Slavery wasn't about race

I agree with everything you said, bar some things I haven't confirmed, such as Jewish merchants or which race was more cruel, or your 2% figure.

I would also add that the first black settlers came to America as indentured servants, just like the Irish. Both races got a horrible deal, but the rumor is that the Irish were treated worse due to being 10x less expensive, and thus easier to replace. Many black people who were indentured servants did gain their freedom, and some in fact went on to become slave owners themselves.

In my view, slavery in all its forms is an atrocity, whether it's done to blacks, Irish, or any other race, including Biblical slavery.

I agree, and I am Chinese.

Slavery was a phenomenon within a swath of time over many cultures. Even today, people enslave others, although they usually have to do it illegally.

Some day in the future, the history of pollution and environmental destruction will be perceived to be just as evil as slavery is perceived today, if not more so. You and I will be seen as ignorant, lazy barbarians who shat in their own beds.

Yet today, we treat pollution and environmental destruction as "one of those unfortunate things we just can't stop" and I'm sure anti-slavery personas in the past saw slavery in a similar unfortunate light. We even have people who do all they can to dispute and deny any hint of environmental destruction, like modern right-wingers who care more about corporations and industries than they care about the Earth that sustains our lives.

I, for one, still see us as barbarians today, in so many ways. The "gulf" separating us from wild beasts will be merely a footnote to distant future historians, relatively speaking. The reason we are tame and domesticated is still little more than mutual expectations we call civilization.... we wait for the chance to judge others as uncouth and unworthy of society instead of striving to ascend on personal levels, unaffected by the perceptions of others.

What we need to become is a people that value our greater environment the same way we value our bodies and our own lives. We will see no separation between us and others, we will not delineate between our own health and the health of our world and environments (as we will likely be space-faring in this potential future).

But if humanity destroys itself before it gets to this hypothetical point I am describing, then so be it. That will be what needed to be.

Oh and yes: Conflicts due to class/wealth are pretty much always at the heart of these matters. Things like race simply become additional justifications.

Anyone would struggle to find a "racist" who is still prejudiced against a wealthy upper-class member of the "disfavored race." Locate the most hardcore "anti-black" ideal you can find, and I guarantee they'd be happy to shake the hand of a black billionaire in a tuxedo.

I’m glad you have educated yourself on history, but none of this has to do with the race problems of today. No one is asking white people to feel guilty about slavery, but it is important to acknowledge it happened. I get so irritated at white morons saying “I didn’t own slaves so what does it have to do with me?” It doesn’t.
You’re right, it does have to do with class and money like everything else in America. The issue is that many of the poor people in America are black people. Instead of being angry and hateful, consider the other side of things.
You are a black person born in the ghetto. The education in the majority of poor areas in America sucks. You have a single mother who constantly has to work so you spend the most of your time helping to raise your younger siblings because mom can barely afford rent, much less childcare. You have the option of dropping out of school so you can help mom put food on the table. You are uneducated and poor so you can’t get a job that pays more than minimum wage. You know the only way you will be able to help mom is to start selling drugs because that’s where the money is coming from in the area you live. You have been raised being surrounded by real problems like poverty, drug addictions, aids, poor education...
I’m not saying there is no way to get out of this situation. What I’m saying is, this is where “white privilege” comes in. There is no reason to be angry as a white person, but to act like these issues don’t exist in America is just ignorant. It has nothing to do with slavery. Most of you who complain about this were raised never having to deal with any of the issues that impoverished blacks have had to deal with.
No one is asking whites to solve the worlds problems. It’s not a white/black issue, but it is an American issue. To act like it doesn’t exist because you didn’t grow up that way is just being blind.

The Rock said that’s not what is about dah

I always wondered about slavery but without and references seems you are pulling it out of your arse