rigorously pursued for over 5 years until it was fulfilled

 

and they [the slavers] became todays americans

the slave so- called trade began the same time columbus landed in america give or take a few years. what are you referring to? the crusades maybe?

 

Do you have any documentation to support that post?

 

Some did. Others became today's Britons, Frenchmen, Portuguese, Dutch, Arabs, etc.

The African slave trade began three centuries prior to Columbus discovering the Western Atmosphere.

http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Slavery_in_Africa

 

Don't give me wiki -American-
Slave trade couldn't possibly have started with no European, you must be deliberately trying to confuse this issue with feudalism in medieval society. Go back to school

 

yes thanks.

 

I don't support slavery at all but I think all countries had some form of slavery but America evolved into a country where all are created equal

 

possibly but it is without doubt that the 400 years between 1400 and 1800 are like nothing else in history and americans exploited this systematic abuse in order to build their empire and the "industrial revolution".

 

True, but it's also true that Americans are hardly monolithic in their decisions. This country has always had a rather substantial anti-slavery following...

 

Expand your POV on this.

 

By the quotes, letters, and documents they left behind, it is clear that most of our founding fathers wished to see slavery ended, though they did not believe it possible for it to happen in their lifetimes. Some of them, most notably Benjamin Franklin, Alexander Hamilton, and John Jay, were very supportive of the rapidly growing abolitionist movement. Benjamin Franklin was President of the Pennsylvania society for Promoting the Abolition of Slavery, which included Jay and Hamilton. The year he died, he signed a petition for the abolition of all slavery. He died before he got to see it become a reality.

http://www.revolutionary-war.net/slavery-and-the-founding-fathers.html

Here is a list of who did and didn't have slaves, out of the founding fathers
http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/1269536/The-Founding-Fathers-and-Slavery

You can see from the list of those who did many still found it to be repugnant wanted to see it abolished, some even supporting the abolitionist movement.

Aside from founding fathers, there were still noteworthy critics so slavery to include churches.

http://www.christianchronicler.com/history1/slavery_and_the_churches.htm

America has had many struggles but as always been a place built on the idea of freedom. True it took too long to achieve it, but it was done.