Right, why is he selectively caring about blood diamonds? What particular aspect of it is so horrid to him compared to other industries?
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"Those aren't our people. They sold us into slavery."
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Right, why is he selectively caring about blood diamonds? What particular aspect of it is so horrid to him compared to other industries?
CornBurrito
Member
Perhaps because he happens to know that child slave labor is employed, and that the children are threatened with death or dismemberment. Or worse.
A bit different than say... Chinese sweat shops. Even though both are terrible.
Who knows. He didn't give his reasons. But you seem to think he shouldn't care at all.
Deified Data
Banned
Probably so. Dude has a really toxic attitude.
SnakeswithLasers
Member
Oh dear.
So if he knew that happened in a different industry then he would try to avoid it?
SnakeswithLasers
Member
WTF are you trying to prove here?
CornBurrito
Member
Who knows. Maybe he would. Or maybe the other industry is far too difficult for him to avoid and he'd rather take baby steps than just say "fuck it" and do nothing at all.
Seems to me like he's trying to pull a "GOTCHA! HYPOCRITES!" moment to justify buying blood diamonds. And pulling an "either all or nothing" morality stance. Though he keeps claiming he isn't doing so.
Exactly. I don't see what all the fuss is about.
andthebeatgoeson
Junior Member
Yes, completely stupid where the supply is controlled to artificially inflate the price.
Might be the best plan I've ever heard on GAF. 'But, someone is wrong in real life, I must say something.'
Deified Data
Banned
How does it feel, realizing that living in the first world harms people in the third world? You might even think you're the first person to concoct such an idea. Most of us realized it long ago and choose to ignore it, unable to make the sacrifices necessary to clear our collective conscience.
GungHo
Single-handedly caused Exxon-Mobil to sue FOX, start World War 3
To be fair, though, I know Africans who make fun of American blacks as well. Both groups need to stow their baggage.
Or maybe I'm not. If he wants to be selective about the blood diamonds, that's fine as long as he admits he's being selective.
I feel absolutely fine about it. The world is a tough bullshit place that is completely dependent on luck.
Alligatorjandro
Banned
How do you know if a diamond is a blood diamond?
Rocket Scientist
Member
That's a sad way to excuse a lot of bad things.
Dark Octave
Banned
It isn't an insult, it's just inaccurate. It's like being called Korean if you are really Japanese or German if you're Irish. No matter if you're black, white, Asian or whatever, if you are from Africa and are now a citizen of the US, you are truly an African American. I haven't breathed a breath of air from Africa in my life and nobody in my family has for the last 500 years. I'm 100% American who has nowhere else to call home, doesn't know the first thing about Africa and has no right to ever claim anything about it. My family roots go further back than a lot of white Americans, yet I've never heard the term European American. This is why I don't like the term.
SnakeswithLasers
Member
They're red.
Subsistence living doesn't allow one to get out and conquer the world as much as you'd think.
Dude Abides
Banned
You can't. There's a certification that some diamonds get but it's unreliable.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kimberley_Process_Certification_Scheme
Blacks in the US were very pro-"the Mother Land" back when the term African American became popularized. We even created Kwanzaa, for goodness sakes. The term African American was as much of a civil rights statement as it was a comment on our ethnic heritage.
But I completely agree with you. The term, as it's used today, should be antiquated.
Sato Koiji
Member
Its best to avoid any discussion involving slavery, topics with possible derail to racism and religion.
Waste of breath. Would go way over his head by the sounds of things. Way over.
cutmeamango
Banned
I have two problems here:
The question he poses is: Why should we care (about forced child labor, I assume)?
And the part about "Those aren't our people." is a reply to "They are our people."
Which leads me to two questions:
Does it serve as his answer to his own question? Or is it merely an argumentation refutal?
Does he not care to any laborial abuse/product relation?
Or does he specifically have a marked disregard for african laborial abuses?
The question he poses is: Why should we care (about forced child labor, I assume)?
And the part about "Those aren't our people." is a reply to "They are our people."
Which leads me to two questions:
Does it serve as his answer to his own question? Or is it merely an argumentation refutal?
Does he not care to any laborial abuse/product relation?
Or does he specifically have a marked disregard for african laborial abuses?
Or how about I don't admit anything other than I'm not comfortable purchasing blood diamonds and leave it at that?
Oh look, you don't get to decide what other people are willing to say or do!
Waylon Drums
Member
It's also misused pretty often. I can't tell you how regularly I hear someone refer to a person of Haitian descent as "African-American."
Almost all the time, African-American refers to Black which basically means "Black enough to get frisked by the NYPD" or get picked first when its time to play basketball.
Because it's what he chooses to care about and because it's a subject that is easy to care about. Simply because there are other consumer products that are produced in equally or more horrendous ways, which someone may not care about, doesn't mean that can't or shouldn't care about the other thing. Basic logic.
He hasn't got a fuckin clue. To put it bluntly.
African former co-worker of mine was a funny motherfucker. But he had this lazy African-American schtick. It was funny but man...he would dog the shit out of black dudes. He would say things like "I come from a place where we have dirt roads! No water! No plumbing! mud brick homes! And I come here and I am your boss! And these neegas won't even get a job, have a job, won't come to work. They have NO right to complain. Americans are just lazy!"
But then you have people (non-black) who will just say that Africans are harder workers than blacks, and more trustworthy, etc. It's like, there are so many different factors, and everyone has their own mind made up. And not for the better, eithe.r
Well the problem is that Malcolm X and almost all pan-Africans were physically removed before they could finish what they set out to do for Black people in Africa and outside of Africa
It's a quote from Paul Mooney
This is just flat out wrong. Slavery was going on in Africa hundreds of years before Europeans set foot there. The very earliest records we have today tell of islamic traders encountering an established slave trade when they first started traveling into Africa. Slave trading in Africa was a monster entirely created by Africans themselves and it was something both people from the east and west exploited, much to the benefit of both the African communities themselves who sold the slaves as well as the buyers.
Before Africans were bought en masse as slaves by Europeans, the ethnic group of choice were the Slavic people. The name of their people became synonymous with being a servus (the word people used before the word "slave" came about).
Is there anything you can buy in America that doesn't have slave labor work somewhere along the line? Even most things that are "Made in the USA" usually have parts that are made somewhere else and assembled in the US. Anything with electricity or batteries (or the batteries themselves), or motors/engines, or metals have the raw materials being mined by slaves somewhere. And then the raw materials get made into something by slaves somewhere else. It's pretty weird how far removed the vast majority of the planet is to our belongings.
It's really hard to take a stand on blood diamonds when you have a TV/phone/car/lights/computer/clothes. It's all so strange.
It's really hard to take a stand on blood diamonds when you have a TV/phone/car/lights/computer/clothes. It's all so strange.
How DARE you! Diamonds are forever, man!
You can go by in life without a lot of things, such as gaming consoles, yet we buy them. Heck, most clothing are made in other countries.
Edit: Eh, I'll just avoid the shitstorm I just read above and leave the thread.
No, the British, Spanish, and French killed most of the Native Americans. And then we killed some more and forced them into reservations.
PhoenixDark
Banned
It's a misconception. Most African slaves were stolen from Africa, not sold. And I would argue those that initially did sell to American and European slavers didn't know how brutal the process was. Chattel slavery didn't exist in Africa, their system was instead similar to indentured servitude; African tribes would take prisoners after tribal wars, but those prisoners had the opportunity to rise from their low social rank.
CornBurrito
Member
If I ever get married I'm going to want a cubic zirconium ring. Don't give a shit about the price, but I like the idea of a ring as a symbolic gesture.
Give me a break. Slaves from Africa were being used in the middle-east long before the Europeans got involved. Do you think they were treated much better? And it's still very much in effect in some African countries, like Mauritania. Being a slave is never nice.
That being said; sons should not bear the sins of their father.
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