...deserve given the fact that over 50 % of American murders are committed by a 6 % minority (black males). And slavery was practiced long before and after the whites by black Africans and Muslims. From whom were the slaves bought in the first place? Another black Africans. And the fact is that the slaves in the 19th century USA had better everyday lives than so-called "free" blacks in Africa at the same time ruled by tribal chiefs with absolute power. If today's US blacks find the life so oppressive, why don't they emigrate in mass back to Africa? Or perhaps in their minds they know that whites are simply better in creating prosperous societies to live in. Without cultural appropriation from whites, American blacks would still be without cars, cell phones, science.
I think it important to keep in mind that Baltimore, where the historic ship Taney is preserved, has a majority black population, with the vast majority of the Black population descended from slaves.
Baltimore ethnicity:
Black = 62%
White = 28%
Roger B. Taney, the man, remains an intensely controversial figure, whose name is a reminder of not just an unpleasant past, but a horrific one. The man Roger B. Taney, born to tobacco plantation owners and an inheritor of his parents' slaves, was seen as so radical he was twice rejected by the US Senate to serve on the Supreme Court. His Dred Scott decision remains inflammatory among many, including the majority Black population of Baltimore, who view him as a supremely detestable man, and for good reason.
In Roger B. Taney's 1857 Dred Scott decision, he ruled that the Framers of the Constitution believed slaves were so inferior that they possessed no legal rights, helping to keep 1 in every 6 Americans of that time in slavery. That view translated to Black people generally, no matter whether they were enslaved or not, that Black people, slave and free, were decidedly and permanently inferior to white people, and enshrined that view in his decision, making it the official, legal view of the US Government.
With that in mind, we white people can understand why some would want to preserve the historic ship Roger B. Taney and honor those who served aboard her, while at the same time make some reasonable effort not to poke 62% of the people of Baltimore in the eye, all day, every day, with a permanent monument named Roger B. Taney docked in the heart of the city.
IMHO, we should be mindful that the name Roger B. Taney is associated with all of the horrors of slavery and the repugnant notion that Black people are inferior, underserving of any human rights.
Honor the ship and crew, loudly reject the man Taney and what he stood for.
Responses