A Possible Troll Question on Quora

Thaddeus Howze

Jul 4, 2016·5 min read

This is about the effects, hundreds of years of terrorizing Black People have had on white culture. Empathy is the ability to put yourself in someones shoes and FEEL as a human being what they have been through. Criminals who show remorse are treated one way those that don’t are treated another.

Everything above this line is part of the question, including the video of Dr. Joy DeGruy, on her presentation of Post Traumatic Slave Syndrome. However, the video is compelling, well done and deserves to be watched fully.

That said: This question showed up on Quora today and normally I would have run screaming from the room. Because while I read it, I recognized it as one of those questions designed to create further dissonance regarding Black and White racial relationships in America.

Normally, I say: no thank you. Such questions shouldn’t even be acknowledged on a site like Quora, which says its goal is to be a repository of knowledge on the Internet.

Such questions, in my mind, should be avoided because they don’t help improve the problem, only make it more difficult for the uninitiated to understand the nature of the problem because each person who answers has the potential to distort the answer further making it even harder to understand.

But I felt the need to answer the question and I rarely resist my urge to answer a question that needs answering, even if it is with another question. My answer, however, was collapsed because it caused enough people to be uncomfortable they complained of its existence (primarily due to the picture).

Note the topic heading which is unchanged didn’t bother anyone…

Here is my answer to this annoying question, unedited. (REALLY, everyone should watch the video, it is absolutely the best thing I found today.)

What do you think?

Wrong Question

Here’s what you should have been asking…

The real question is: Having done NONE of those things on a systemic and systematic basis, having never in American history abused, murder, lynched terrorized, tortured or broken up white families at the scale Whites did for at least three hundred years to Blacks trapped in chattel slavery…

The question begs to be asked: Why do Whites hate Black people as much as they do? Especially since everything your question presupposes was done to Blacks by the millions over 300 years.

• Perhaps it’s the shame associated with monstrous behavior. Behavior so terrible it has no equals in the history of the world. Behavior so egregious, Whites spend their time trying to erase their behavior from the history books every chance they get.
• Perhaps its the embarrassment of knowing your every achievement is tainted with the murder of innocent people who did you no harm and just wanted the same things you did: to be happy, to take care of their families, to love and be given love in return.
• Mostly, I suspect its fear of retribution. Revenge is a strong motivation among White European cultures. Perhaps the fear of Blacks eventually rising in numbers, in prominence and wealth, gaining control of society through actual merit (because to succeed in this culture, they MUST actually be proficient in whatever they do) to one day to to you what was done to them, must sit heavy in White minds.
• This explains their current destructive behavior in American society, vacuuming up wealth where ever they can, leaving desperation and destitution in their wake to build their walled enclaves where they can sit apart from the people they disenfranchise with their every act.
• It could simply be a White pathology no one is willing to diagnose. Racial hatred seems to be a cultural running theme. See: World War II — Nazi Germany; also see: Jim Crow Laws

To answer your question: Blacks didn’t do those things and are uniformly hated across the United States. There is no way you can turn this statement into a refutation of Blacks or Black culture because despite how we have been treated, we are the model citizen who finds a way when there is NO WAY.

No group has suffered so greatly, been wronged as terribly (save the Natives of this land who were almost exterminated) and yet both groups still rise to a level of ability far greater than recognized by the White owned media systems in this country.

The issue of racial hatred in America is a White one. Spin it any way you like, you cannot blame minorities for your inability to control your fear.

Master Yoda said: “Fear leads to anger, anger leads to hate, hatred leads to suffering.” Yes, the Jedi were onto something…

I will never be silenced.

This essay was first published and then collapsed on Quora and © Thaddeus Howze, 2016. All Rights Reserved

Another set of perspectives

Thaddeus Howze is a writer, essayist, author and professional storyteller for mysterious beings who exist in non-Euclidean realms beyond our understanding. You can follow him on Twitter or support his writings on Patreon.