What is America's most shameful act in its history?

[FoBoT]

the railroad workers at least got paid

 

[Spencer278]

Originally posted by: galvanizedyankee
Yes! There were things that have happened in our history that were wrong.
In total I will embrace our history for it stands tall and proud compared to Japan's,
China's, Russia's, French, etc. Look to Iceland or New Zealand for the maybe moral
high ground.

A shame that stands out in current history(last 100 years), is not charging Japan
for war crimes for what went on at Camp731. We let them off the hook in exchange
for the research that they did on human beings. That is a fact.......:disgust:
We sold out on that one!

We didn't let them off the hook for the research but because we needed an allie in the area. What is wrong with using the research anyways it isn't going to do any good just to erease the data.

 

[StageLeft]

I think one of the worst things to ever happen in history was the targeting of civilians in WW2. Most of the major allied and axis players did it (London, Dresden, Hiroshima, etc...) but that doesn't excuse it in my mind. A pretty low time in world history, including the US.

Much like politics that get dirty, once one side decides to start targetting civilians the other side is sure to follow, unless they're really kicking enough ass that they don't have to. When Germany is flying over London bombing everything in sight, it's just not reasonable or prudent to continue careful bombing of military targets.

In fact, this is one of the interesting things about those against terrorism. The terrorists are so grossly out numbered and out gunned that their only means of "fighting" is by killing innocent civlians - something most any country in the world will do if their back is against the wall and they're at wit's end - with more morally-approved means of combat not affecting the desired goal.

 

[CarlKillerMiller]

The bay of pigs, because of its political and social implications.

 

[nick1985]

Originally posted by: novon
Hiroshima

gimme a break. that was neccesarry to end the war without a million combat casualties + additional civilians

you need to think of the lives SAVED by the bomb, rather than lost. that was the problem with the atom bomb, and thats the problem with iraq. thousands of people are being indirectly saved by having saddam removed, you just see the lives that are lost.

 

[StageLeft]

mtn26bkr makes a good point about pollution. The US is far and away leading the world in destruction of our planet, consuming more than what is good for it - literally. For Christ's sake 2/3 of Americans eat so much that their longevity is actually _compromised_. Truly sickening, but the US only quantatively worse in this regard. Most of the world would consume greedily if they had the means; the US just happens to be richer than most of the rest of the world and so has more opportunity to consume, be it resources, decimation of habitats, or what have you. It's human nature.

 

[nan0bug]

I think it would definately have to be the way we basically exterminated all the native americans in our expansion into the west. Slavery pales in comparison to the way we treated the native americans.

 

[JoeKing]

One of them has to be the Philippine American War

"Talk about war being 'hell,' this war beats the hottest estimate ever made of that locality. Caloocan was supposed to contain seventeen thousand inhabitants. The Twentieth Kansas swept through it, and now Caloocan contains not one living native. Of the buildings, the battered walls of the great church and dismal prison alone remain. The village of Maypaja, where our first fight occurred on the night of the fourth, had five thousand people on that day, -- now not one stone remains upon top of another. You can only faintly imagine this terrible scene of desolation. War is worse than hell."--Captain Elliott, of the Kansas Regiment, February 27th

CASUALTY FIGURES:

U.S.-- 4,234 dead and 2,818 wounded.

Philippines-- 20,000 military dead and 200,000 civilian dead. (approximate numbers). Some historians place the numbers of civilian dead at 500,000 or higher.

 

[Rmex]

This thread should be renamed to "what is the White man's greatest atrocities in history" instead of what it is now.

Done by White americans =
Slaughter of Native americans = Done by WHITES
Enslavement of African Americans = Done by WHITES
Putting AMERICAN people of Japanese ancestry into CONCENTRATION camps = Done by WHITES
Guantonomo Bay = Done by WHITES
FORCING Native americans off THIER land = Done by WHITES
STEALING Mexican Land in the South west and then slaughtering Mexican/Native Americans [yes we mexicans are mostly native american] = Done by WHITES
Taking advantage of Mexico's poor economy and causing more poverty through NAFTA = Done by WHITES
FORCING Mexican tribes [the southern apaches] in the South west to go to Mexico = Done by WHITES
NUKING Hiroshima & Nagasaki [instead of Berlin or some other WHITE city due to racism] = Done by WHITES

And on and on, dont even ask about Europeans...lol. That would include the HALOCAUST, the crusades and on and on.

 

[StageLeft]

Originally posted by: Rmex
This thread should be renamed to "what is the White man's greatest atrocities in history" instead of what it is now.

Done by White americans =
Slaughter of Native americans = Done by WHITES
Enslavement of African Americans = Done by WHITES
Putting AMERICAN people of Japanese ancestry into CONCENTRATION camps = Done by WHITES
Guantonomo Bay = Done by WHITES
FORCING Native americans off THIER land = Done by WHITES
STEALING Mexican Land in the South west and then slaughtering Mexican/Native Americans [yes we mexicans are mostly native american] = Done by WHITES
Taking advantage of Mexico's poor economy and causing more poverty through NAFTA = Done by WHITES
FORCING Mexican tribes [the southern apaches] in the South west to go to Mexico = Done by WHITES
NUKING Hiroshima & Nagasaki [instead of Berlin or some other WHITE city due to racism] = Done by WHITES

And on and on, dont even ask about Europeans...lol. That would include the HALOCAUST, the crusades and on and on.

Whites are no more inherently evil than any other race. Africans were enslaving themselves before anybody from Europe was. The Japanese were horrific to their POWs in WWII. Oh yeah, and native americans were ravaging themselves before Europe ever came over here too.

NUKING Hiroshima & Nagasaki [instead of Berlin or some other WHITE city due to racism] = Done by WHITES

That's upsetting to see somebody write something so ridiculous. Germany had surrendered by the time the US had the nuke.. So, you can scratch that off your list

That NAFTA comment is pretty stupid too. The US represents one of the key infusions of money into Mexico. Mexico benefits from the US massively.

 

[masterxfob]

i'm surprised, no one has really mentioned vietnam?

 

[Zenmervolt]

Nothing. The past is the past, to be ashamed of it is to be grasping at it and keeping it a part of ourselves. The past needs to be left behind.

ZV

 

[StageLeft]

Originally posted by: masterxfob
i'm surprised, no one has really mentioned vietnam?

You're not supposed to mention that

Nothing. The past is the past, to be ashamed of it is to be grasping at it and keeping it a part of ourselves. The past needs to be left behind.

That's like saying that history can teach nothing :Q

 

[weirdichi]

Originally posted by: Pliablemoose
Virtual genocide of American Indians.

This has got to be tops. Wiping out a majority of Native Americans and doing it in such a deceptional (disease infested goods) and inhumane (killing the buffalo) way.

Also, IIRC, colonial America was the first to use generational slavery, meaning they used the children of slaves as slaves and so on. I think that's one of the major reasons why American slavery is/was such a topic that just wouldn't go away.

 

[Zenmervolt]

Originally posted by: Skoorb

Nothing. The past is the past, to be ashamed of it is to be grasping at it and keeping it a part of ourselves. The past needs to be left behind.

That's like saying that history can teach nothing :Q

It could be taken that way, yes. I should have wrote more specifically. Holding onto "shame" is pointless. It can't be changed. Change and move on. The last thing we need is more groups of people refusing to let go of the past and practicing victimhood because of things that are done and gone.

ZV

 

[StageLeft]

Originally posted by: Zenmervolt

Originally posted by: Skoorb

Nothing. The past is the past, to be ashamed of it is to be grasping at it and keeping it a part of ourselves. The past needs to be left behind.

That's like saying that history can teach nothing :Q

It could be taken that way, yes. I should have wrote more specifically. Holding onto "shame" is pointless. It can't be changed. Change and move on. The last thing we need is more groups of people refusing to let go of the past and practicing victimhood because of things that are done and gone.

ZV

Oh don't be too hard on victimhood. Without victimhood the native americans still left on this continent would have to *gasp* get jobs, and pay taxes...and worse yet actually stop drinking themselves to death and living in pathetic, disgusting environments, which a great many of them do. Goes to show that if you give somebody an inch they'll take a mile.

 

[Rmex]

Originally posted by: Skoorb

Originally posted by: Rmex
This thread should be renamed to "what is the White man's greatest atrocities in history" instead of what it is now.

Done by White americans =
Slaughter of Native americans = Done by WHITES
Enslavement of African Americans = Done by WHITES
Putting AMERICAN people of Japanese ancestry into CONCENTRATION camps = Done by WHITES
Guantonomo Bay = Done by WHITES
FORCING Native americans off THIER land = Done by WHITES
STEALING Mexican Land in the South west and then slaughtering Mexican/Native Americans [yes we mexicans are mostly native american] = Done by WHITES
Taking advantage of Mexico's poor economy and causing more poverty through NAFTA = Done by WHITES
FORCING Mexican tribes [the southern apaches] in the South west to go to Mexico = Done by WHITES
NUKING Hiroshima & Nagasaki [instead of Berlin or some other WHITE city due to racism] = Done by WHITES

And on and on, dont even ask about Europeans...lol. That would include the HALOCAUST, the crusades and on and on.

Whites are no more inherently evil than any other race. Africans were enslaving themselves before anybody from Europe was. The Japanese were horrific to their POWs in WWII.

NUKING Hiroshima & Nagasaki [instead of Berlin or some other WHITE city due to racism] = Done by WHITES

That's upsetting to see somebody write something so ridiculous. Germany had surrendered by the time the US had the nuke.. So, you can scratch that off your list

I dont like the title since it includes Mexican-americans in that list, and we never did any of that stuff. If anything mexico lost land to the white dominated american government, which then treated Mexican americans like garbage.

So that may be so that whites arnt inherently racist [i know that], but you cant deny that the vast VAST majority of both modern day AND past atrocities were done by whites. And some of those atrocities were done to mexicans by white people, like the Spanish and white americans.

 

[Mill]

Originally posted by: Rmex

Originally posted by: Skoorb

Originally posted by: Rmex
This thread should be renamed to "what is the White man's greatest atrocities in history" instead of what it is now.

Done by White americans =
Slaughter of Native americans = Done by WHITES
Enslavement of African Americans = Done by WHITES
Putting AMERICAN people of Japanese ancestry into CONCENTRATION camps = Done by WHITES
Guantonomo Bay = Done by WHITES
FORCING Native americans off THIER land = Done by WHITES
STEALING Mexican Land in the South west and then slaughtering Mexican/Native Americans [yes we mexicans are mostly native american] = Done by WHITES
Taking advantage of Mexico's poor economy and causing more poverty through NAFTA = Done by WHITES
FORCING Mexican tribes [the southern apaches] in the South west to go to Mexico = Done by WHITES
NUKING Hiroshima & Nagasaki [instead of Berlin or some other WHITE city due to racism] = Done by WHITES

And on and on, dont even ask about Europeans...lol. That would include the HALOCAUST, the crusades and on and on.

Whites are no more inherently evil than any other race. Africans were enslaving themselves before anybody from Europe was. The Japanese were horrific to their POWs in WWII.

NUKING Hiroshima & Nagasaki [instead of Berlin or some other WHITE city due to racism] = Done by WHITES

That's upsetting to see somebody write something so ridiculous. Germany had surrendered by the time the US had the nuke.. So, you can scratch that off your list

I dont like the title since it includes Mexican-americans in that list, and we never did any of that stuff. If anything mexico lost land to the white dominated american government, which then treated Mexican americans like garbage.

So that may be so that whites arnt inherently racist [i know that], but you cant deny that the vast VAST majority of both modern day AND past atrocities were done by whites. And some of those atrocities were done to mexicans by white people, like the Spanish and white americans.

Because Mexico has never committed atrocities?

 

[StageLeft]

So that may be so that whites arnt inherently racist [i know that], but you cant deny that the vast VAST majority of both modern day AND past atrocities were done by whites. And some of those atrocities were done to mexicans by white people, like the Spanish and white americans.

Whites, more specifically Europeans, have been at the helm of countless atrocities. Much of this is because of their imperialistic and successful culture. If you're part of a group of poor people with little in the way of technology, transport, etc. it's much harder to scour the globe raping and pillaging. The scale of European discraces against humanity is great, but I don't think it's any more numerous than each of the globe's other groups in their own ways on a per capita basis

 

[Rmex]

Originally posted by: Mill

Originally posted by: Rmex

Originally posted by: Skoorb

Originally posted by: Rmex
This thread should be renamed to "what is the White man's greatest atrocities in history" instead of what it is now.

Done by White americans =
Slaughter of Native americans = Done by WHITES
Enslavement of African Americans = Done by WHITES
Putting AMERICAN people of Japanese ancestry into CONCENTRATION camps = Done by WHITES
Guantonomo Bay = Done by WHITES
FORCING Native americans off THIER land = Done by WHITES
STEALING Mexican Land in the South west and then slaughtering Mexican/Native Americans [yes we mexicans are mostly native american] = Done by WHITES
Taking advantage of Mexico's poor economy and causing more poverty through NAFTA = Done by WHITES
FORCING Mexican tribes [the southern apaches] in the South west to go to Mexico = Done by WHITES
NUKING Hiroshima & Nagasaki [instead of Berlin or some other WHITE city due to racism] = Done by WHITES

And on and on, dont even ask about Europeans...lol. That would include the HALOCAUST, the crusades and on and on.

Whites are no more inherently evil than any other race. Africans were enslaving themselves before anybody from Europe was. The Japanese were horrific to their POWs in WWII.

NUKING Hiroshima & Nagasaki [instead of Berlin or some other WHITE city due to racism] = Done by WHITES

That's upsetting to see somebody write something so ridiculous. Germany had surrendered by the time the US had the nuke.. So, you can scratch that off your list

I dont like the title since it includes Mexican-americans in that list, and we never did any of that stuff. If anything mexico lost land to the white dominated american government, which then treated Mexican americans like garbage.

So that may be so that whites arnt inherently racist [i know that], but you cant deny that the vast VAST majority of both modern day AND past atrocities were done by whites. And some of those atrocities were done to mexicans by white people, like the Spanish and white americans.

Because Mexico has never committed atrocities?

No it hasnt.

And dont confuse Spaniards with mexicans cause we are not the same, Some mexicans are mixed by having a great great great grandfather who was Spanish but that doesnt make him a Spaniard. Spaniards are white and Mexicans [90% of us] are Native american, and it was the Spaniards that commited the atrocities in Mexico, not mexicans.

 

[DorkBoy]

Who cares what others think of us, really.
Pick a country that does not like us and pick apart their sh*thole country.

 

[Zenmervolt]

Originally posted by: Mill
Because Mexico has never committed atrocities?

Nah, pulling the heart out of live human sacrifices was all sweet and nice.

ZV

 

[StageLeft]

Originally posted by: Rmex
No it hasnt.

Google says otherwise.

 

[aceO07]

I did some research on the Japanese Internment of WWII a few months ago. It wasn't as bad as some people would have you believe.

Yes, the people of Japanese descent had to move away from the military zones in the west coast. However, they did get advance warning that they would get moved if they didn't do so by the set time period. Also, they were not forced to stay at the camps all those years, they were allowed to move to the east coast. Students were also allowed to be relocated to other colleges. They had food, shelter, health care and education while in the camps. They were allowed to leave (after a while), however many choose to stay.

Yes, they were stripped of their freedoms and moved. However, their treatment in the camps didn't seem as bad as I orginally believed after I did some reading.

 

[Spencer278]

Originally posted by: Rmex

Originally posted by: Mill

Originally posted by: Rmex

Originally posted by: Skoorb

Originally posted by: Rmex
This thread should be renamed to "what is the White man's greatest atrocities in history" instead of what it is now.

Done by White americans =
Slaughter of Native americans = Done by WHITES
Enslavement of African Americans = Done by WHITES
Putting AMERICAN people of Japanese ancestry into CONCENTRATION camps = Done by WHITES
Guantonomo Bay = Done by WHITES
FORCING Native americans off THIER land = Done by WHITES
STEALING Mexican Land in the South west and then slaughtering Mexican/Native Americans [yes we mexicans are mostly native american] = Done by WHITES
Taking advantage of Mexico's poor economy and causing more poverty through NAFTA = Done by WHITES
FORCING Mexican tribes [the southern apaches] in the South west to go to Mexico = Done by WHITES
NUKING Hiroshima & Nagasaki [instead of Berlin or some other WHITE city due to racism] = Done by WHITES

And on and on, dont even ask about Europeans...lol. That would include the HALOCAUST, the crusades and on and on.

Whites are no more inherently evil than any other race. Africans were enslaving themselves before anybody from Europe was. The Japanese were horrific to their POWs in WWII.

NUKING Hiroshima & Nagasaki [instead of Berlin or some other WHITE city due to racism] = Done by WHITES

That's upsetting to see somebody write something so ridiculous. Germany had surrendered by the time the US had the nuke.. So, you can scratch that off your list

I dont like the title since it includes Mexican-americans in that list, and we never did any of that stuff. If anything mexico lost land to the white dominated american government, which then treated Mexican americans like garbage.

So that may be so that whites arnt inherently racist [i know that], but you cant deny that the vast VAST majority of both modern day AND past atrocities were done by whites. And some of those atrocities were done to mexicans by white people, like the Spanish and white americans.

Because Mexico has never committed atrocities?

No it hasnt.

And dont confuse Spaniards with mexicans cause we are not the same, Some mexicans are mixed by having a great great great grandfather who was Spanish but that doesnt make him a Spaniard. Spaniards are white and Mexicans [90% of us] are Native american, and it was the Spaniards that commited the atrocities in Mexico, not mexicans.

Fine the native americans never killed each other?