House Speaker Johnson among US politicians with ancestral ties to slavery

USA ONE@lemmy.world to politics @lemmy.world – 195 points –
House Speaker Johnson among US politicians with ancestral ties to slavery
news.yahoo.com
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Of all the reasons to drag this guy over a cheese grater, this one is low on the list. It doesn't indicate anything other than unfortunate ancestry.

Still hate this closeted fuck just for things he actually does

Exactly. Hating someone over their ancestry is equivalent to giving lands and the rule of a nation because of their ancestry

I don't think that this is something we should be looking at to determine whether or not we like someone. Saw a show that's that said Mario Lopez's family was into slavery way back when.

Nawh bro, gotta blame the guy for the actions of others for something so far back he wasn't even an itch on his father's nutsack. Like there's any shortage of bad things to say about the guy that he's completely responsible for lmao

Right, because those privileges and wealth just went poof one day and disappeared, to no longer have an impact..

Jfc, you racists (denying racism exists is racism) need to get your heads out of your asses https://www.washingtonpost.com/outlook/2019/06/19/why-racial-wealth-gap-persists-more-than-years-after-emancipation/

Go back far enough in your family tree -- or anyone's, really -- and I guarantee you'll find at least one piece of shit. Get off your pedestal.

Agreed I was thinking the same thing. There could be a liberal congress person with the same ties. You shouldn’t blame them though. That’s like being related to an infamous serial killer and people blaming you for the murders even though you had nothing to do with them.

Except a serial killer wouldn't leave someone with generational wealth and privilege that give them such a massive head start in life.

You are right about one thing - there could, and absolutely are democrats with the same upper hand, and they should be held just as accountable.
https://www.brookings.edu/articles/black-reparations-and-the-racial-wealth-gap/

Held accountable for what? Being born?

How about holding a powerful position in government and doing nothing to fix the inequality brought on by slavery?

I don’t think that this is something we should be looking at to determine whether or not we like someone

"liking" has nothing to do with it, acknowledging that someone in power has generations of privilege that enabled them to get there that others don't and which exists on their backs (and very much did not end when slavery was abolished privatised), and how that impacts society is merely stating facts.

The facts that these facts make you uncomfortable is the issue, not the reality, and that's for you to work out for yourself.

Ok so? Did he say otherwise? We should judge him for his own character and actions not for the sins of his forefathers

As far as I know, I do too. So?

Nothingburger.

The problem is if you want to return to a slavery state now.

And you think he doesn’t?

The story isn’t just about having a relation to slave owners but in combination with the disgusting bigotry and marginalization, the christofascist hate rhetoric of control, etc. It adds yet another layer of context to this problematic person who holds a high office.

I’m not saying it deserves its own article but it’s not completely irrelevant information either.

This has to be a planted story right from his media team, right..? Because this is perfect rage bait. Trying to blame the great great great great great grandson for the sins of his slave owning great great great great great grandfather.

Aside a right wing PR team, only the most up their own ass liberal would write this shit, much less publish it.

I hope it's the former, but I'm betting it's the latter. JFC Reuters.

was thinking along these lines as well. who the fuck cares. hes earned his right to be called an asshole. he didn't inherit it.

Trying to blame the great great great great great grandson for the sins of his slave owning great great great great great grandfather.

I don't understand this mentality. Is it OK to have pride in one's ancestors and their accomplishments? Why does pride get passed down while shame washes away?

People who say their ancestors didn't immigrate until after slavery and therefore are innocent should sit the fuck down when the national anthem is played because your people weren't here for the war of 1812 either.

You take pride in your great great great great great grandfather..? Cringy flex but whatever.

Okay, let's say you do. Why should any of his accomplishments 200 years ago matter in how I judge you?

Speaker Johnson is a little weasel rat fucking religious zealot. Trying to shame him for something so far removed is dumb, bad politics, and worse, terrible journalism.

As for your rant about immigration arrival dates, national anthem, and the war of 1812... are you well...?

Why should any of his accomplishments 200 years ago matter in how I judge you?

I love how for your argument to work you have to ignore all of history since then and the fact that the disparity created by those slave owners doesn't only still exist today, but is still actively perpetuated and maintained by some of those same people who now have power to make laws or at least enough wealth to influence those who do, because of and under the influence of the wealth, privilege, and systemic racism they inherited directly from those ancestors.

Pathetic deliberately ignorant racist.

He looks like a ventriloquists dummy.

He's definitely a dummy and a puppet to several parties.

We already know people with power and affluence receive most of it from their heritage. This guy is fucken butt either way. Has he even disclosed his finances yet? I don't want to live in the circus anymore.

All this tells me is if the end of the Civil War & the following Reconstruction had been handled correctly, Mike Johnson likely wouldn't exist.

I love that you're being downvoted. Southern plantation owners became the oligarchical families we still put up with today.

I think everybody whose family was in the US in that time period had ties to it; it was foundational to the entire economy. Labor in the south, trade goods in the North.

My family came over on the Mayflower and we have zero ties to slavery. They fought in the 7th New York IR (Steuben Guard) in the Civil War from 1861-1865. So not everyone in the US has ties to slavery.

While your family may not have been slave holders during Civil War, slavery existed in NYC till 1827, which (after a quick search) seemed to be where the 7th was based. How certain are you that they didn't hold slaves before 1800? I'm not saying there's a strong equivalence, but to say your family had absolutely no ties in an area that had slavery for 200 years might be a little too confident?