The reparations industry

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/africa/6496777.stm

Last night there was a TV program on BBC4 called Racism: A History. There was a whole discussion about the origins of racism that never mentioned the Arabs. Here's a summary I found on the web:

'Racism: the driving force behind some of the most atrocious crimes in human history. This three-part series starts by considering the implications of the early contact between Europeans and people of Africa and the Americas in the fifteenth century. Featuring interviews with distinguished scholars, the programme explores the development of racist ideas and practices in key institutions, and shows how the writings of some of Europe's greatest thinkers influenced debates surrounding slavery, freedom and imperialism.'
http://www.theherald.co.uk/features/filmtv/display.var.1273341.0.0.php

According to this program, racism and slavery were invented by the Europeans in the 1400's. I watched as professor after professor came out with the same information, the same theories from the same set texts- as if slavery didn't exist before the 1400's. That's not scholarship- that's anti-European propaganda and political diatribe, spouted by Europeans. God, we must hate ourselves!

Who were the slave procurers to the world for at least the last 2000 years, and as you can see from the news article today, still ship people as commodities? Yes, its the Arabs. Forget about Frenchmen or Englishmen or Dutchmen inventing racism. The Arabs were capturing, dealing and selling black Africans long before the English emerged from their little island to conquer the world. But to know that you'd actually have to tell the whole historical narrative, and to tell it you'd have to know it in the first place. Most of the 'anti-racism' and 'blame-whitey-for-slavery' campaigns are covertly or overtly about reparations. These people want money. They don't want to earn it. They want to be given it, even though they aren't slaves and never will be slaves.

The slavery system was run in Africa by Africans to a very large extent. Dominant tribes would raid small tribes, and sell the 'proceeds' to tribes near the coast, who sold the slaves on to the Arabs. Anybody who takes five minutes to research the slave trade could tell you this- but interestingly this is not the story we are being told. All the stories are about the middle passage, when the slaves were finally sold into Europeans hands to be transshipped to the America's. Given that most of the written records are horrified accounts of this stage of the slaves journey written by Europeans, this is to some extent not surprising. But it is still not excusable if your interest is historical truth rather than dollar accumulation.

To get any of my money, all the claimants for reparations will have to prove to me incontrovertibly that their ancestors were victims of the slave trade and not its executors. I have never owned a slave, and given that my ancestors were to the best of my knowledge field labourers in Hampshire for the last few millenia, I don't feel even a bit responsible for the slave trade. Collective punishment of the British for the sins of our forefathers would also bring up some issues as a precedent. I imagine their are few groups of people across the globe who don't have some blots on their consciences. Here's a suggestion to the reparations activists angling to get their hands on my money- go get real a job and stop bringing yourselves into disrepute.