Ben Carson calls slaves 'immigrants' who worked harder 'for less'

[🐒Gods of Prosperity🔱🐲💸]

A lot of words and indignation to waste over a wacky and thoughtless Ben Carson comment, but the "no, actually you're being offensive by not calling them immigrants" bit is one of the most tendentious arguments that I've ever read on this forum.

No one was arguing that. 

Maybe the offensive thing is the idea that slaves were human beings who had hopes and dreams for their children and grandchildren?

Oh right, I forgot that slaves have no human agency or ability to hope for their children to have a better life than them even in the worst of circumstances. Silly me!

It is outrageous.  African American slaves built up an entire culture around hope and resilience in the face of oppression and adversity. It is insulting to their memory to deny them this.

Is this some kind of post-modernist thing or are you just being obtuse?

None of that was in response to not using the word "immigrant."

[🐒Gods of Prosperity🔱🐲💸]

Good grief.

You want to defend the idea that's been presented that it's wrong to say slaves had dreams for their children, just do it.
I'm eager to have a discussion about this that is grounded in history and not cynical memes.

[publicunofficial]

A lot of words and indignation to waste over a wacky and thoughtless Ben Carson comment, but the "no, actually you're being offensive by not calling them immigrants" bit is one of the most tendentious arguments that I've ever read on this forum.

No one was arguing that. 

Maybe the offensive thing is the idea that slaves were human beings who had hopes and dreams for their children and grandchildren?

Oh right, I forgot that slaves have no human agency or ability to hope for their children to have a better life than them even in the worst of circumstances. Silly me!

It is outrageous.  African American slaves built up an entire culture around hope and resilience in the face of oppression and adversity. It is insulting to their memory to deny them this.

Is this some kind of post-modernist thing or are you just being obtuse?

Being obtuse is Shua's main schtick.

[🐒Gods of Prosperity🔱🐲💸]

Being obtuse is Shua's main schtick.

Perhaps I have too much faith in the willingness of people to examine their assumptions.

[OneJ]

Forcibly relocated =/= immigrant.

[🐒Gods of Prosperity🔱🐲💸]

Being obtuse is Shua's main schtick.

Perhaps I have too much faith in the willingness of people to examine their assumptions.

And maybe someone would if you seemed more motivated by curiosity and less by outrage and misguided pedantry.

So this is why you accused me of saying something and then started belittling me when I tried to engage with you to clear it up? The distinction between what I said and what I didn't is "pedantry"?

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There can be that tendency. But it wasn't ultimately able to erase the possibility of building strong emotional attachments, developing a hope-sustaining religion, long-term thought in the planting and growing of food for their families, creative expressions in music and art, and symbolically meaningful funerary practices. The hope for freedom and finding resiliency in systems of meaning are also common threads in slave and prison narratives.

[FEMA Camp Administrator]

"So, oddly enough, it looks like the connotation or implication of the word 'immigrant' is not the same as its literal definition." Wonderful, guys.

[Calthrina950]

This is an example of hypocrisy, as it turns out that former President Obama used similar language to Carson's back in 2015:

http://dailycaller.com/2017/03/07/flashback-like-ben-carson-obama-also-said-slaves-were-immigrants/

http://www.newsmax.com/Newsfront/obama-called-slaves-immigrants/2017/03/07/id/777496/

[ApatheticAustrian]

i think, if we can agree on the point, that ben carson ofc didn't want to belittle slaves but misspoke as an inexperienced politician, we could also agree that besides the wished-for "gotcha"-point, obama ofc mantled his critic in a far more cultivated/less clumsy way...which is to be expected of the president.

there is nothing really to see here besides fast giggles for  verbal clumsiness.