Anonymous #1 1d

“CoNtExT mAtTeRs” He did nothing but aid in the genocide of Natives, didn’t give two shits about Black people saying they would never be equal and should be sent to Africa so as to keep separated, and the EP was only written to aid his idea of the Union rather than of actually caring for slaves.

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Anonymous OP 23h

Important note: saying black people should be returned to Africa was something many black activists were saying at that time as well, and even much later. I agree that Lincoln was shittier than he gets credit for, but criticizing him for that is pretty stupid. Context DOES matter, actually.

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Anonymous #2 22h

And in context it still was not okay. Racism has never been okay, period.

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Anonymous OP 22h

I agree that racism has never been okay. The Free African Society, founded in 1787 by exclusively black men (Richard Allen and Absalom Jones among them) supported back-to-Africa movements. And several of its members actually did that, leaving the US to modern-day Liberia. Frederick Douglas wasn’t a fan of the movement, sure, but he wasn’t the only black voice in the US at the time.

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Anonymous OP 22h

That’s the context I’m talking about. It would have been racist to support that idea in 1960, when the American Nazi Party supported it (notably opposed by Malcolm X), but it wasn’t that racist in 1860, when the idea had seen broad support from multiple political groups.

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Anonymous #2 20h

There’s a huge difference between “let’s go to our ancestral home” and “deport them so this is a white-only nation”. That’s what I’m referencing. lincoln was a piece of shit.

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Anonymous OP 19h

That’s not at ALL why Lincoln supported the back to Africa movement. You’re not wrong that he was a piece of shit, you’re not wrong that he was racist (though he changed his views and became less racist over time), but you are 100% wrong to think that THIS is what makes him shitty.

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Anonymous OP 19h

Oh BTW in his last speech, Lincoln promised to give educated black men and black soldiers/former soldiers the right to vote. Historical figures aren’t wholly good or wholly bad, people can change their views. Just thought that you might want to know this.

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Anonymous #2 18h

And at the end of the day, he was still racist and didn’t want to emancipate slaves because he cared about them, that’s just what he saw as the best military tactic. I’m sick of people pretending the US has a good history when it’s full of absolute shitstains.

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