Michael Medved Makes Me Sad

I would like nothing more than to find common ground with my fellow Americans so that we can actually roll up our sleeves and together attack the problems that ail our nation. However when inhuman remarks sputter from the underinformed lips of the likes of Medved and Coulter sometimes I just have to throw up my hands.

In Medved's column, "Six Inconvenient Truths About the U.S. and Slavery," this man actually says, in subtext that would be crystal clear to even non-native English speakers, that the enslavement of Africans in the United States wasn't really quite as bad as liberals would lead us to believe.

Of course he later tried to backpedal and said on his radio show, "I never defended slavery."

Mr. Medved is lying.

What he wrote was this: "Unfortunately, the current mania for exaggerating America's culpability for the horrors of slavery bears no more connection to reality than, the old, discredited tendency to deny that the U.S. bore any blame at all."

"Current mania?" Did I miss something? Is Roots being aired non-stop across every channel on cable? And what old tendency was there in America to deny that the U.S. bore any blame at all? He is spewing illogical nonsense on a par with Ahmadinejad braying that there are two sides to this whole holocaust thing.

For me, a necessary prerequisite for entry into the family of man is the belief that the enslavement, incineration or systematic degradation of our fellow man is never acceptable.

Instead Mr. Medved argues that slavery has ancient roots and others in both the New World and Arab traders in east Africa also practiced it. And, sir, your point is? Is the horror of the Hutu genocide of perhaps a million Tutsi in Rwanda "exaggerated" because Germany did it first? What the hell is the matter with you? Is it because we are coming up on Halloween? Is that why you are so ghoulish?
Midd
Believe it or not, it gets worse. Although he admits that "millions of slaves perished over the course of 300 years during the rigors of the Middle Passage," he tries to make the distinction that you can't call it genocide because only live slaves had value on the other end. Twenty million were kidnapped from their villages, ten million of them died before ever reaching the coast, millions died during the Middle Passage and those that arrive were beaten, whipped, forced to work for free forever, deliver their children into perpetual servitude as well, only to have them ripped from their arms and sold off to who knows where when the master felt like downsizing.

Who the hell cares what you call it?

Here Mr. Medved is touching upon the decades-old and sickeningly inane argument between some blacks and some Jews over who's been mistreated the worst by the white man. For me, Mr. Medved is the saddest representation of a "slave" or victim mentality in recent memory.

Sickeningly, he uses the word "rigors," in the passage above as if the Africans, my ancestors, branded and shackled to each other, naked and piled on top of each other, up to 400 to a cargo hold, were subjected to something "rigorous." Mr. Medved they weren't training for the triple jump. They were being subjected to one of the largest scale degradations of fellow human beings every perpetrated in the history of the globe.

And as for your point #6 Mr. Medved, that we African-Americans are lucky to be here instead of starving back in Africa, it is a lot more complicated than your junior-high school, armchair analysis. May I suggest you read Walter Rodney's, How Europe Underdeveloped Africa to see that Africa was irreparably changed after the slave trade and then European colonization. I'm sure you've seen the same Star Trek episodes as I have. If you go back in time and change something, that always has drastic effects on the future.

The saddest part is not that Mr. Medved is dragging out shopworn, apologist arguments that the Klan and other white supremacists have been re-packaging since before the North won the war (and passing them off as if they were his own). The saddest part to me is that he, like Coulter, feel the need to rabidly counter everything that they perceive to be coming from the left of them, regardless of its merits. When presented with scientific fact, like global warming or the theory of evolution, or, in this case, the notion that slavery sucked, just because the left said it first they feel zealously compelled to argue the other side.

Open your mind, Mr. Medved. And until you do...shut your trap.

Comments

[dannyS]

don't give this guy legs.
Politics has gone Jerry Springer and its time to reclaim dignity by not putting a spotlight on these weasels.
Ignore it. Please. You're wasting bandwidth that could be used on something constructive.
stop lobbing outrage around, its noise.

[kingsXrulz]

Trey Ellis wrote: "'Current mania?' Did I miss something?" - AND - "And what old tendency was there in America to deny that the U.S. bore any blame at all?"

-- I'll focus on this since it's the ONE thing Trey got right. Vague yet authoritative sounding phrases (current mania, common wisdom, old tendency, popular opinion, etc.) are part of Medved's stock-in-trade. He uses them in an attempt to make it appear that he is responding to a dangerous counter-opinion. The only time he names those who hold those opinions is when he quotes them. Sadly, all too often he goes the other route, as with the article in question where those he disagrees with are only identified as "America-bashers at home and abroad".

The crazy aspect of this is that Medved is usually correct about the points he makes; the act of putting up a 'straw man' in order to make it seem that he's responding to a grave threat to reason and truth ... that's where his articles fail.

"Open your mind, Mr. Medved. And until you do...shut your trap."

-- This sentence caps off an article wherein Ellis fails to convincingly refute any of Medved's points.

[johnnyjust]

I doubt Trey Ellis took the time to read Medved's article, though his "review" plays well on PuffPost.

Did you know there were black slave holders in America? freerepublic.com/forum/a3a899fdb32fd.htm is a good starting place for such info.

[Veronica]

Yeah, nothing says "I didn't read the article" like quoting verbatim from it.

I'm assuming you aren't aware that you are only providing support for Trey's point by mentioning the existence of "black slave holders in America," in order to downplay the role of the white man in enslaving millions of black people. The fact that you think that is a great retort speaks volumes. And thanks for the link to Free Republic, recommendations for non-partisan websites are always welcome. Such a good remedy for the out-of-control left-osity of HuffPo.

It would appear slavery really wasn't about white people enslaving black people after all. If only there were more people out there, like you and Medved, to get the word out.

[Zhonni]

You must think you know it all. What a shocker! Oh, do you, em, em, know there were black slave owners in America?

What is that supposed to say about the suffering of the Africans. I am sure the black slave owners did not lynch their fellow blacks for looking them in the eye. Besides black people after making enough money they bought the freedom of other slaves or relatives.

There are still a lot of stories to be told.

Do you know that there are quite a few ethnic group in Nigeria that trace their roots to Egypt? It is said that they left in some mass Exodus. i.e the YORUBAS and the KALABARIS and I am sure a lot more.

A lot of these stories would not come out as long as people are shipping arms to poor African countries and raping their land of Natural resourses, pitting one group against the other. Then turn around and say these people are incapable of ruling peacefully or incapable of getting along.

I think that's long enough.

[1will]

Unlike most commenters on this site I actually read Michael Medved's column. You guys are all worked up over nothing. Trey Ellis conveniantly left out a link to Medved's column and let your imaginations run wild.
Read the column and calm down.

www.townhall.com
Michael Medved "Six inconvenient truths about the U.S. and slavery"
Sept. 26, 2007

[DudeE]

It's always been linked and more than a few posters debunked specific points made by Medved. Perhaps you didn't read the postings. Either that or you just don't get what the fuss is about. Most likely the latter...

[zull2]

Mike Medved is certainly an ass. That's all. That's all the guy is.

The current movement has nothing to do with slavery and everything to do with prejudice and stereotypes. Slavery was wrong and evil, and most people (there's probably more than a few in certain parts of the country who think otherwise) know that...but to dredge it up and rationalize it is just stupid.

Maybe someone should let him know that slaves of other nationalities, including his own, have been kept the world over throughout history. It's highly probable that every person on the planet had an ancestor that was at one time a slave somewhere on this world. Including Medved.

Maybe that would be enough to shut him up. Maybe he has to realize that there's nothing about it to defend, that it's a screwed up and evil thing to do to another person. And most importantly, that people work to prevent it from ever happening again.

[StillAmused]

Why does anyone even listen to this cranky, simpering, affected movie reviewer with aspirations to be taken seriously?

The pretentious clown misfires, every second pull of the trigger.

[radlib1]

Just wanted you to know that I tried to post almost 2 days ago, but the Huffington Post monitors shut down the comments about 3 hours after you first posted.

You are absolutely right about Mr. Medved. He is a proven menace to our society, a close-minded, self-righteous prig. He has the right to be all of the above because we, as independent, free-thinking Americans allow others to be ignorant assholes. However, we also reserve the right to call them on their assholery. Consider yourself called, Mr. Medved.

[Bootleghaircut]

This was one of the most popular articles over at the "Townhall" site where is regularly featured.

Republicans despise "special people" as they like to say over there. "Its human nature and you can't change it." This is just another sad attempt at trying to provide rationales that defer responsibility for past actions.

The equivelent is saying "Genocide of America's Native population wasn't so bad cause other countries did it too."

This just shows the "brilliance" of the christian conservative mind.

I think the Republicans should try to revoke the vote from women, then their platform will be complete.

[maddogbitesback]

The Christian Conservative movement isn't Christian. Christ would say they are whited sepulchers; so air without, a rotted corps within.

[horseface]

Let's interject a cause and effect relationship bewteen "black" and "slave". BLACK or more correctly Negro, became a word of denegration because slaves in the US were mostly black; "Blacks" were not enslaved because they had black skin. The history is this: The Spanish enslaved the people of the Americas, killing off perhaps 90% of the population. What to do after you've committed genocide? They hit on Africans.
Europeans in North America tried to enslave the indigenous people, but found them totally unsuitable to be slaves. They too went to Africa for slaves.
And one more thing - how can ANY African American or American Indian be a CHRISTIAN? Stop hurting yourself!

[AceInTheHole]

DID I GET YOUR DRIFT?
"You asked the question, "How can any African American or American Indian be a Christian"

With all due respect, are you implying that the Muslims and Hindus and members of other various religions never had slavery in their mix, at one time or another. And that Christianity is the only religion that has?

[THP]

Balzac, godlesscliff, Maybe you missed the point? Medved so easily downgrades American slavery by focusing on relativity. On the point of relativity, he never imagines to look at the Holocaust that way because he is intensely Jewish and in tune with that tragedy. I would tell him that if you want to be relative then look at the damage done as a whole to the Jews and then look at the generational harms done to African Americans and it is clear the latter was much more harmed. I think this would be a shocking idea for him to consider.
"mental and moral midget"? meaning, small, meaing his brain and morality are small. I don't know any midgets...never considered the word as derogatory.

[paradoctor]

Most of the discussion on this board is about the two least-untrue things Medved said: that America didn't invent slavery, and that it was even worse in Africa. Both of those statements are true, unfortunately, but of course they justify nothing. The most they imply is that American slavery wasn't _uniquely_ evil. (And even that's questionable.)

What drew my attention were Medved's indisputable inaccuracies. For instance, saying that America led in abolishing slavery. Alas, no, it trailed. The British led.

He says that the 'peculiar institution' wasn't all that widespread. This is laughable, given that it took a civil war to abolish slavery.

Medved makes a fine distinction between genocide and enslavement. If 'only' half died in the Middle Passage, then alright, call it semigenocide. As a Jew, I am appalled by Medved's Pharaoh-wasn't-as-bad-as-Hitler logic. The lesser of two evils is still evil.

I am undecided about the role of chattel slavery in enriching America. Yes, it built up free capital, but it stifled innovation. The Civil War proved that wage slavery is more efficient and dynamic.

[MinneapolisBob]

Another excellent blog Trey!

Medved is just another case of having educated idiots who are given a public platform to spew their hate, bigotry, racist and xenophobic diatribe.

Medved is Jewish: does he think the Holocaust was a good thing because many of those who persevered, and the generations which followed, made it to the U.S. and many became successful?

Medved should trying living in slave conditions and see if he could survive the beatings, sleep deprivation, food fit for the Master's dogs, dwellings of human and animal filth, the rape of women and kids around you (possibly "Young Bucks" too), and a life expectancy of under 35. I bet he couldn't last a day day.

It's the likes of the Medveds and Coulters and their ilk we should be concerned about, as their audience is naive and too lazy to learn the facts and truth.

[Drill]

Never Ever forget what White America did to The Black Man! Slavery! Beatings! Oppression!I am proud of this article! The day we as a country forget how evil the white man can be is the day we lose what is left of our soul!

Way to go Trey!

[negiti]

Hey Waitaminute, that's an interesting distortion of historical interpretation.

Actually, no less than Frederick Douglass wrote and delivered a scathing oratory on the paradox of otherwise good and moral people celebrating their own liberty while imprisoning their fellow citizens. That's the truthful component to your observations.

The more crooked component is that once Europe took a big fat cultural dump in The Colonies that included slavery among other things, and could no longer profit effectively enough from same, they outlawed in less than 200 years ago while leaving us to deal with our portion of the aftermath.

[Independent voter]

If you are sincere about wanting to find common ground with your fellow Americans, then I respectfully suggest that you stop dwelling in the past and start living in the present with a hopeful eye on the future.

There is no question that slavery was horrific. Ethnic cleansing and removal of Native Americans from their lands was no less brutal. The treatment of Chinese 'coolies' and Irish 'micks' who built the transcontinental railroad was nothing to be proud of. The roundup and imprisonment of Japanese during WWII was terrible as well.

My point is that many Americans can look back and find terrible injustices that were done to ancestors that they may or may have not known; however improved relations beings with TODAY, not yesterday. It is important to remember the horrors of the past so that they are not repeated. But do something positive TODAY - you can't change yesterday.

[Nommo]

One may change one's comprehension of yesterday. Those who advocate forgetting the past are just foolish as they are just as inclined to forget the present.
The longer one has to support lies is the longer that one misuses the present and guarantees a future that is, at best, a guess. You are not even scratching the surface of past injustices and trying to blow off the few you know.
No one is dwelling in the past. Some are attempting to insure that the past is not forgotten or misconstrued. There are debts that remain.

[suki21693]

This difference in perception is at the heart of the most fundamental of disagreements between well-meaning whites and blacks.

Unfortunately, history is being repeated somewhere right now.

The debts will never be repaid. We are incapable of atoning for the sins of our collective ancestors.

[AceInTheHole]

When the world feels justfied to forget the Holocaust, it may come to the conclusion that it may be time to move on and forget about salvery. But I doubt that will ever happen.

[Nicolja]

Two points to remember:
1. Medved is an observant Jew, so the White Supremacist argument is a bit of a stretch
2. We should always questions history and what we are taught. Can you imagine if we all just went around assuming the world was flat because that was what we were taught? Medved is not a racist but he is offering a different point of view on our history in the US.

[Nommo]

A point of view that has been roundly discredited already.