Why we must confront the painful parts of US history | Hasan Kwame Jeffries
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- Опубліковано 27 жов 2020
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To move forward in the United States, we must look back and confront the difficult history that has shaped widespread injustice. Revisiting a significant yet overlooked piece of the past, Hasan Kwame Jeffries emphasizes the need to weave historical context, no matter how painful, into our understanding of modern society -- so we can disrupt the continuum of inequality massively affecting marginalized communities.
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Those handprints on the bricks should be talked about as often as the piles of shoes in Auschwitz. I'm a german and we learn a lot about the Holocaust in school like a lot a lot, so much so that in my history major class in high school we discussed, if there's a "having learned enough" (we decided it wasn't but just the fact that it was a topic school wanted us to think about shows how much we talk about it in class) and I know it would be really f'ing helpful for y'all Americans of you talked about your country's crimes as much as we do about ours.
Lol you are brainwashed...
The thing is, as an American, I learn plenty about my country's history, including the bad things, and I hate that those things happened. But just because we don't destroy ourselves on every single bad thing that happened in our past doesn't mean that we don't learn or that we ignore our history. It would be really helpful for y'all Germans if you learned and understood your history, but didn't destroy yourselves over it and let it continue to do harm.
@@scarwing2492 You shouldn't generalize Americans, as many intelligent and well-spoken Americans I've met, an equal part idiotic brainwashed manchildren I've again also met.
No matter were you go in the world there will be corruption and a lot of things we want to forget but we don't, it's easier to remember 9/11 than compared to when the guy who planned it died. All I'm saying is no country is pure, every country will have it's defects
We remember and learn but we don't talk about it out of highschool
You killed 6 million people. Hold this L
It's wild how people still absolutely refuse to acknowledge how tangibly our history effects the present. Ruby Bridges is 66 years old, y'all.
This.
The fact that many cannot see how pains from history still affect relations in the present invokes a mix between rage and despair within me (disappointed but not surprised overall)
@@s0Shi no, most of us do realize that but what good does it do dwelling on it?! The best we can do is treat each other well and focus on today and tomorrow .
@@billsimms2511 don’t know how much that can apply, because there are too many people that aren’t taught the reality/weight of history (some even outright deny/downplay the situation) and don’t see the effects of how it still plays into today’s social issues,, that’s why it’s crucial to understand history and social sciences to really progress and move forward. It’d be ideal if we could be positive and carry on, but to ignore the harms only further delays actual progress; we’ve still got a lot to recognize and work on before we can truly be at ease and equal
@@billsimms2511 I don't see how teaching accurate Historical injustices is "dwelling" on it? I suppose we could remove History from schools as it seems to be dwelling on the past...?
@@billsimms2511
How is it that black people are the only people that should not talk about their history nor find their ancestors? Your choice is for us not to look at our history nor find our ancestors, however, our choice is to find the pieces of our history, find our ancestors and the heritage that they left for us. It would be very nice, if you would show your compassion by helping us search for the truth. 💛
Luke 10:27
And he answered, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind, and your neighbor as yourself.”
Romans 13:8
Owe nothing to anyone except to love one another; for he who loves his neighbor has fulfilled the law.
Wow, Hasan Jeffries, that was touching. I am an African American woman with many years of corporate experience, who endured too many -isms while there. I can relate to your ask of our nation to learn from our past and teach it to all in our care to not continue that legacy. I applaud you for being brave in sharing this complex history. I, Michelle Starr, want America to SCALE its BRAVERY and go one step further to END that history and START anew. All cultures want PEACE and HARMONY in their lives. Many cultures DO NOT want to continue what their ancestors began. Many cultures no longer remain quiet accepting what their ancestors had to accept. This bravery I ask is for all of us to step out of our comfort zones and BE BROWN BRAVE to change what you shared and begin living our history NOW for our children, grandchildren, and greats. Thank you for sharing.
Accept the past or else nature will balance it off for us
If you’re going through rough times, please don’t give up.
Better times are coming ❤️
And worse times too! Such is Life!
Get out there and earn your bruises!
In Jeezy's day, slaves were normal!
Funny, how he didn't do a single significant thing about that.
Nature owns
The outrage of slavery wasn't the hard work, not even the hard work of children. In Madison's time, the vast majority of children, of all races, across the planet, worked hard. In fact, making bricks was probably among the easier and less dangerous jobs. The outrage of slavery was also not the poverty. None of the children with hard, dangerous jobs came from wealthy families. None of them inherited any wealth. In fact, there are places in the World where children, to this day, spend all their waking hours working on making bricks, just like those in Madison's basement.
The outrage of slavery was the complete devaluation of someone's worth, and the denial of all individual potential. The vast majority of poor people _wouldn't_ manage to build any wealth, but slaves _couldn't_ build any wealth. They were prohibited by law and culture from even trying. For practical purposes, the difference seems small. Whether one is poor because almost everyone is, or whether one is poor because of slavery and racism, the hunger is still the same. However, the fact that many back then, and almost everyone today, recognize the outrage of slavery proves that values and principles are practical. Humiliation and absence of hope really does make suffering worse.
Rather than focusing on the material hardship, which wasn't unique to slavery, we should focus on the humiliation and moral cruelty, which was unique to slavery.
The turnaround in social structure that enables Hasan Kwame Jeffries' family to transfer wealth happened prior to the 1980ies, by the way. The change was in the things that allowed them to acquire the wealth in the 1980ies. To identify the problems of current social structures, we have to look at how wealth is acquired and not today.
great video
Slavery, white people, America... got it.
He should of kept reading about Irish immigrants and the Cherokee, but let's not trip him up with slavery of other groups.
@@kingred06 slaves owned Irish immigrants. Read a book. The slave trade continues in Africa and noone is calling for its abolition. Your righteousness outshines your intellect.
@@kingred06 you replied to me lol, carry on with yourself.
A very truthful and clear narrative. well done.
Surprised this video didn't get massively disliked by the always wonderful Ted subscribers haha
Huh?
‘You can’t know where you are going,
Until you know where you’ve been.’
powerful and necessary
Banking history please!
Having observed that there was "something" in my mother's psyche that was a problem for her I eventually linked it to a traumatic event that happened in the 1820s to my great great great grandmother. I'm English and white. Back then a commentator said: "The way many of the poorer people are being treated in this country is worse than the way black slaves are being treated in America." There was an opinion that the rise of agricultural technology meant that less people were needed ... unemployed rural people were subjected to all sorts of restrictions ... including not being allowed to leave their place of birth and being forciby returned if they tried to. The consumption of cheap alcohol was encouraged amongst these people ... leading to an early death. The 'Last Labourer's Revolt' in the early 1830s brought about significant changes ... but uprisings by agricultural workers for the next 2-3 decades needed local militia to quell them. Initially when education for all children was proposed the Church of England said that it should it be "very basic" ... just enough for them to be obedient to their "masters". I can empathise with black people who feel that the way their slave ancestors were treated is still affecting them in some subtle way.
Poor people still had personhood. They possessed some form of autonomy, which slaves never had. While I understand what you’re saying, I vehemently disagree.
Knowing the past isn't the same as living in the past.
That point is invalidated how offended I am by your fragility. (lol)
Now do one one the painful history of Marxist Communism TED
Hope they do it in a near future...
@@ZennExile i agree, communism is worshiped nowadays because people don't know how horrible it was, just because they can't afford their rent, basically
@Rebecca Leeman certainly.
Perfect.I am not an american or an african. When I watched your video I believe that we have got also hard history.but how we can change this not equal system?
Tear it down. It keeps us oppressed, divided and distracted.
I don’t have all the answers, I am just trying to ask better questions. I would start with Isabelle Wilkerson’s ‘Caste: Origins of our Discontent.’
Don’t believe you can solve a problem, until you completely understand it.
Oh for the days when TED talks were about science and not social issues.
They’ve always been around a wide array of subjects. You can pick and choose which ones you watch, no need to be rude
I thought the dude in the thumbnail was Michael Keegan
Profiting off a racist process such as gentrification. He owes reparations from that profit.
That point is invalidated how offended I am by your fragility. (lol)
@@fudgeknuckle952 good for you brother, despite these hard times, youre making something positive out of it. Genuinely thanks and have a Blessed week!
Should Africa confront the “painful parts” of its history too? 🤔 Or just the West that HAS to be more”inclusive”
This guy is so dishonest and full of it! Tell him to go join Fidel and The Soviets. That BS isn’t going to work on anyone . Knowledge is POWER
“Others have done wrong, therefore it is okay that I have”
@@Ultigen Wrongdoing is not “okay.”... but please explain why we are the only country that has to, both, accept more immigrants AND keep being told to apologize for past crimes, when America is the best thing thats ever happened to “minorities” across the planet.
@Optical Clarity GOD BLESS YOU! AND THANK YOU FOR YOUR HONEST HEART. 🙏
You can talk about any subject you want. Why do defensive about this topic?
As a German, Every day of my life I am reminded of the "12 dark years", like english or American media, and i think that is ok.
On the other hand, i am surprised that British or American media and citizens (want to) know little about their "hard story" with colonization and slavery and then like to gloss it off as the glorious empire or as "So it was then".
People living today have no guilt in what happened in history because if you did no people, color, culture would be without guilt. Slavery was an integral part of African culture long before any European or Arab conquoror set foot there.
That is true, but then why are the US and UK media and citizens not getting tired of telling other peoples what their ancestors did wrong. And in case of the US it is not slavery alone. Take what the US did with the native and only real american people. But that's not a topic either.
Your are right the media doesn’t do a good job when it comes to the British and American terrible past but there is a new documentary on Netflix that talks about this
The Untold History of the United Stated by Oliver Stone and the Journey of an African Colony, making of Nigeria. As the world looks for answers about our past , it will be harder to bury the past. The Germans paid reparations but the British and American don’t want to and want to hang on to the false narrative of their “great” history.
So we should all have forever guilt for things that we never took part in, but the descendents of the wronged don't have to answer for the things there doing now?
@@Yithmaster
You don't get my point, maybe my english isn't good enough to explain it. Or I don't get your point because my english reading fails me.
People must be honest with their own history. But instead the US and UK, in particular, are generously pushing other peoples' noses into what they or their ancestors did wrong. On the other hand they avoid to think about their own "hard historie", not even realising it. Two tongues.
It’s history. Some of it is a story and some is true.. Nothing new here. .. moving along. ..🕊
“Mistakes were made”
Like you
I wonder if he`s related to the US Senator Jefferies ? Very astute observations, & factual . . .
They are brothers.
Truth
295 people don't want to face hard history
323 now
5:29 "there is no such thing as a good master. There is only worse and worser"
Now go out there and vote for the lesser of two evils. Lmao
Well........ you could say it's retribution for the piss poor job we have done for the job were placed here for.
STUARTS of the EARTH, and All Things On and In the Earth!
@@getphuked2 stewards but yes! well said!
Indeed!
Trump?
If you keep walking facing backwards, you are likely to fall over something.
What do you mean?
What do you mean relative to this topic?
@@IAmNoOne281 I mean that overly fixating on the past, means you will miss something in the future, that you could have avoided, if you were not fixated on the past which is non changeable anyway.
@@daunted2322 are you a white man by chance?
@@daunted2322 only a corrupt banker would object to his clients “seeing the books”. You Sir, are that corrupt banker. Every people ought to know their history, for knowing your history is the only way to ensure it’s not repeated. I bet you can trace you lineage back 6 generations, whereas very few African Americans will ever have that benefit. Your unwillingness to look back is a much quicker way to ensure your demise, than an inability to look forward. The greatest saying is “know thyself”, and when you don’t know yourself people can tell you you’re anything (including an animal) and you’ll believe it. NO ONE tells the Jews “stop looking back” when ever they talk about the holocaust, so why fix your mouth to say this of black people? People like you are the problem, the kind of person who is intolerant of everyone else’s history but their own.
Guuuurrrrrreat
You need to do some traveling around the world and help end the slavery going on in present day.
@Joshua Harper the indian caste system would be a nice exploration for team TEDx, where you're just born lower class to be a plaything of the born privileged upper class. Wonder why it's never brought up in channels supposed to promote equality for all
WE, Americans, need to the end slavery going on right here in our country. No travel required.
...you Start with America first
We are all slaves now. With the illusion of freedom. But the Violent slavery still exists too in a big way. it never dissappeared
@Vi K excellent? I don't think so. Reserving few seats in govt jobs where the lower class are constantly stigmatized even when they get one won't do f all to the problem. It's the indian culture/Hinduism that promotes such social norm the root cause of the problem. Like it or not
In my opinion, we haven't confronted our dark history nearly as much as for example Germany. After all, it's about a national awareness what happened, how it shaped our present and how we can do better in the future. Washington, Madison and others were slave owners AND they were founding fathers. We mustn't deny this seemingly paradox truth just because we'd like to have a simple happy story that makes us feel proud of our history. Instead, we should analyse what went wrong and change it for our future.
Tbh, I don't think majority of actual (studious) students would deny any of this. I just think it's the least unique thing about America.
Id probably give this ted talk a 6/10 i think people dont always try to avoid hard history, or atleast i dont, and yes slavery was disgusting and horrible but it was done all over the world not just in America, it was done in Europe, Asia, some parts in ancient Mesopotamia even, it was a way of life, not saying it was right, but it is what it was, i believe its important to learn from our mistakes and to try and do better, thats what i agreed with him, but what i dont believe is that America is always racist or we still have problems, we do have problems but its so much better, than 50 or 100 years ago and we are getting better every day thank you for coming to my TED talk
I think the reason why people focus on the USA is because of what happened after slavery; segregation, police brutality, abundance of case showing how unfair the criminal justice system is and was. There are also so many examples of discrimination and stereotyping today. However I do agree that slavery near the Middle East isn’t talked about enough.
@@saraanders1194 I agree it was built by enslaved Africans I don’t deny that. But I was telling him that the American slave trade is focused on because it has had more consequences than other slave trades which, are still visible today.
@@ns2207 id like to argue there is so much more segregation and racism in almost any other country
In the context of American History, it wouldn't make much sense to justify slavery because it was happening elsewhere. For contextual purposes, sure. However, I have never heard anyone suggest that (while learning about the Holocaust) that we point out that genocide has taken place all over the world and still is today. "Yada yada, enough with the Hitler/Holocaust stuff - genocide happens everywhere."
I guess I just begin to wonder why there is an (almost) defensiveness when it comes to pointing out that the enslavement of people is inhumane and damaging to its society - which in America, of the enslaved were Africans, Native Americans, and even European Americans. And that slavery has created an imbalance of wealth, class status, and equity along many lines, while benefiting a specific group in power. Like, to me, the very fact that you sidestepped some of the content of this video points out the "avoiding of hard history." We are making strides, the speaker in this video acknowledges that, but is asking that we review the aspects of history (the hard parts) that have led us to this point... that have led us to quarreling whether it was really "that" bad. The fact we are having this discussion is both a sign of progress (that light is being shed upon it), but also a sign that there is more understanding to be done (in acknowledging that we truly embrace and identify the moral-dichotomy of our history, without the "yeah, but" statements).
A typical shameless guy, when you talk about America's dark history, he tells you where there is such a thing. But it just doesn't reflect on their own problems, and justifies it as a way of life.
The public school system does its best to ensure teachers aren't teaching truths, but whatever perpetuates various agendas. Those that try are threatened with their jobs... we need more "underground" education that sticks to truth.
I am a public school teacher and this is not true, I teach everything and I am not PC about it.
@@peggysullivan5396 Kudos on what you do; it's not an easy job and is sadly very underpaid. Good to hear there might be some hope out there. The large urban area where I am, the school systems have really gone downhill. It all seems about "teaching to the test" and whatever needs to be done (agendas inclusive) in order to gain/secure federal funding [much of which goes into building multi-million dollar football stadiums and the like in the larger/richer districts]. To me, with the experiences I have with it, my escape from it in the 90s was "just in time".
Already been confronted and remedied.
Revising and rehashing history is for investigators.
Dude....... wtf, nope it's not for "investigators", it's for Any Normal person to get a Good Context of....How on earth we ended up here and why everything around us is like the way it is,....if u wanna ignore plz do that, be the frog in the well, assuming that's ur world....Good Day Frog
@@gokulsreekumar4371 👈🏼😆
That point is invalidated how offended I am by your fragility. (lol)
@@20alphabet 👈😂 By Product of US Education, Hiding Evry bit of Truth in History, rationalizing Human Trafficking, Slavery and what not the White A-holes of past have done
And the great Grand children of the A-holes have still not given Up BullShitting, wtf is happening to this world
Amen
We have ABSOLUTELY no need to dredge up every historical grievance at a time of unprecedented division and domestic turmoil. This usually amounts to just rabble rousing for the sake of undermining our unity and reinforcing division.
@Daniel Hostetler When? How about, "not all at once in some frenzied pile-on that becomes irrational self-destruction virtually out of the gate."
@Daniel Hostetler Calling me a racist because I’m watching riots in our streets and extreme divisions in every quarter of our society and thinking maybe we need to focus on unifying things for a while is characteristic of exactly why I think we shouldn’t be taking this sort of thing on right now. The rationality isn’t there, the emotionality is running way too high. You prove this.
@Daniel Hostetler “have some integrity you slack jawed half wit idiot” Bro are you even for real? He asked a simple statistical question. If you don’t even know the answer, how are you basing your position on this issue? Isn’t that kind of info pretty important to figuring out whether the problem you think exists - racist policing - actually does, and to what extent?
There is no unity in this nation amongst blacks and whites. Only gentle borders made of egg shell which people are afraid to discuss. White people need to understand, that while slavery was some time ago, Jim Crow picked up precisely where slavery left off.
@@Fightosaurus if you have cancer, the doctor MUST first acknowledge and remove said illness before healing can began. People like you LOVE to talk about the current state and behaviors of black people without ever asking “why this is the case”. As a subject matter expert in psychology, I would never tell a rape victim to “get over it”, because I know the importance of acknowledging the past for the sake of future healing. I challenge you to do some general research into the treatment of blacks in this nation as recently as 50 years ago. I would also challenge you to be more empathetic to those around you. My great grandmother’s , who I knew well, father was a former slave thus to me and people like me, slavery still has lingering long term effects.
All talk, no solutions.
This needs WAY more views. Also, WAY more likes 👍
Why we must confront the darkest part of world's history...
When the south invaded the north after the civil war and all the cities died? yeah that was dark
Bravo !
imagine your in a relationship you get drunk and cheat on your partner, and you deeply regret it. then swear to never do it again and never drink. But they bring it up every single day from then on. That what is happening now.
EVERY FUCKING COUNTRY HAS HAD SLAVERY!
There have been slavery to all races of people for as long as man has been around. So why does America get such a bad rap? We have fixed our mistakes and everyone truly has equal rights and opportunities today.
Because consequences of slavery in USA are still felt to this day. Slaves were released, but were given no compensation for their work. Then came racism, lynchings, Jim Crow. In any other country if a cop knelt 9 minutes and murdered a man, right wing people wouldn't look at dead mans criminal record to try and justify his murder, like it was done in the past to people like Emmet Till. If 2 white guys followed a man armed to teeth looking for reason to murder him like it happened to Ahmaud Arbery, they would be arrested immediately, not 3 months later. Everywhere else, after slavery was abolished, freed slaves were allowed to integrate in society, they weren't segregated, made to ride in back of the bus or to stand. Nowhere else , after slaves were freed and obtained some wealth, were they massacred and their wealth stolen or burned like it happened in Tulsa.
Ww2 Germany tried to block out the past
Guess how well that worked for them
No. They didn't.
@@chefpigardorito3590
Yeah they did
They painted themselves as the good guys
No one even knew about the shower thing
No, it didn't jackass!
@@theconductoresplin8092 I don't see what that has to do with German history up until that point. The Nazis embraced their Imperial past. They didn't shun it.
well look how it worked for russia now they finally infected the US with communism I.E BLM ANTFA the school system parts of the government
I think we would be much better served by confronting the fake parts of history, which is damn near all of it. Look at Anatoly Fomenko's work if you want to begin to understand the fairytales passing as history.
He made interesting points but..."magnifying the issue" doesn't sound like it makes the problems stop it sounds like taking problems today and saying they're just as bad as those from the past.
You don't know what it feels like to be ignored. You're privileged and by design you don't even see it. If you seek truth, see my discussion tab. What do you know about our missing and murdered Indian women and girls, settler? The odds are high, you've never even heard of MMIW before.
See my playlist and check out the videos. I see you're a lady, start with the educational videos I have in the playlist and check out the MMIW ones at least please. I think you'll like littlefeathers speech too.
@@Warrior_Resisting_Colonialism how can you know that she is more privileged than anyone else? Also, everyone has some sort of privilege. Attractive people and people with two parents in the household have more privilege than almost anyone. You are just focusing on race because it fits the oppresser vs the oppressed world view. Every country, nation, or group of people in history have committed terrible atrocities. Why should the west be focused on when we have the most free societies on the planet. Everyone already knows about slavery and the mistreatment of natives. Just because we do not know every fact about history does not mean that everyone is ignorant of the past. Every group in the world has committed these crimes. Talking about privilege is stupid. There are an infinite amount of privileges. Should we really compete to see who is the least or most privileged ?
@@daltonrodman6027 well because he looked at the color of her skin and made an assumption.
@@jond.4519 Liar! I read her words.
I inherited almost no wealth (okay $10K) from my parents. I think that's more the norm, and this inheritance typically occurs to adult children who have already made their way in the world.
Almost all wealth is destroyed within 3 generations, universally. My parents didn't give me a thing and neither did theirs. I still made it perfectly fine as a mixed race person in the dozens of states lived lived in. This is theatre.
@@fudgeknuckle952 yes broke white people exist in our community, most of them uneducated/un-motivated. Yet, that’s not the subject matter at hand being addressed.
I'll thank God if my parents are able to pass anything on to me. The speaker in this video is either clueless or he actually thinks white people are rich and always able to pass down their wealth. Even if I was directly related to slave owners and felt inclined to pay for the sins of my ancestors, what are the odds that any of the supposed ill-gotten gains have made it to my hands?
Home Wall
Usually, privileged people tend to squander it or abuse it. It’s very normal. The ones without privileges tend to marvel at that. That’s also human.
Great history lesson..
....hard history and dark history abounds all around the planet....much of it festers for years afterward....
we all need to understand and behave w tolerance and respect for one another....we can't change the past but we have control over ourselves each day
wypipo in the comments section busy being the worst.
Race traitor
Thx for the burmese sub
And by the time America was founded, slavery had been a staple part of all civilizations (caucasian, asian, and african) for millenia. And even during those millenia, there had been many societies that had tried to abolish slavery in their cultures. But it wasn't until the past 300 years it really begin to stick and become a global phenomena of giving up such a cultural staple. If you look at a time of known anti-slavery movements, America started right at the beginning of its founding with, especially up North, a lot of people starting the first efforts at removing slavery in America. You don't turn off millenia of behavior overnight. It can only be a slow process because people are people. Real slavery, as it was known 300 years ago, is barely a thing these days. We shoudl be grateful it's over as a common social construct. Nobody today can owe anyone anything.
This reminds me that I got an F in US history 😅
James Madison didn't free his slaves, therefore what? Do we throw out the Bill of Rights? What's the action point? It's not like we're not teaching about slavery. We know it was wrong...and pretty much NOBODY is recommending we "repeat" it. So what would you see change today?
The problem is racial issues are tough, cause in fighting politically, verbally, physically and super power nations looking in ( Russia and China for example) take advantage and get ahead while we dwell in the past. That’s the hard fact and why it needs to be handled with care.
The house value went up when all the shooting and gang violence stopped? shocker
Some of us are living the most painful parts of History.
Why don’t you tell that to someone who lived in the Middle Ages.
hahahahahahahaha that's fucking hilarious. I'm an Armenian. That means my country's ally Turkey once purged me culture from the world. We were ancient when Jesus Christ was speaking our language. How did the Young Turks purify a woman pregnant with an "unpure" Christian baby? They cut it out of her. And then raped her - to save her soul if she lived long enough. That's the world the west killed everywhere we "colonized" a place. The idea that anyone with access to this video would imagine their world is worse then the previous generations is so laughably stupid I struggle imagine how deeply you must have been indoctrinated with. Slavery and the associated with the west itself is imaginary. Slavery existed everywhere for thousands of years until the steam engine eventually made it obsolete. This is just political theatre.
Not as painful as the fate of those who were castrated and sent to the eastern slave trade.
I'd like to see a TED video about how and why TED got so woke. They used to do interesting science videos. Not anymore.
Liberal media people got in to their UA-cam account. How can you even confront history..
@@Macbille you apologize to the people and accept the past
@@charlietube7165 Smart so only people who deny these events or people who were responsible for the events can confront this history. I'm neither so I can't "confront" it as you explain.
How is talking about history "woke"?
We have to expose the Whole Truth.
As a side note, how exactly is racism NOT your problem? Either your ancestors enslaved people or were enslaved themselves. Unless you and all of your ancestors have been living in a community completely separated from any form of society for all of history, slavery will have been a major part of who your family was. Since children take on the same attitudes as their parents, racism will be perpetrated down through your family line. It may be diluted, just like any bloodline, but it will always exist. You can't accuse anyone of being racist because of that, but you must accept that racism does make up a part of you. There is no blame, just recognition, understanding, and the opportunity to change for the better.
Truly misguided and abhorrent world view. How do you answer for people who immigrated within the last century? Families of mixed heritage (virtually all African American population)? Ideas and moral worth aren’t passed via bloodline.
Words built on love twisted into hate; a choice to be someone different manipulated into just another opportunity to argue over a point which was only meant to promote thoughtfulness. I’m not telling you how to think or what to do. I’m simply giving you a different perspective and a chance to be someone better than you were yesterday. The point I’m trying to make is that we all suffer from racism. A society built on racism affects everyone in the society. As I said, there is no blame, only recognition. Yet the first thing you talk about is precisely that. Can we not have a open and friendly discussion?
Leicester fans when hasan says James Maddison was a US president:
Well yes, but actually no.
It's: M A D I S O N.
UGH!
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Madison James Madison (March 16, 1751 - June 28, 1836) was an American statesman, diplomat, expansionist, philosopher, and Founding Father who served as the fourth president of the United States from 1809 to 1817.
Works written: The Federalist Papers, Federalist ...
@@tgkprog my point is that James Madison is also a footballer for English Premier League side Leicester City FC.
@@tgkprog what’s that sound? It’s the sound of a joke flying over your head. R/Woooosh
Truth matters.
Hello sir hve a bless early morning
Lol it's almost 9 am for me
@@MrHuman-dx4bc 12:38 am for me 😂
OR.... people can stand up and take responsibility for their actions, acknowledge their strengths and weaknesses and work hard to better themselves? Rather than, i dunno, say.. blaming an entire race of people for their own shortcomings?
That point is invalidated how offended I am by your fragility. (lol)
I'd like to see the Japanese confront the painful parts of THEIR history , starting with unit 731 ( also known as Detachment 731) of the Imperial Japanese Army during WW2
Glass houses, man....
Good point!
The Japanese treatment of Nanjing/Nanking make the Nazis look like polite schoolboys.
@@cla99009 Yet the U.S needed such " expertise " during the cold war , hence operation paperclip , and others like it
Japan and German are good ally
Some of those paid slaves this joker is talking about, actually inherited some of the property.
Imagine if white people spent all their time bitching about being indentured servants 200 years ago.
@@DegreesOfThree I can't imagine it, someone has to pay the taxes so these idiots can sit around and complain all day.
so slavery is cool if they get stuff? Got it…
@@AG72980 slavery is many things. One is earning nothing. Another is owning no personal property, and another is being owned as property.
The truth is that if you aren't someone else's property, you can get paid, by working, and then owning whatever property you want.
So, people are people. A lot of people are enslaved by their very own minds.
Or have their minds captured by social media and marketing.
You dont understand things the way I do.
There is a bigger picture on all sides, but once people make up their mind on what the bigger picture is, they get stuck in that, even though far more important things come up.
And who knows why that happens?
Wonderful
What's good for the goose is good for the gander. Let us too address genocide and tribal welfare amongst the American Indians, and Africa's major active participation in international slavery; slavery did not officially end there until the 1980s. But I know the purveyors of double standard will never discuss it. We are spoiled rotten from the miracle of the Republican form of government set up by The Founders of this country.
American historians only talk about American history? Shocking
Ah, I wasn't alive back then so don't look at me as being guilty of anything. Or can I assign blame to anyone I choose for the killing, burning and looting now going on just by skin color? No I can't for the present and no you can't for the past because that would make us both racists.
Those are my thoughts and my beliefs, that won't change.
I like this.
whoops there it is
Hasan Kwame Jefferies is a funny and very knowledgeable man, it was a pleasure to watch him speak here. Our nation's terrible history of how we've come to be is something that I can't even begin to think of how to explain it to my kids. I'm a 34 year old white guy that's half Italian/Mediterranean and half western European. My oldest son is 5 and beginning to ask all of the hard questions of the cruelty by men in this world. I don't want him to know how bad the people in the world can be yet and want him to experience his childhood for as long as possible without knowing hatred, but I also want to make sure that he knows the bad parts eventually too. He heard the n-word in a song (we listen to all types of music and his favorite is rap/pop currently) and wanted to know what it meant. I tried to explain it as simply as possible and that it was a very bad word that we don't ever speak to anybody ever but it's difficult for me to let him know the truth behind the word and it's terrible history. His 3 best friends are Black, Puerto Rican and Indian respectively and we also have Black and Puerto Rican mixed within our family and close friends. The innocence of them all playing together without a care in the world about color is so beautiful that I get emotional about it at times lol and I don't want to jeopardize how they see their friends and family by how I explain everything since they are so young. Any thoughts about the best way to go about this? Should I start off lightly then get into the more sinister details when they are older? I just don't know...help please! (side note, I'm a diagnosed sufferer of OCD, Generized Anxiety Disorder and Panic Disorder, also Major Depressive Disorder. I'm medicated and have everything under control for the most part, but I tend to over think everything until I'm feel like I'm spinning around and falling into a deep pit lol, so bare with the long paragraph please and maybe it'll help provide some insight as to why I'm so worried about this.) Thank you!
I’m Sicilian and we were slaves ourselves. Will you teach your son about that? Will you teach him that CURRENTLY in Africa , 9% of the population are still slaves?? AMERICA IS GREAT! APPRECIATE IT!
@@Salvatorus World History will also be on their agenda in the future. I'm more concerned about US history that is still affecting our society to this day. America IS great and I'm proud to be an American. But denying our true history isn't the path I wish to take into the future.
@@ssjrob4 might I tell you that psychologically speaking , living in the past , can cause many mental illnesses. Moving on, accepting what has happened and unifying ones self with everyone else is how you over come traumas. Not by becoming angry, vigilant, hateful, violent, and consistently visiting those thoughts or actions. If that doesn’t make sense to you, or you disagree, then you disagree with science, and are a self destructive, illogical being. Have a nice day. Ci Vediamo
@@Salvatorus you're a funny man LOL
@@ssjrob4 You should listen to Salvatorus, you or you child have no guilt over what happened in the past and always remember there's bigger fish - meaning, American slavery bad but very humble in comparison whit slavery in other parts of the world. European nations founded the principles of human rights and respect for other people, "we" ended slavery around the world, "we" helped to build a better world for all peoples around the globe.
You need to be President of the United States
Useful information👍👍
At the correct time
#us elections😅😅
Maddison's place is named Montpellier.
It's pronounced: Mont-pell-e-a.
Great video!
the vdo is 13 min long. and u commented this just after 20s.
@@takiyashir8712 lol
@@takiyashir8712 I just know it’s a great video
Thank you for sharing this. Nostalgia has done us no favors over the longer term. We need to face our hard history. It's the only way we'll ever hope to become a better nation that treats every American as fully valued, equal and important in every regard.
Nostalgia??? Did you own slaves??? If not, WTF are you spewing?
I didn't like this talk because it could have been so much better.
The 'joke' about concern for his freedom at Mt. Pellier was low.
I expected more.
Thats all? Thats your criticism?
What ever gave you the idea that we are serious about creating a fair and just society? History is not hard it is what it is, I am not responsible for the past I am responsible for what I do every day and despite that I have taught for over 50 years that there is only one race, the human people in this country insist on multiple races which leads separate but equal. Most people in this country are still living in the past because they keep looking out the back window, I live in the present and yes I am a student of history as well, I just learn from others mistake a move forward. As far as the financial disparity according to you I'm black, today I live a comfortable live because I save money every week for 50 years. When I worked my lunch for the first 20 years cost me thirty cents, a small package of soda crackers and a can of Vienna sausages. An important note it is not the amount of money that you make it is the amount of money that you spend that creates most of the problems faced by young people today.
16th
No one cares. Someone will be the 100th Billionth view one day. Get over yourself, and come back when you can contribute something SEMI-INTELLIGENT to the YT COMMENT TABLE.
UGH!
Fantastic, important talk
People prefer nostalgia rather than history
I want reparations for all the injustice too all my ancestors too, for everyone. Never going to happen. Grow up.. get over it..
Out of curiosity, what would reparations look like for you?
As in, if the president called you tomorrow and said "look buddy, the truth is I am fairly incompetent and I decide on policy by dialing a random number every morning and asking for advice. It is your lucky day, we noticed you wanted some reparations, what do you have in mind?".
I am really curious as it is easy to look at a problem and say there is a problem, especially when you can point to the cause of the problem. But a solution is harder to suggest. And reparations for past injustice is a very difficult one to fix as you can't fix the past. So seriously without judgement, how would you suggest we address this?
This is all well and good as well as vitally important, but teachers always fall back on the cop-out of "I'm just teaching the curriculum, it's not my fault that's what's in the textbooks." So nothing ever really changes. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
He does an excellent job explaining what WAS wrong. Didn’t name one current injustice to be addressed.
Why don't you enlighten us? Something tells me you have a list as long as your arm...
One day ‼️ VERY VERY GOOD SIR ‼️👏🏽👏🏽
No.
Yes
this got little popularity. Is it just me or are most viewers either not american or don't care much?
They've heard it all before. Sooo many times
And by how he presents it, from a better historical perspective.
He is right. The American education system needs to teach Hard History.
BIG FACTS !
They do.
like how communism/socialism is the cause of HUNDREDS of millions of deaths just from the 20th century. then people might not be in or support BLM and ANTIFA.
@@majoroldladyakamom6948 👈 By Product of US Education, Hiding Evry bit of Truth in History, rationalizing Human Trafficking, Slavery and what not the White A-hols of past have done, still showing no change
Why does the approach to addressing inequality have to be along racial lines? Wouldn’t tackling poverty address the issues we want fixed? Who gets to determine when a society is fully just and fair? Do we police all disparities or ones that others make most salient for us like race and gender? In what society has inequality along any parameter been fixed without war or sanctioned discrimination? Does anyone care about the prison rate between men and women? Or the suicide rate? Or rate of homicide? America’s biggest problem isn’t with ignoring hard parts of history; we have a problem with weaponizing it to extract concessions out of people in the now in ways that tear us apart and yet still don’t quantifiably address the underlying inequality. We don’t form coalitions around shared values or geographic and regional causes....we NATIONALIZE RACE and say winning across racial lines is the most important thing, and if the statistics show disparities (which they always will, there are disparities across every demographic breakdown) we should forget our common bonds at the drop of a hat and wage jihad against the disparities because some news outlet told us so. Every American should be intimately familiar with hard parts of history in private and on their own terms.
Or not and say we did. 👍
Remember when TED wasn't just a leftist echo chamber, and when they had cool stuff about tech and science... I remember.
I know, right!
So Sad for You, Pathetic
@Optical Clarity, great comment. I was just talking about this the other day. Who do we think rounded up Africans to sell to other humans? Ahem. We're also not allowed to talk about who's ships were used or the folks that still have a massive slave trade going today. We probably shouldn't mention where the word "slave" comes from either.
'So when they continued asking him, he lifted up himself, and said unto them, *He that is without sin among you, let him first cast a stone at her.* '
John 8:7
Its gotten BAD!! There isn't a "P" for Politics in T.E.D., and it needs to STOP soon or I'm gonna Unsubscibe!!
Now they do this theatre at work too. Had to take a bernie sanders rally as a "class" prerequisite to the leadership program. My job asks for feedback from employees for LITERALLY EVERYTHING - the decoration in the kitchen or the way our boss makes us feel about our future. Literally everything - they love data. They do not ask for feedback about the liberal indoctrination seminar. I'm a democrat, usually. Support Yang currently. Glad sleepy joe will not woke up on me. The difference is I'm not on social media and i read a lot, i fucking hope lol.
No conversation of slavery without talking about Blacks who owned slaves and American Indian tribes that owned slaves. No one ever likes to talk about that.
god this comment section is... fucking awful. he was just saying we need to acknowledge our country's past and how it contributes to the systemic racism still going on today. he's not saying you should feel guilty. and he's not saying the issues like this happening today don't matter. he's reflecting on his own history- america's history. i was hoping people would be more understanding of this video, i didn't expect such a bad reaction..
Everyone needs to hear this
No one truly cares. No race is more important than others. And if you believe so, guess what that makes you???
@@Salvatorus a normal human being
We've already heard it. Sooo many times...
@@Salvatorus so looking at mean and women differently also makes me sexist? (noone talked about absolute importance)
Nostalgia ain’t what it used to be.
This is a brand new video? Where can I find more. This is our core issue.
See my playlists and discussions tab.
To those 270 dislikes I hope it’s because you hate that people don’t learn about hard history and think slavery and racism are ok. If that’s not why you dislike then you must be a trump supporter
The healthy history
Confront the painful parts? That's all anyone ever freaking talks about, that's just about everything I was ever taught in school.
@6:05-What he fails to say is slavery at that time was in every known part of the world. He frames it as if slavery was out of the normal in the world and just confined to America. This and the times he uses race (Example like when he makes the racial jokes like the Get out reference) is very unsettling. He is trying to point out the horrors of slavery and the "White supremacy" that was behind it but again all known parts of the world at that time some sort of slavery and slave trade and it was not just white supremacy. It was cultures that looked at there enemies as less and when they took them over they took them and sold them. these were not just white men doing this. OUR country is predominantly white but what about the Ottoman empire? How about all of the chinese dynasties? how about the places like Mauritania that did not outlaw slavery till 1981? They also did not put any laws in place to punish the act of slavery and slave trade until the mid 2000s. That country is in Africa mind you and it is not white. Where is the "White Supremacy" In all of those cultures and countries?
This whole thing smells of 1619 project bullshit.
I could go on but if you do not understand what I am saying you never will.
MCAA
Always remember, the democratic party is the party of slave owners and the kkk.
In Asian countries outside Japan, were times where they allowed only non-native slaves. So they are supremacists now? Or have white privilege?
@Rebecca Leeman mb he meant that democrats are always saying things that majority likes to hear, never do them and when something goes not along to their agenda they use the most despicable tools?
@Rebecca Leeman Yeah there was a switch and I never said there wasn't. But the switch was that the republican party went from wanting large government to wanting small government and the democratic party went from wanting small government to wanting large government. That was the ONLY change that happened. The dems outlook towards minorities has not changed in the slightest since the parties inception in 1820.
Always remember, the democratic party is the party of slave owners and the kkk.
If only the Union stuck to their promise of 40 acres and a Mule! 1619 project, and understanding can help to heal. Commit to ending racism.
No, we don't. Try doing something constructive with your life, instead of feeling good by tilting at windmills.