andie nachgeborenen wrote:
>
> I'll indulge in an even broader brush generalization:
> slavery or analogous forms of forced labor was a near
> social universal in every civilized society and most
> barbaric ones from the rise of the city state until
> the 19th century. That includes both the Americas --
> and not just after the European Conquest (oops, Europe
> is continent too . . . ), the Indian Subcontinent,
> China, Russia, the Near East, North Africa, and
> Europe.
For what it's worth, few if any slave systems matched in brutality (a) slavery in the ancient mines and (b) slavery in the u.s. south (and I think Brazil & the Caribbean). But fuss about Obama's ancestors is indeed silly -- perhaps it only exists to give abashed leftists an excuse to give the reactionary Obama sort of praise.
Carrol