Jeez I thought this thread was about whether to Boycott Beijing Olympics? and not about America, Germany and history.

I say boycott the games.

Just correcting something that was posted which was not true. I'm sorry if the truth offends you, but that does not give you the right to put words in my mouth.

It was then that morphed into "do boycotts serve a political or a social means".

Speak for yourself MrLabGuy. I do fine by myself. Read CBAX5's post #20. That's a point I can agree with.

My issue is that we are quick to stand in judgment of someone else's ill's before we examine our own. That goes for the current olympic protest around the world and the requests for the President to boycott the opening ceremonies.

Krimson, I'm not so sure I can agree with post #20 when you take into account Historical context. Slavery and Discrimination is disgusting and highlights what humans are capable of when left unchecked. That said in the early years of the United States slavery was common place around the world. That does not make it right or acceptable but look back even farther in History. Many people and many races were enslaved as servant's and laborers back as far as written history goes.

To say Nazi Germany leading women and children into gas chambers in alarming numbers was on par with early America and America in the 30's is just wrong. Granted, it is not easy splitting hairs with evil and Slavery is and was evil. Discrimination of any kind shows a complete lack of mental acuity replaced by a false sense of superiority.

Anyway...I love the debate. Keep it up because it keep us all thinking and talking about these important issues which can't and should not be ignored. History forgotten is History repeated.

The common mistake when talking about slavery and discrimination is how easily the brutality of the US version of slavery is not talk about or forgotten..

You are correct. Slavery existed in many culture for centuries. But there is a reason why the US version is the most discussed, reviled and is the poster child for the evils of the institution. I believe this is so, for 2 reasons, the continued practice of slavery when it was outlawed in the rest of the world, and more importantly, the sheer brutality of the American slavery. For the Holocust, we are able to have actual numbers, pictures and video of that horror. So it seems greater, more prevalent, more real. This lack of visual, more recent evidence diminishes the level of human disregard in our version of slavery.

Now this is not to say slaves in other cultures and other parts of the world were not treated brutally, but there was more evidence of acceptance and possible assimilation in those cultures. The US slavery was exceptionally brutal and was methodically pepetuated for decades. It was not just the separation and subjugation of another human being based on race, it was the almost common determination that they were actually less than human. This is the main reason there are not a lot of statistics on the victims of slave brutality. The slave did not qualify for that level of concern. Just was we have no numbers on the amount of cattle slaughtered in 1860 (and we might actually), we have no numbers on the human cost of slavery (we definitely don't).

The sheer numbers of killed, lynched, starved, raped, burned, drowned US slaves will rival the number of victims of the Holocaust.

Let me clarify, I am not comparing or placing American slavery and the Holocaust in the same context. It's apples and oranges. Further, I am not saying that America did not fight to end both. However, history forgotten is history repeated, approximately 8 million african slaves were killed in the storage and Trans-Atlantic transport to the Americas alone. Because slaves were considered chattle property we will never be able to calculate the total number of lives lost as a result of American slavery. Some historians say the number is unfathomable. And no, this is more than a race issue, its a human rights issue.

I responded to Quick's earlier post to say that you cannot discuss Jessie Owens and his accomplishments at the Berlin Games without discussing both the good and the bad. i just don't like half-truths or only one side of the story.

I felt the need to respond, but we are waaaay off topic.