I've been trying to find the right way to articulate this-- but the folks on the right have it backwards about who is driven by "white guilt" --

This impulse to cover up and distort the history of slavery reeks of shame. It's, frankly, weird. Nobody has perfect ancestors, what sort of crisis of identity leads one to lie about the past.

It's just the things that happened. You learn about them you learn from them. You do better. Don't make it so emotional and personal.

@futurebird As a second-generation German-American, my position on Nazi atrocities is, my ancestry doesn't mean that I bear blame, but it does mean I bear responsibility—at a minimum, NOT TO DO THAT KIND OF SHIT, but beyond that, to resist others' efforts to do it.

I think some overly sensitive white folks in this country could take a lesson from this framing.

Nobody's telling them to "feel guilty." We're telling them to see what's right and fucking do it, without trying to make it about THEM.

@KeithAmmann @futurebird My family owned slaves. From what I can tell, it was a pretty major plantation. I’m not ashamed of that, it is what it is. What I’m ashamed of is the fact that the rest of my family thinks thats cool in the 21st century, that’s embarrassing. They don’t want to lessen white guilt, they want to keep the romance that they think makes them cool and that’s just gross
@phoenixashes76 @KeithAmmann @futurebird Same same. Some of my ancestors owned slaves. NGL I feel some guilt about that, not because I did it but because I have benefitted from the system. It has made me conscious or woke. I'm willing to pay reparations because I know I started at the middle of the 100-yard dash, not the beginning.